Finally a win in July!

The first team were half way towards breaking their July duck when they visited Copdock. The Rams who were still top, despite last week’s washout, were after revenge as Copdock had won the pink ball contest earlier in the season.

Under heavy skies the Rams skipper, Callum Guest,  won the first contest of the day when he called correctly to win the toss, and he asked the home side to bat. James Vandepeer made two initial break throughs when he dismissed two of the match winners from the first game; he had Sam Arthuton caught in the slips and then bowled Ollie Burle with an absolute beauty. Mark Smith then joined the party, once he had settled on a fuller length; he copied Vandepeer by having Ishaan Rakesh caught by Darlow before bowling Jacob Marston. The home side had slipped to twenty-seven for four. Suffolk’s Alex Oxley was joined by Copdock’s overseas Stewart Hepburn and they steadied the ship. Hepburn surviving a difficult chance and a couple of bat changes after his first one failed the gauge test. The pair added fifty runs in a decent tempo (46 balls) but just when it was looking like they would steer the home side to lunch Oxley attempted to reverse sweep George Darlow (1-26) and gloved it to Lee Thomason.  Ninety-eight for five quickly became one hundred and fourteen for eight as Jack Beaumont trapped Thomas Harper and Fergus Atkins in front. Hepburn (55) moved to his half-century (from 40 balls) before he ran himself out just before lunch.

Lunch came and went but unfortunately the rain arrived earlier than anticipated. There was a reduction in overs but they were never going to be the decisive factor in the contest. When play resumed both Vandepeer (3-29) and Beaumont (3-16) picked up their third wickets as they removed Barney Messer and Andy Hanby respectively as Copdock were bowled out for one hundred and forty.

The Rams raced to ten without loss with Ethan Rice and Guest opening before light drizzle turned to heavy rain. A combination of prolonged drizzle,  a heavy shower, competition regulations and insufficient ground sheets then deprived the Rams of a dash for a win. Fortunately for them this week second placed Horsford were also rained off.

The only result came at Sudbury where the home side’s batting unit had a rare failure and Downham Stow won to narrow the gap on Sudbury in the table.

In a reduced overs game at Spicers the second eleven held on for a draw at home to Eaton Socon. The visitor’s loss the toss and were asked to bat. Jonathan Carpenter (69 not out) anchored the innings as Olly Jefferies (27), Jamie Vale (30) and Michael Beard (36 no) enabled the visitors to set the Rams one hundred and eighty-six to win from thirty-eight overs. Darcy Murphy (1-44); Geo Varghese (1-23) and Tarun Mouli (1-43) picked up wickets with the other coming from a run out. Varghese wicket owed much to keeper Dan Heath with a leg side stumping.

The Rams were briefly in the hunt as Yousuf Choudhary (31 from 42); Miguel Machado (22 from 36); Murphy (16 from 20) and skipper Heath  took the Rams to one hundred for three. A lack of depth and a desire to protect a couple of his under-15’s from some hostile pace bowling meant that Heath (48 not out from 78 balls) settled for a draw.  Socon’s Ray Jordan (2-20) and the experienced Joe Dawborn (2-16) did most of the damage with Scott Stevenson (1-34) and Carpenter (1-20) picking up the other wickets as the Rams closed on one hundred and forty-nine for six. This was one short of a batting point and the four-point haul was three less than we would have got by abandoning the game, a penalty for that investment in more ground sheets!

The welcome and long overdue win was finally supplied by the fourth team. Their planned league game was cancelled as Royston withdrew from the league but they acted quickly to fix up a friendly against Camborne. The Nicholl’s teenager Richard (5-12) and father Trev (2-22) starred as Camborne were bowled out for one hundred and twenty-one. Abdul Manan Asif (25) and Michael Longson (33 no) were the only batsmen to make a contribution as more youngsters Zane Dennington (1-16); Josh Coleman (1-24) took wickets to back up skipper Dom Cameron (1-28). Another talented teen Arnav Wadeker hit an unbeaten half century (his third of the season) before he retired. Charlie Borley (16) and Dennington (28 not out) took the Rams to the brink of victory before Sam Browne hit the winning runs for a five-wicket victory.

On Sunday the third team beat Camborne II’s in the second semi-final of the Walker Cup before they came up against a side from four divisions higher, Ramsey II’s, who proved too strong in the final. In the first game impressive spells from both opening bowlers Murphy (2-17) and Ollie Humphreys (3-18) were backed up by skipper Jake Ellis (3-30); before Dan Heath closed the innings with two wickets in four balls. Camborne were indebted to Alex Warburton (58 from 47 balls) and Ryan McAlister (28 from 22) to get to a modest one hundred and twenty-five. The evergreen Wes Potschul (49 no from 45), Heath (31 from 27) and Ben Benson (30 from 28) blasted the Rams to one hundred and eleven for two before Murphy (14 no from 6) saw the Rams home with two overs and seven wickets to spare.

In the final a few batters got starts but they could not capitalise as Alex Parkins (4-16), Mark Saunders (2-17) and Henry Gilbert (2-28) undermined the innings. Heath (25 from 18) top scored but only Murphy, Ellis and Humphreys could make it into the teens. Ramsey made short work of chasing down the hundred and fifteen that were required. They only needed twelve overs as TJ Harding (33 from 12), Saunders (23 from 23) and George Buckle (47 from 23) raced Ramsey to a deserved title by eight wickets.

The Club once again shone as they hosted Cambridgeshire’s Three Day NCCA Eastern Division One match against Suffolk. The visitors were lavish in their praise, both in person and on social media, of the efforts of our Hospitality crew led by Louise, and the Ground Crew led by Will and James from the Parish Council and Pat from the Club. On the pitch Cambridgeshire held on comfortably batting out the last day having been set almost four hundred to win. There were some notable Rams performances on the field too. Wayne White picked up a first innings five-fa and seven wickets in the match and this was matched by George Darlow with his five-fa coming in the second innings. Ben Claydon hit a half century and then followed it up with an unbeaten hundred. Lee Thomason and Wayne added half centuries in the second innings. The Suffolk captain, Jack Beaumont made two decent starts with the bat and picked up three wickets in the first innings.

The match unfortunately marked Sawston’s super scorer Tai Lim’s last game for the County Club. Cindy as she is better known is one of only three level three scorers in the County. She will be greatly missed by everyone at the County Club and by her scoring colleagues. The good news is that she is still in the box for the Rams’ on Saturdays!

Breaking News : Two wickets for Tarun Mouli (2-23) and a brace for Gabriel Harter (2-12) help restrict Fulbourn to one hundred and twenty-five for five. Current and former Rams Julius Jackson and Chris Kindred had the best strike rates for the visitors. The Rams were given an excellent start by Heath (33 from 21) and Henry Cotton (19 from 19) before Joe Latham (21 from 19), Daniel Pretorious (13 from 18) and a boundary rich (23 from 13) innings from Murphy took the Rams home with five overs to spare. This gave new Midweek skipper Ollie Humphreys his first title (AH Division 2) as he starts that journey to follow the Jake Ellis dynasty!