A full house for the final time this season
This week’s preview is mercifully short; hurrah I hear you cheer!
The Club and its fans will be hoping that the full house of wins achieved last week can be matched this week in what is our final week of getting four sides out this season. We should, and the Captains in particular, should be proud of our record of fulfilling our fixtures.
The firsts entertain Mildenhall who, perhaps, sit in a false position in EAPL, tenth of twelve. They are likely to be without at least two of their leading performers; Darren ironside (injured) and KC Cariappa (in India). However, they made light of these absences last week in their ten-wicket demolition of Bury and they can nearly always be relied on to turn up against the Rams. There have been some fantastic nail-biting finishes to games between the two sides over the last six seasons. The Rams enjoyed a big win over their Suffolk rivals in the red-ball game where a solid performance with bat and ball ensured a comfortable win. The Rams make one enforced change as Surrey’s Nikhil Gorantla is on duty for his new County; youngster Henry cotton deputises for last week’s centurion.
Second placed Copdock have a short trip to the Essex coast where they meet Frinton, although they are thirty-five points adrift of the Rams you could make a case for the view that they have the easier, on paper at least, run to the tapes. Bottom side AB Wanderers will want to build on their National T20 progress when they host the resurgent Sudbury. Bury will want to halt their freefall when they host Swardeston. Witham meet Downham Stow; and in perhaps the game of the day Norfolk rivals Horsford host the Witches.
The second team have their third relegation six pointer when they travel into the metropolis to meet Old Leysians, at Fitzwilliam. They too have the luxury of only making one change as Ben Benson is replaced by Geo Varghese. The extra bowler may be useful on what is traditionally an excellent deck and against a highly talented batting line up. Both sides are in decent form with two wins out of the last three. At the top Walden have the easiest fixture on paper, and they could open up a gap at the top as main rivals Burwell and Ramsey have trickier matches.
The Third team know that they will need to win their remaining two fixtures if they are to have a chance of promotion. They make a number of changes, which has been almost compulsory this season; but none-the-less they have a strong side for their visit to Ashdon. They came out on top in a competitive fixture at Babraham earlier in the season but will be wary of a side that perhaps need a win to maintain their status in Junior One.
The fourth team go for an almost unprecedented third win on the bounce when they entertain Wilbraham’s in their last home game. In celebration I believe they are also having a ‘proper’ tea! Another win will put them dangerously close to a promotion place with just this match and a final away game in a fortnight to go. They will be out for revenge as the did a lot of leather chasing in the reverse fixture. Dom Cameron is missing a few of his young bowlers this week but still retains Josh Coleman, Ben Latham , Sam Ronco with Ethan Cashmore getting another opportunity to impress again. Rob Benson and Adrian Platt are included to double the average age!