Season ends on a high…
This weekend saw the first team pick up their fourth EAPL title in the last five years; which is an incredible feat. The side led by Callum Guest, in his first season as captain, maintained that incredible record of never finishing out side of the top two! Their fourth title puts them just behind Vauxhall Mallards who won five titles but still a little away from the eight that Swardeston have won.
The second team secured the win they required to avoid the automatic relegation spots, with a reduction in the number of teams in Onyx Premier One (from twelve to ten) in 2026 it meant that three teams would automatically be relegated and the side finishing fourth bottom would play-off against the side that finished second in the Onyx Premier Two league (Newmarket). With Foxton’s game at Saffron Walden abandoned it meant the seconds finished above the reigning National Village Cup Champions and avoided the play-off game. We are the only second team in the highest division of the Cambs and Hunts league. In finishing eighth we matched the finishing position of last year in our debut season at this level. However, we needed a massive improvement of sixty-seven points (almost 30% up on 2024) to achieve this. With the significant loss of senior players before the start of the season skipper Dan Heath, and his band of new recruits assisted by a promising group of youngsters should be justifiably proud of their season.
With the first team down to bare bones, missing three key players through work and personal commitments the Club, supported by the first team skipper, took the pragmatic decision to strengthen the second team by loaning them Ethan Rice and Ben Clilverd. This robbed Guest of potentially five opening bowlers! The team that greeted Frinton was a Club patchwork as the Club’s third and fourth team captains (Jake Ellis and Dom Cameron) were joined in their full EAPL debuts by third teamer Joe Latham. They were joined by irregular cricketers Ben Benson and Oli Borley. The home side won the toss and decided to bat. It was a baptism of fire for the mix and match batting order as they faced the Essex pairing of Charlie Bennett and Mackenzie Jones (who has also played for Scotland)! The pair accounted for the Rams top five including Surrey’s Nikhil Gorantla (16) as they slumped to forty-nine for five. Dom Cameron (14 from 18), who normally plies his trade in CCA Junior Five (a mere eleven divisions lower) ‘enjoyed’ his experience as he forced Mackenzie Jones out of the attack with a couple of straight boundaries after taking a few bruises for the team. Lee Thomason (34 no from 58 balls) provided some stubborn resistance to get the side to one hundred and twenty-five all out. Bennett (3-24), Mackenzie Jones (3-44), Kieran Young (2-17) and Safi Oriakhial (2-27) were the most successful bowlers.
Frinton needing a win to guarantee themselves another season in the EAPL found themselves in early trouble as the Rams new opening seam bowler Gorantla (2-19) picked up an early brace, to supplement a disastrous run out. The players then had to leave the field and take an early tea following a light shower and subsequent thunder and lightning. On resumption the Rams suffered another critical blow when one of their frontline bowlers, George Darlow, had to rush off to be with his heavily pregnant partner. This gave fourteen-year-old Josh Coleman his EAPL fielding debut. The Rams were in the hunt when Ben Claydon’s off spin (2-46) accounted for Young and Ronnie McKenna with the score on seventy-eight for five. Some clean hitting from the Frinton pacemen Bennett (39 from 29) and Jones (23 from 24) saw the visitors home for a four wicket win despite Beaumont (1-46) removing Bennett.
Elsewhere in the EAPL Horsford defeated Downham Stow but despite Copdock losing at AB Wanderers they were unable to overtake Copdock in second as the top three finished in the same positions as last year. Bottom side Bury easily defeated Witham to give themselves a chance to avoid finishing in the relegation play-off slot. Witham will still have been delighted to finish fourth. Mildenhall defeated Swardeston which meant four of the bottom five had won. All this meant that GT. Witchingham needed to win to avoid the play-offs however in a rain shortened encounter they lost to Sudbury.
It got even worse for the Norfolk outfit, who had assembled an all-star squad for the 2025 season as they were heavily defeated by Ramsey, the Cambs and Hunts Champions, in the EAPL Play-off semi- final. Ramsey will visit Norfolk Alliance Champions North Runcton in the Play-off final. The side from near Kings Lynn, whom the Rams defeated in the semi-final in 2019, made it another play-off heartbreak for Two Counties Champions Halstead.
The second team visited Histon in the very unfamiliar surroundings of Girton. The Rams got off to a fantastic start as Histon found themselves at fifty-four for five. Ethan Rice picking up an early brace with one apiece for Darcy Murphy, Ben Clilverd (1-29), and Miguel Machado. The late middle order and tail dug in as Murray Christie (20 from 55 balls); John Turner (20 from 70), Freddie Meldal (28 no from 64) and skipper Ben Leach (18 from 27) ensured that the home side batted out their fifty overs and set a challenging total of one hundred and fifty-three. Rice (3-27), Murphy (2-45) and Machado (2-13) each picked up another wicket as the home side finished eight down.
The Rams reply started in similar fashion as Alex James (19), Henry Cotton and Julius Jackson were all dismissed with just forty-two on the board; with Chetan Chauhan (2-36) and John Turner (1-25) sharing the successes. However the first team pairing of Rice and Clilverd showed their experience on a slow deck adding an unbeaten one hundred and fourteen (off 149 balls). Rice was first to his fifty (off 102) before Clilverd monopolised the strike before hitting a four and a six off the last two balls to take him to his own fifty (69 balls).
As mentioned above Ramsey won the Onyx Premier with Burwell second and Walden third. At the bottom Foxton were ninth ahead of Old Leysians, Upwood and Blunham.