Don’t forget your whites
After the madness of the last two weeks where we have left no stone unturned in our search for players to ensure that we successfully fulfilled all of our fixtures the captains of our third and fourth teams are probably having a lay down in a darkened room. We have just the two senior fixtures over the entire bank holiday weekend. The first team entertain Downham Stow and the seconds travel to Burwell and Exning.
With temperatures expected to soar it will be a stern test as The AVL EAPL moves to its first week of the red ball longer format. This will also provide a stern test for the Catering team and particularly the supremo after her illness!
Downham Stow arrive at Spicers having turned around their fortunes over the last fortnight with two wins over Frinton and Bury. The Wilcox’s Finlay and Ben lead the way for the Norfolk side with the bat; the latter also playing impressively to steer Norfolk to a victory over Bedfordshire last Sunday. Last term they had almost one hundred wickets out of Brett Stolworthy and their overseas, Sachin Colombage. This term, so far, has been a bit more of a struggle with the ball. They also have two former Cambridgeshire players Josh Bowers and Josh Porter in their ranks both having been recruited from Wisbech.
The Rams will have happy memories from their contests in 2025; winning the longer format game at Spicers narrowly before easing to a title clinching victory in the pink ball game. In the expected heat the Rams will want to put in a complete performance, particularly with the bat, and will probably will want to pick up their boundary count which proved decisive last week. The Rams are expected to be close to full strength and so the skipper will face some difficult decisions; especially as there a very few in the squad that have hit top form yet.
The NCCA Trophy ‘Wooden Spoon’ contest between Cambridgeshire and Suffolk finished in an exciting tie and so no-one grabbed the bragging rights.
In the other AVL EAPL matches the undoubted ‘big match’ is at Horsford where they meet Copdock who will want to make up lost ground following last week’s first defeat. Two form teams meet at AB Wanderers who host Witham. Mildenhall are another side looking to bounce back in a Suffolk derby against Sudbury. Bury will want to rediscover their early season form when they host Ramsey; and finally Swardeston visit bottom side Frinton.
The seconds travel to Burwell and Exning and the lovely setting at Exning and will be looking to convert, in large parts, excellent performances to date into results. Their hosts after a fantastic 2025 season have had a mixed start to this year’s campaign and only sit seven points ahead of the Rams. They however possess a lot of their 2025 side and therefore their position may be considered slightly false. They had an excellent win away to Histon last week and will want to build on that performance. Opener Simon Donald leads the way with the bat but he is still twenty-three adrift of our own Vibhor Yadav who is just twenty-eight runs shy of Maxford Pipe the league in the run scoring charts. Burwell skipper Paul Summerskill despite carrying an injury will as always pose a threat. Vib also stands second in the bowling charts, with skipper Miguel Machado and new recruit Shiv Darbar all placed above the talented Nic Huckle who leads the way with the ball for the home side. With better availability this week and the possibility of one or two coming down from the first team Migs may also have more challenging selection issues this week.
There was some good news on Wednesday when the Midweek side defeated Newmarket in the AH Cup. The home side were restricted to one hundred and twenty, almost fifty percent lower than in the league encounter. Raj Singh (3-20), Jake Ellis (2-26) and an excellent spell from Gabby Harter (1-15 with five wides!) doing most to restrict the damage; with Singh picking up both their overseas’ players. In reply new signing Arijit Sen (40 from 36) and that man Singh (51 no from 45) saw the Rams home.