Mixed fortunes for the Rams as EAPL records tumble

The Rams who were looking to build on last week’s victory faced an unbeaten Bury St. Edmunds side at Spicers where Sawston skipper Callum Guest won the toss and opted to bat. With Jack Beaumont and Ralph Hayward restored to the starting eleven the Rams opened up with the pair. In echoes of the last home game they added  a seventy-one run partnership before both were back in the Pavilion around the three-figure mark. This time it was Beaumont (36 from 45 balls) that went first, providing Ben Whittaker with his first wicket of the afternoon. Hayward (48 from 70) followed twenty-six runs later with the score on ninety-seven, at the start of the twenty-second over, with a second consecutive league half-century in his sights. The opener was left helpless as Ethan Rice hit a full ball back to the bowler who deflected it onto the stumps; given that Rice himself was dismissed in an almost identical fashion last week I would suggest the Rams batters stay in their crease when Hayward is facing next week!

Ben Claydon joined Rice and the Cambridgeshire pair added forty–seven at a run a ball before Whittaker trapped Claydon (25 from 25) in front. Rice moved to a half century shortly afterwards before he and Dan Andrew moved to a fifty partnership, off fifty-two balls. The pair would eventually add eighty-one to take the score to two hundred and twenty-five with just under seven overs to go. The platform was set; but a flurry of wickets brought back unhappy memories of the last home match and their defeat to Mildenhall. First Rice (72 from 81) succumbed to an ugly swipe to give Northants’ Freddie Heldreich (1-64) his only wicket; Andrew (31 from 45)  followed just ten runs later missing a very full delivery from Ben Harris. Lee Thomason’s dismissal to a smart caught and bowled from Whittaker was sandwiched by two ‘comical’ run outs (Guest and Ben Clilverd); not that anyone was laughing! When James Sykes was caught behind off Harris (2-58) with a mistimed pull the Rams had lost six wickets for twenty-seven runs from thirty-one balls. The last pair made sure that the Rams made it to two hundred and sixty before Whittaker (4-41) dismissed Raj Singh off the penultimate ball. There was a nervousness in the crowd thinking that the Rams had left thirty-to forty runs out there.

In a similar fashion to last week the Rams squeezed early on, this time with the spin trio  of Guest, Claydon and Beaumont as they dismissed the first three Bury batsmen for twenty-three inside of nine overs.  Claydon picking up Max Whittaker and Guest (1-38) the wicket of Alex Maynard before Beaumont added Harry Gallian. The visitors must have been thinking back to last year when they lost six wickets in the first hour. They were just dismissing such dark thoughts when Claydon (2-29) trapped Archie Jones (20 from 41) with the score on forty-nine. Heldreich (37 from 73) and the free scoring Harris (42 from 45) then added sixty-three for the fifth wicket (from 74 balls).  The Rams then took control by picking up another four wickets (Harris Sean Park, Heldreich and Ben Whittaker) for just twenty-two runs as the visitors slumped to one hundred and thirty-four for eight. Three of the victims fell to the left arm spin of Sykes (3-41) with Heldreich failing to beat the arm of Rice. Bury skipper Tom Rash and number ten Thomas Davey (25 not out, from 29) then dug-in to add forty-one runs and a bit of respectability before Singh (1-18) dismissed Rash (30 from 37) and Beaumont (2-23) returned to close the innings for a seventy-five-run victory.  

The victory lifted the Rams into fifth just sixteen points adrift of the three still unbeaten sides. Rams skipper Callum Guest was delighted by the win and in particular by the bowling performance but still feels that the squad has potentially lots more to deliver, especially with the bat. He has challenged himself and the squad to deliver telling contributions.

Top billing in the AVS EAPL must go to AB Wanderers where a number of records were destroyed. The Norfolk side surpassed the Rams record total as they posted a very imposing four hundred and seventy-four. Jake Tarling (170 not out from 131 balls) and overseas Jayden Draper (250 from 155) set a new record partnership of four hundred and twenty when they rescued ABW from eighteen for two! Draper’s score was also an individual scoring record. Opponents Frinton regained some pride by posting three-hundred and thirteen in a game of almost eight-hundred runs (which I am guessing is probably another record). The three unbeaten sides were all pushed before preserving their runs; Copdock won at Swardeston, Horsford at Ramsey and Mildenhall at Downham Stow. Witham were the other winners when they beat Sudbury at Friars Street.

A remodelled Rams second team travelled to Wisbech under the stewardship of new captain Miguel Machado and new vice-captain Julius Jackson; where they gave debuts to Vibhor Yadav, Shiv Darbar, Adi Dhatta and Dan Barnes. There was also a second team debut for Dylan Hardy who had his first outing with the first team last week. The Sawston skipper won the toss and, perhaps, cautiously decided to bowl. In the absence of any pre-season warm up games the Rams started off the pace enabling the very experienced pair of Gary Freear and skipper James Williams to settle. The pair with over forty-thousand play-cricket runs between them need no second invitation. Their hundred partnership coming off just over a run a ball, and was soon followed by both batters reaching half centuries. The one hundred and fifty coming off just one hundred and fifty-six balls. Freear scored seventy (from 75 balls) before Darbar (1-40) took his first Ram’s wicket with the score on one hundred and fifty-nine in the twenty-ninth over. Sam Albutt then joined Williams and the pair added another seventy- nine runs, with the Wisbech skipper then reaching three figures off one hundred and thirty-three balls. The Rams who had been looking down the barrel of a three hundred plus total slowly were gaining a bit more control in these middle overs despite some poor ‘early season’ fielding.  Jaykishan Plaha was rewarded for his efforts when teenager Henry Cotton took a decent catch to remove Albutt (35 from 43). This provided the Rams with some inspiration as they fought back to take a further six wickets for forty-two . This included a wicket for the skipper Machado (1-51) and a first Ram’s wicket for Yadav who removed the tiring Williams. Yadav then picked up four more of the home sides batsmen in what appeared to be a time-loop; almost four identical balls, with four identical shots and four lots of shattered wickets. The Wisbech innings ended on an impressive two hundred and eighty-four but with Yadav also earning a debut day five-fa (5-37).

A daunting chase was made more difficult when Hardy was trapped by Gowler (1-11) by a ball that kept a bit low with just five on the board. The Rams dug in weathering the early salvos, and they were quick to punish anything loose on a fast outfield. The only thing that was quicker was a muntjac that raced across the field after being accidently flushed out of its snoozing place! Yadav and Cotton then added eighty runs at a decent pace before Yadav (38 from 48) was caught off Wisbech’s overseas signing  Dimunguwarie (1-48). Cotton (38 from 75) followed just twenty-nine runs later, snared by Vaheesan, to leave the Rams on one hundred and thirteen for three, at the halfway mark. The new management duo then got together and were looking fluent when Jackson(29 from 31) managed to pick out a fielder in the deep, who eventually after a bit of extended juggling held onto the catch to give Vaheesan (2-56) another scalp. Machado then went on a boundary laden counter attack supported by Darbar. With the asking rate tumbling and the two hundred in site disaster struck when Machado (54 from 34) mistimed another attempted big hit off Freear (1-22). Williams then doubled up a ball later to remove Darbar as one hundred and ninety for four became the same score for six! The Rams were still in the hunt with ninety-five needed off fifteen overs. The Rams then lost a bit of momentum despite an excellent cameo from teenager Ethan Hayes-Fernandez (16 not out from 22) as they lost their final four wickets for forty-six runs to lose a five hundred run game by forty-eight runs. Joe Dunning was the main beneficiary picking up three wickets (3-35) before Williams, perhaps fittingly picked up the final wicket (2-10).

There was a mix of pride and disappointment on Saturday when SBCC III’s went down to a last ball defeat against Ashdon. The home side won the toss, chose to bat and were given a super start by their top three. The evergreen Wes Potschul (50 from 44 balls) ) opened up with fourteen-year-old Dhrona Irinjalakudakkaran (80 from 93) and they added ninety-seven for the first wicket.  Joe Latham (24 from 15) then added another forty-three runs with the teenager  and they were poised at one hundred and forty for one, with just under twenty overs left to post a match winning total. Ashdon fought back to remove the ‘in’ pair and with no other batsmen making a sizeable contribution the innings closed on two hundred and twenty-three, with, perhaps, crucially sixteen balls to go. B Plumb (2-30) and R Ormsby (2-39) did the initial damage before J Millership (4-28) cleaned up. Dhrona posting his second adult fifty, probably with many more to come, and his highest score to date in the CCA.

Millership (67 from 85) scored early runs before B Appleby (75 from 87) and M Winter (26 from 15) gave the innings some middle order impetus. But it required sixteen runs of the final over, all scored by visiting captain Phil Salt (20 not out off 13) to see Ashdon home by three wickets. The Rams skipper Jake Ellis (3-43) again led the way with the ball, with Gaby Harter, Gary Ellis and Dhrona each grabbing a consolation wicket.

SBCC IV’s began life in CCA Junior 4s with a narrow defeat to very local rivals Ickleton II’s. Ickleton won the toss and batted, no doubt having benefitted from their superb new nets. They scored consistent runs at the top of the order from Adid Hussain (29 from 49) , Toby Brown (24 from 24) and Luke Sherry (39 from 43) and gave the home innings a solid platform as they moved to one hundred and twenty-six for two before Essex Disability bowler Alex Myles (3-29) and veteran Adrian Platt (4-27) pulled them back. The home side however rallied as Edmund Harcourt (32 from 37) and William Barbrook (39 from 37) added eighty for the ninth wicket to wrestle back control as the innings closed on two hundred and thirty-one.

The Rams with the usual blend of youth and experience, sometimes father and son and sometimes father and daughter added to this mix when Faheem Noushad and his son Muhammed Khan (a current Junior) were both signed up for the adult squads on Friday. Faheem made an impressive debut scoring seventy runs and his lad a promising eleven. It was one of the sons Richard with twenty-seven that held the bragging rights in the Nicholl household. However braces from Sony Joseph (2-37), Simon Curtis (2-31) and Uday Nagireddy (2-12) ensured that the Rams finished twenty-nine runs shy. The Rams with a costly twenty-eight wides and five no balls clearly will benefit from the outing!

Our Girls u-13 team made Club history on Sunday when they played our first ever Girls hard-ball game, having transitioned from u-11 softball under the guidance of our coaches Matt and Chris. On debut they put in a creditable performance before losing by twenty-five runs to a much more experienced Audley Wenden side.