Another full house...

The Rams face a full fixture list on Saturday with four games scheduled.

The first team face a daunting trip to the unbeaten AVL EAPL leaders Horsford. The side from the outskirts of Norwich have gone close to winning the league in the last few seasons. They posses a depth of talent with bat and ball; and like the Rams they have most bases covered. They have scored runs for fun this year and have four batters (Hornbuckle, Reynolds, Hood and Neil) in the top ten of the leading run scorers; along with Rams skipper Guest. Former skipper Neil Hornbuckle has just overtaken the long-term leader Jayden Draper (AB Wanderers) to sit top of the pile. They have two spinners on the top ten wicket-takers ladder, Hornbuckle and Ryan Findlay; with the Rams spins twins Ben Claydon and James Sykes matching them.

Last year the Rams won the fifty-over contest at Horsford before blowing them away on a used pitch in the red ball game; two wins that went a long way to earning the Rams the title in 2025.

The Rams expect to be at full strength or near full strength on Saturday as we almost reach the half way point in this year’s campaign.

The seconds start their season afresh with the new management duo deciding that they want to place their trust in further developing our own talent rather than using imports. This has led to a couple of regular senior players leaving by mutual consent. We wish them well for the remainder of their season. The captains are under no elusions as to the task in hand; and that task doesn’t get any easier with the arrival of Saffron Walden to Spicers. The Crocus has set their sights on a return to the EAPL. They currently sit fourth after a crushing win over Histon last week. Their form has been a bit up and down of late; and like a good number of other sides inconsistency of availability can have a major impact. Hopefully Tom Westley, and Giles Ecclestone will be otherwise engaged this week. Sawston skipper Julius Jackson may have the inside track as he plays for Linton’s Village Cup side  alongside Walden’s Stan Leech and Adam Whitehead.

The thirds face a crunch fixture when they make the short journey to Great Shelford on Saturday. The Rams will hope to put yet another narrow defeat behind them when they meet the only side below them in the table. Neither side has a batsman in Division 1s’ top ten which may be why they both find themselves at the foot of the table. Jake Ellis despite a couple of lean weeks still maintains his place in the bowling top ten and his father Gary is closing in!

The fourths will want to put last Sunday’s T20 defeat behind them and re-focus their attention to the forty over stuff after last Saturday’s astonishing win at Buntingford. The side packed with young talent has surprised many in the Club with their form in Division 4s following their equally surprising promotion last year. Their opponents Birchanger currently sit bottom, but with games in hand, and so the Rams will want to avoid a potential banana skin. They only have one win so far but they chased down two hundred and ninety, for the loss of two wickets, so clearly they cannot be under-estimated. Teenager Nathaneal Vice, in his debut year in adult cricket, had his first score under thirty with the bat and  he is remarkably in the top ten run scorers in the division where he was joined by skipper Dom Cameron after last week’s one-fifty! The skipper moving to the top of the strike rate chart. Despite last Sunday’s loss another teenager Josh Coleman continues to show promise with the bat. Adrian Platt continues at the top of the wicket-taking list with Coleman and another youngster Alex Myles pushing for a places in the top ten.

The Club will again be hosting the Cambridgeshire Young Cricketers Association finals day on Sunday. The cream of the County’s age group teams will be fighting it out to be crowned County Cup winners across three age groups under a T20 format. The winners of the Under-13 and Under-15 Cups will progress into the next round of the National finals.