Rams up to third as the 1st team's superb run continues

The Rams impressive run continued, taking their unbeaten sequence (including National Cup matches) to twelve matches, including ten victories, when they defeated Witham by seven wickets.

The home side won the toss and opted to bowl; interestingly Witham would have chosen to bat, on a strip with a greenish tinge that had benefitted from a little bit of water and having the covers on to protect it from the sun. The outfield badly in need of some recuperative moisture would be super-fast. Initially there appeared to be two games going on simultaneously. The first one was the Sawston spinners bowling to the former Essex opener Nick Browne, temporarily freed from his coaching duties with Essex Women, who was looking in excellent touch. This was his second appearance of the season for Witham and he was hoping to follow up his unbeaten ton from last week. His top-order colleagues were looking less comfortable against a turning ball. Ben Claydon struck first when he bowled Browne’s opening partner Harrison McDonald with the score on twelve. Former Cambridgeshire County age group player, now with Essex,  Reuben Thain came to the crease and was batting cautiously as he added another thirteen runs with Browne before he was bamboozled by a ‘jaffa’ from Jack Beaumont. Philip Gray then, in tandem with Browne, took the score to forty-six but was outdone by a smart catch behind (by Thomason) off the bowling of Claydon. The visitors hopes perhaps rested with Browne and his former Essex teammate Jamal Richards; who had both scored impressive tons against the Rams in last year’s stunning red-ball victory against SBCC last season. Browne moved to an impressive half-century (from 72 balls), with the tall-left hander contributing fifty-one of the sixty-eight runs scored to this point. Browne (57 off 78)  was just looking to up the ante, as the Rams rushed through their overs, when he was deceived ‘in-the-flight, as Claydon picked up his third wicket. Richards (17 from 29) was the next to go with the score on ninety-two when Raj Singh, with a perfectly timed and balanced leap, just inches from the boundary caught the former Essex man to give Claydon his fourth scalp. Witham had just made it to three figures in the thirty-first over when they lost their next two batsman with the score on one hundred and six. First former Saffron Walden captain Josh Down was bowled by Claydon (5-46), for the new Cambridgeshire red-ball Captain’s third ‘five-fa’ of the season. Beaumont then struck a crucial blow when Ben Clilverd took an excellent catch to dismiss the dangerous and big-hitting overseas Sam Greer. Beaumont then replaced Claydon, after he’d bowled his full allocation,  at the Cemetery End to trap former skipper Jake Wakelin (23 from 42) in front. The only remaining question in the innings was would the visitors make it to lunch. With Beaumont and Sykes now in tandem their was no respite for the batters, or scorers, as the Rams beat their previous best by bowling forty-five overs before lunch. Beaumont picked up a fourth (4-43) when Aadittya Rakesh attempted to sweep a straight full ball. Sykes (1-13) then joined the party by tempting Luke Gouldstone (13 from 17) to have a swish at a well flighted delivery to trap the final batsman as Witham’s innings closed on one hundred and forty-three.

The Rams reply got off to a poor start when Ralph Hayward played a hesitant defensive shot and gave a comfortable caught and bowled to Witham’s stand-in skipper Sam Greer (1-18). Any nerves were quickly soothed as Sawston skipper Callum Guest and Ethan Rice built steadily. The pair took the score past fifty and to another half-century partnership (from 78 deliveries) despite some testing seam bowling from the visitors’ overseas and Richards. The Rams skipper looked to be settling in for another long innings anchoring knock when he was adjudges leg before off Richards (1-39) with the score on seventy-nine. Shortly afterwards Rice moved to his fifth half-century of the league campaign. With three figures in sight Jake Wakelin (1-32) had Claydon smartly caught by Brown, at slip, with a ball that may have clipped the keeper’s pads on the way through. That was as good as it got for the away side as Rice (74 no from 111 balls) and Beaumont (28 no from 31) added the required forty-six rums as the Rams got home in thirty-six overs.

The big winners this week in the AVL EAPL were Copdock whose victory over Sudbury combined with Swardeston and Horsford sharing the points meant that they closed the gap at the top of the table to just seven points with seven games to go. The draw between the sides in second and third at the start of play enable the Rams to move into a season’s best third place. This move was aided by Ramsey’s win over Mildenhall, to back up last week’s stunning win over Horsford. Frinton’s bid for a great escape was halted by a thumping at Downham Stow. AB Wanderers again topped the four hundred mark when they defeated Bury by two hundred and four runs. Zak Tribe became the league’s third double-centurion of the season, following on from Sam Arthurton and Tribe’s teammate Jayden Draper.

The second team again showed a bit of character despite another heavy defeat, this time at high flying Newmarket. The home side were put into bat by Sawston skipper Julius Jackson; and they declared on three hundred and twenty-two for four after fifty-one overs. The skipper (2-68) picked up a couple of wickets, with Dan Barnes (1-53) and Habib Boualem (1-64) picking up the others; incidentally this was Boualem’s first wicket for the Club.  After a few very low scores the Ram’s showed a bit more application this week as Dan Barnes (44 off 51), Jackson (38 off 82) and fourteen-year-old Dhrona (38 from 82 balls). The latter been given out in what can only be described, politely, as unusual circumstances!

The third team let themselves down, the village down and specifically me down,  as I will not be able to leave the house in daylight in fear of bumping into one of the Whittlesford team.  An understrength side travelled the short distance to Whittlesford, and won the toss. That was the only thing they won! The home side’s Tom Burdett picked up a ‘six-fa’ (6-25); with Ilanco (3-20) and Williams (1-7) as the visitors tumbled all out for fifty-three. Only seasonal debutant Adam Hodgkisson (13 from 13) and Gary Ellis (12 off 4) made it to double figures. Inexperienced youngsters Thomas Harris and Cian Barber with less than a handful of senior games between them did their best to hang around. The hosts romped home to a seven wicket victory inside eight overs with Dwayne Clark (32 off 23) making light work of the ‘chase’. The Ellis’ Jake and Gary picked up solitary wickets matched by one from Ètienne Lamb.

The fourth team were the first to record a victory when at about half past nine the opposition conceded. Unfortunately, this was too late to stop the final wicket preparation and too late for us to find an alternative opposition. The ‘win’ lifted the Rams back up to second place in a very competitive Junior 4s; with the exception of runaway leaders Stapleford.