Romerils keen to get wheels back on

The top four teams should provide some great matches in the coming weeks and there could be several twists and turns by the time the last ball is bowled on 26 July. Romerils could take a major step toward retaining their title if they beat SCF especially if St Ouen beat OV’s, but if both SCF and OV’s win three teams will all have six wins to their name, and the leader on Saturday night will be the team with most bonus points, which is presently Romerils who have nine more than SCF and 17 more than OV’s.

Romerils v Fairbairn SCF (Grainville):

Romerils title defence suffered a bit of a set back last week when they lost narrowly to OV’s and they face another tough challenge this week against old rivals, SCF. Three seasons ago SCF definitely had the better of their battles with Romerils but things are a lot more even these days and Romerils won the first of their games this season.

The indication from the leading run scorer and wicket taker charts is that Romerils may have the better bowling attack with three players in the top ten, including the top two Ryan Driver and Martin Waite, with Pete Blackburn, who was used as fifth bowler last week, I suspect, as a punishment for turning up late the previous week, just off the table on nine.

SCF appear to have the better batting line up with three, Steve Carlyon, Phil Ramage and Tony Carlyon with 200+ runs, with Matty Hague, who missed a couple of matches on 188, compared to Romerils who have just two. The stats however may be misleading as Romerils batsmen have had limited opportunities due to the paltry amounts they have generally been bowling their opposition out for, having batted first in only two of their seven matches.

SCF are pretty much at full strength but will be without Mark Reynolds but Bradley Vautier, who won the Cricketer of the Month for May award, should be back.

Despite Ryan Driver’s red hot bowling form, which incidentally earned him the award for Cricketer of the Month for June, Romerils failed to bowl a side out for only the second time last week, and their attack creaked under a bit of pressure from the Gough brothers, which will encourage SCF. They didn’t do much wrong though and remain a difficult side to beat.

This looks an evenly balanced match but I’m going to take a chance on an SCF win and a fascinating end to the season.

Prediction: SCF batting to withstand Romerils bowling attack.

St Ouen v Rathbones OV’s (FB1):

A win tomorrow should be good enough to see OV’s finish the second half of the season unbeaten, which could be good enough to see them crowned champions on the evening of 26 July although they could do with a few bonus points.

It is an important game for St Ouen as well, as another win would almost secure them the fourth spot in the league and qualification for the CI knock outs. They will be without Paul Horton, which will be a blow, but have Rob Tewkesbury and of course Richard Gomersall back which will help. This was to be the day that Gomy scored the ton for which he has been working for several weeks in Dave Gorman’s, Mr Miyagi style training camp.

It seems that ruthless skipper Dean Morrison, who has a small investment with Gomy that he won’t score a ton this season, has scuppered plans by moving him down to seven in the batting order, which means all the time Gomy has put in beating Dave Gorman’s dusty carpets, in an attempt to improve his pull shot, has gone to waste. So: Hours until Richard Gomersall won’t be scoring a ton; 24.

OV’s will be without Tom Minty, Ward Jenner, Jon Giles, Andy Dewhurst and Ed Farley, so are significantly weakened, so much so that Jonny Gough may have to bowl, so if you are parking in the car park make sure your windscreen insurance is up to date.

Never mind, Pete Gough says Browny is bowling well at the minute, and he likes to bowl him from the car park end as they like having a nearest the pin competition, which was won last week by Ryan Driver who smacked Browny across the road onto the golf course to within a few inches of the 7th hole. Think I might have a couple of quid on Morrison this week.

This is another difficult game to predict and getting all three matches correct this week would be quite a feat. I just think that OV’s may shade it as without Paul Horton the St Ouen bowling attack may be a bit under strength, although Karl Moyse will have fond memories of last year’s match against OV’s when he took five wickets.

Prediction: Dean Morrison could drive St Ouen close, but may still not quite come up to scratch.

Caesareans v Aztec Springfield (LQ1):

I guess the fact that these two teams are once again at the foot of the table would mean that it has been a disappointing season for both of them. Springfield could yet get a place in the top four, but seem to have gone off the boil recently and have a lot to do if they are to qualify for the CI knock outs.

Last week they were staring down the barrel of a humiliating defeat at 65 for 5 chasing 316. But ever since his first innings of the season against SCF, Pat Kelly has looked like he would do a job on a bowling attack and he finally delivered, doing a big one on the St Ouen bowlers. Such was the velocity of his innings of 107, that at one point Springfield looked as if they could pull off the victory, but despite his, Pete Canham and Peter Osmont’s best efforts, they came up 70 runs short.

Caesareans experienced a similar fate against SCF and although Pete German (81) was again in the runs, they never threatened the 277 they had been set. Les Quennevais has become their second home this season and they make the trip to the ground for the third week running, so pretty much have home advantage, and will therefore fancy their chances of reversing the result of the first league meeting between these sides when Springfield won with two balls remaining.

These two teams generally have close matches with a victory apiece in the league last year giving enough hope for Caesareans fans to expect a win tomorrow. Norah has revived the ancient art of predicting using the old Aztec ritual of making a sacrifice to the sun god who will then give some sort of signal as to the likely outcome using the weather. She puts a biscuit on the specially made alter and it starts to rain – “hmm rain” she says – Caesareans could get some points.

She says she is supposed to use a human sacrifice but for some reason it goes against office rules, much to Gillian’s relief. I don’t know it’s Health and Safety gone mad.

Prediction: Dubious weather – Caesareans will end up with a few points.