Sawston & Babraham’s (171) title hopes were dented on day one of the new Thurlow Nunn East Anglian Premier League season with a seven-wicket defeat at Horsford (175-3) on Saturday.
The loss owed much to the performance of Horsford’s South African all-rounder Jordan Neil, who took a hat-trick on his way to a six-wicket haul before guiding his side to victory with an unbeaten knock of 80 runs.
The contest started brightly for Sawston & Babraham, who batted first and saw openers Yousuf Choudhary (33) and Callum Guest (70) put on 60 runs for the first wicket.
However, from 60-1 the Rams soon found themselves 95-8 and while Guest hung around to add some crucial back-end runs alongside skipper Dan Heath’s 22, it was a target that proved to be light work for the Norfolk-based hosts.
In terms of the bowling, Ethan Rice (2-32) took a couple of early wickets for Sawston & Babraham but Ben Clilverd (1-28) was the only other bowler to make any inroads.
Sawston & Babraham, who collected just two bonus points from the encounter, will look to make the most of home advantage on Saturday (27 April) when Bury St Edmunds visit the Spicers Sports Ground.
