ASTON Rowant have been handed a big boost after seeing their points deduction halved on appeal.

The club were handed a 20-point penalty after wrongly registering Miles Hammond as a category 1 player, rather than category 2 because of his county contract with Gloucestershire.

However, the Oxford Mail understands the deduction has been cut to ten points, although no league official would confirm this was the case.

Meanwhile, Rowant skipper Josh Smith knows his side have to dismiss overseas star Rameez Raja as early as possible if they are to pose a real threat to Horspath in tomorrow’s Home Counties Premier League Division 2 clash.

The former Pakistan Twenty20 international hit an unbeaten 102 in his side’s win over Cookham Dean last week.

And Smith is fully aware of his danger.

“Horspath are always a strong side and obviously have a very good overseas player,” Smith said.

“He is the key – we will be targeting him and will need to get him out before he gets going.”

Hendrick Robyns drops to the 2nd XI while Steve Richards is unavailable.

Richard Cook returns, while Andrew Tolson is back from university and comes straight in.

Jamie Stead will make his Horspath 1st XI debut.

The opening batsman has already scored a century for the second team this season, and hit a half-century last week against Aston Rowant 2nd.

Stead replaces Harrison Ward, who is back at school, while Stephen Green comes in for Shahbaz Ali in the other change.

Skipper Will Eason is looking forward to another Oxfordshire derby, and praised Raja’s display last week.

“Rameez has been superb,” he said. “He likes to score at a good rate, but had to really dig in and work hard early last week.

“But when he got through that period, he was sensational.”

TOMORROW’S TEAMS

Aston Rowant: Hammond, Jewell, Watling, Smith, Morrick, Muttitt, Bethell, Barras, Harris, Cook, Tolson.

Horspath: Stead, Raja, Phillips, R Eason, Green, Belcher, Davies, W Eason, Faruk, Foster, Price.