NATHAN Lewis comes in for his first Middleton Cup game this season as Oxfordshire bid to get their challenge back on track when they face Surrey at Croydon on Saturday.

The Headington bowler takes the place of Paul Lopez for the South Group Section B clash, with Oxon looking to bounce back following their 122-111 defeat by Berkshire at Oxford City & County.

He will bowl at No 2 in Ian Snowdon’s rink, with Headington’s Ray Gaskins stepping up from that position to skip the four of Keith Holloway, Andy Martin and Ian Henwood.

Gaskins gets his promotion with skip Howard Watts and his Headington clubmate, Nick Rae-Welsh, unavailable.

They are replaced by another Headington duo, Jason King and Dean May, who were missing for the clash with Berkshire.

Martin swaps places with City & County’s Paul Comley, who moves to Baden Sparkes’s rink.

King comes in at No 3 for Rae-Welsh in Mark Charlett’s four, with May taking over as lead from Lopez.

Oxfordshire: J Philpott, N Lewis, G May, I Snowdon; D May, S Claridge, J King, M Charlett; K Holloway, A Martin, I Henwood, R Gaskins; AJ Docherty, G Schwab, R Redford, M Sykes; M Nash, P Comley, C Whitehead, B Sparkes; S Watts, S Cooper, B Lambourne, P Sharman.

  • OXFORDSHIRE are unchanged for their Balcomb Trophy regional semi-final at South Croydon on Sunday.

Oxfordshire: J Philpott, N Rae-Welsh, M Charlett, H Watts; AJ Docherty, K Holloway, P Sharman, M Sykes.

  • OXFORDSHIRE Under 25s have reached the White Rose Trophy national semi-finals at Royal Leamington Spa for only the second time.

They go forward to the last four at Victoria Park on Sunday, August 30 after pipping Kent 40-39 in the regional final at Croydon.

RESULTS

SEMI-FINAL

Oxfordshire U25 42, Berkshire 25 (Oxon rinks first): D May, J Woodward, G Schwab, G May 20, T Moore, D Hancock, BJ Byles, L Sabatini 12; S Watts, D Wakeman, C Gilkes, S Cooper 22, R Cooper, T Bicknell, K Mallandain, M Cooper 13.

FINAL

Oxfordshire U25 40, Kent 39 (Oxon rinks first): S Watts, D Wakeman, C Gilkes, S Cooper 19, P Foster, S Woolford, A Rodger, T Monk 20; D May, J Woodward, G Schwab, G May 21, T Bishop, M Cheeseman, J Kelly, P Martin 19.