CHERWELL LEAGUE

HORSPATH should be among the Division 1 title challengers if they can maintain their long unbeaten record in the league.

They have not lost since May 2009, but were pipped to top spot last year by Great & Little Tew.

Horspath add top-order batsman Kit Cutter, a student at Oxford Brookes University, to their ranks and are again captained by Adam Krol.

Matthew O’Connor (army) and Paul Jeacock (work) will miss parts of the season, as will Jack Biggs, who is in New Zealand.

All-rounders Pat Foster and Will Eason appeared for Oxfordshire in a recent friendly and will hope to press for further call-ups.

Thame Town have lost eight players from the side that were relegated from the Home Counties Premier League.

Manoj Parmar, Vandit Jivrajani, Pratik Patel, Seetal Patel, Nilesh Patel, Jesal Rathod, Hiren Desai and Will Rooney have all left.

But Dion Laubscher and Tom Collis have joined.

Thame are expecting a consolidation season where they will rebuild the club with local and young players.

The other relegated club, Shipton-under-Wychwood, report no signings or departures, but should fare better than Thame.

Asked about challenging for promotion, captain Simon Hole said: “Hopefully, we will be there or thereabouts.

“We are trying to bring in a few more youngsters and aiming to build a side for the future.”

Banbury 2nd should have more strength in depth this campaign as they look to boost their first team’s Home Counties title hopes.

Andrew Sabin takes over as captain, and says that their target is survival and expects the initial weeks to be tough as several players will be unavailable.

He added: “If it ends up being Keith Arnold’s final year, at least I can say I finished him off!”

Oxford 2nd, who are now just one division below their first team, are looking to bed down in the top flight after getting promotion last year.

Captain John Barrett said: “For us to stay up would be a great season.

“We will see where we are at halfway and go from there.”

Oxford Downs complete the Oxfordshire contingent.

Twyford retain the core of the side that has seen them achieve back-to-back promotions, including star batsman Tanveer Hussain.

Other players to watch are left-arm spinner Billal Afsal, former Oxon youth opening batsman Stafford Sansome, Shahid Mahmood, a wicket-keeper/batsman, and seamer Adam Bone.

Leighton Buzzard have a new captain in Phillip Whatmore, who succeeds Antony Francis.

They have signed all-rounder Graham Carr who has played in the Northumberland and Durham Leagues.

Veteran Tim O’Leary will keep wicket again, just as he has every season since the Cherwell started.

Great Brickhill have recruited five new players. Bowlers George Humphries and Jack Neil, batsman Patrick Prasad, all-rounder Robin Prasad and wicket-keeper Michael Baker join the club.

Buckingham Town complete the line-up.