Newmarket Cricket Club ready for promotion/relegation play-off clash with Southill Park

Saturday’s equation for Newmarket Cricket Club is simple: Win and they stay up, lose and they go down.

Last weekend’s narrow six-run defeat at Histon – coupled with fellow strugglers March Town getting the better of Wisbech Town – condemned the Stampede to a second from bottom finish in the final Whiting & Partners Division One table.

However, rather than be automatically demoted after just 12 months at the level, Newmarket have one final chance to save themselves at the weekend when they play host to Southill Park in a promotion/relegation play-off at The Severals.

The Bedfordshire-based visitors have enjoyed a positive campaign in Division Two, finishing in second spot, just as Newmarket did last season.

And it is very much a winner-takes-all affair with the triumphant team playing Division One cricket next term.

Newmarket skipper Mark Nunn said: “It’s not ideal and it’s not a position that we wanted to be in, but it is what it is.

“In a way we’re lucky two teams are not automatically relegated and so now we have another chance – it’s up to us.

“We’ll have to respect them. They’ve come up from Division Three and now they’re up the top end of Division Two so we can’t take them lightly.

“But we’ve played some good cricket this year and some of the defeats have been really narrow, just like on Saturday against Histon.

“I feel like we’ve got a good chance of winning as long as we play to our best levels.”

Not for the first time this season Newmarket’s bowlers had given their side something to chase against Histon, having restricted their hosts to 211-7 from 50 overs.

But while Crystian Thurton (66) and Nunn (47) both did well in reply, too many batsmen lost their wickets cheaply and the away side ended up just short of their target.

“Bowling is one area that we’re strong. We bowl as a unit and we tend to bowl well,” added Nunn. “But too often we’ve blown hot and cold with the bat.

“I think what we do with the bat on Saturday is going to be key to the outcome.

“It’s about being sensible, but also I want the players to feel like they can be expressive so it’s a balancing act.

“They need to back themselves and hopefully we get put enough runs on the board to apply some pressure.”

Mohammad Chowdhury and Ross Clarke will miss the game.