It will be thermals at the ready on Sunday as London Maccabi Vale 1st and MAL go head-to-head in the clash of the titans at Rowley Lane in the Middlesex Sunday Cricket League Division One.
The title of top Jewish team is up for grabs with LMV keen to remind everyone of their quality against last season’s Division Two champions.
MAL will be relieved to hear that LMV are missing strike bowler Dan Cohen who has accepted a role captaining
one of Stanmore CC’s Sunday teams. Young Daniel has had plenty to celebrate recently following his promotion to a Level 4 football referee.
The experience of Adam Brand, Mark Bott, Alex Haffner Trevor Wolfe, Andrew Daniels and Jon Galloway will be key for LMV on Sunday while much is expected of Jonny Gould, the talented Grant Reingold, who impressed at the recent junior Maccabiah trials, Simeon Cohen and Neil Lederman, the youngest 1st XI captain in the club’s history.
The bad weather means that both sides go into the match cold, with MAL’s league opener rained off last week.
The rest came as a welcome relief to MAL vice-captain Mark Landau, who went through the pain barrier to raise in excess of £3,000 for Camp Simcha at the Virgin London Marathon the previous week.
Having enjoyed another excellent season for London Maccabi Lions, much is expected from the multi-talented Yoav Lebens.
I expect a typically slow and low-bouncing wicket at Rowley Lane producing a low-scoring encounter that could be decided by which team holds their catches.
* Congratulations to Adam Fegan for leading Wingate & Finchley’s under-17 team to silverware in his first season. The former MSFL manager has made a successful transition to the Ryman League youth level and steered the side to the treble — the Eastern Junior League, the EJA League Challenge Cup and the Amateur Football Alliance Cup. Goalkeeper Sam Singer also played a key role in a memorable campaign.
* Spare a thought for Motti Colman and Louis Basger who flew back to play in last weekend’s Peter Morrison Trophy final between Hendon and Oakwood at Wingate. A heavy deluge forced match referee Warwick Blake to postpone the Jewish FA Cup final less than two hours before kick-off.
Colmans, who jetted in from Israel, said: “I was gutted, although if there was a sign that my decision to make Aliyah was vindicated, it was by turning up at the end of April for a cup final and having it rained off.”
The teams will try again on Sunday.