Huge weekend in store for Shrewsbury
Skipper Ben Stebbings is looking forward to the biggest weekend of Shrewsbury’s season as the in-form London Roaders target further progress in league and cup.
Shrewsbury have impressively reeled off a stunning seven Birmingham League Premier Division wins in a row while they are also through to the fourth round of both the ECB National Club Championship and ECB National Club T20 competition.
Table-topping Shrewsbury needed only a little over two hours to wrap up an emphatic nine-wicket win over Walsall last weekend after dismissing the visitors for just 32.
That’s set Shrewsbury up perfectly for tomorrow’s trip to third-placed Berkswell, the reigning Premier Division champions, which will be followed by a home clash against Wolverhampton in the ECB National Club Championship on Sunday (1pm).
“We’ve got a huge weekend coming up and I can’t wait,” said Stebbings. “Berkswell smashed us twice last year, so I’m sure we owe them a beating ourselves. We’ve got something to prove.
“They’re a good side but we’re a very good side as well, so it should be a very good game, a good standard of cricket you would hope.
“Then we’ve got Wolverhampton and that will be a really tough game because I think they’re well up for it. We gave them a good beating here.
“Two wins this weekend and we’re well set for the season, so it’s a big weekend.”
Berkswell, currently 12 points adrift of Shrewsbury in the table, have a host of players with First Class experience, headed by captain Dominic Ostler, the former Warwickshire man.
Their squad also includes current Derbyshire all-rounder Tom Milnes and Worcestershire prospect Alex Hepburn, ex-Glamorgan man Nick James, former Leicestershire seamer David Brignull and overseas player Ryan Sidebottom, an Australian bowler from Victoria.
But Stebbings stressed Shrewsbury would be doing everything possible to extend their blistering run of results.
He said: “When I was captain at Brockhampton, we won 12 games on the bounce, the first 12 one season, so we’ve just got to keep going.”
Stebbings insisted there was certainly no chance of any complacency creeping in.
“Not at all,” he said. “We’ve got too much experience in the team for that to happen, too many level-headed characters.”
