Basement pair’s crunch match

Royton batsman Pieter Malan

CLL by KEITH McHUGH

AS local CLL fixtures go, they don’t come much bigger than Saturday’s showdown between Royton and Werneth at the Paddock.

Advocates of the two-tier system in the league will point to such a match as vindication of the switch.

And who’s to argue given what is at stake? Werneth, the visitors, are bottom of the CLL’s Premier Division with nine matches remaining.

They trail second-bottom Royton by 10 points so defeat would clearly be a hammer blow in their quest to avoid relegation to the Championship.

Royton, on the other hand, would be looking at the real possibility of going down if they were to lose to their neighbours.

So it really is all to play for in a game which Royton skipper Denny Hulme concedes is “the most important of the season so far.”

He said: “Werneth are doing well at the moment and Zimmy (professional Mohammed Zaman Khan) is in good form.

“But we remain confident and the fact is that although we could go down if we win only two of our remaining fixtures, we could also finish in the top five (and book an LCB Cup place) if we were to win four.

“So we are looking upwards as much as over our shoulders at the moment.

“And it was encouraging that our pro Pieter Malan got runs and wickets against Clifton last weekend.

“Hopefully, he will turn in another good performance and make it a little bit easier for us.”

Werneth lost at home to Norden on Saturday, but had generally been in good form and will go into this weekend’s crunch match in confident mood.

They also know they have a rearranged game against Royton next month so their destiny is very much in their own hands.