Roffey rampage to summit but know it's still '˜early days'

A routine 168-run victory over basement side Ansty on Saturday saw them reclaim top spot in the Premier Division after just four games.

Davies, who topscored with an unbeaten 78, rightly cooled talk of their two-point lead over East Grinstead and fierce rivals Horsham due to some ‘big games’ coming up.

None much bigger it would seem than hosting the latter on Saturday - with the Lions having made a fine start to the campaign also.

Last weekend, Ansty kept the run-rate to a respectable level and took the first three wickets for 69, but third-man in Jibran Khan (63) and Davies (78*), batting at seven, piled on the runs that enabled the visitors to finish on 270-8.

They were assisted by returning Australian Ben Manenti (20) and Theo Rivers (20), while 39 extras also proved a healthy addition.

Jethro Menzies took 3-46 with the other five wickets shared between five bowlers.

Roffey opened their bowling with Leigh Harrison and George Fleming who each bowled their 10 overs in one spell. Harrison took 3-21 and Fleming 3-29 as the Ansty batting collapsed to 31-5 and then 37-6.

A stand of 44 between Jake Wilson (26) and Will Wright (26) steered the home side to 102, but the last two wickets fell without further runs.

Davies said: “I thought we played pretty well on Saturday, obviously it was nice to post a reasonably big total in 270. With two batsmen passing 50 and others chipping in all the way down, it was a real team effort to post that score which was more than enough on that wicket.

“Credit to Ansty, they bowled well at the start on what was a difficult wicket. In all honesty, we would’ve been very disappointed to not take 30 points off them as there will be much harder tests this season.

“Obviously it’s nice to be top of the table but we aren’t reading into it too much as it’s still early days and we’ve got some big games coming up.”

Roffey now host Horsham on Saturday and welcome Blackheath in the ECB Natonal Club Championship on Sunday. Davies said: “I am looking forward to Saturday’s game although we have a few injuries but the second team players have the quality to step up and perform.

“Horsham are a good side and it’s no secret that both clubs dislike each other, so of course it would be nice to get the win. Maybe they are at a slight advantage as we also have Sunday’s National Cup game to concentrate on, where as they have been eliminated. Nonetheless, it should be a good game.