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Sawston & Babraham captain Dan Heath ready for battle to regain East Anglian Premier League title in 2024




Captain Dan Heath is backing his Sawston & Babraham side to use a ‘very underwhelming’ title defence as fuel to regain their place at the summit in 2024.

Champions of the Thurlow Nunn East Anglian Premier League in 2021 and 2022, the Rams were unable to make it a hat-trick this year after they finished runners-up to Swardeston.

And Heath has conceded that the Norfolk outfit were worthy winners, with his team coming up short of the standards that they had set in the previous two campaigns.

Dan Heath is determined to see his Sawston & Babraham regain the East Anglian Premier League title in 2024. Picture: Mark Westley
Dan Heath is determined to see his Sawston & Babraham regain the East Anglian Premier League title in 2024. Picture: Mark Westley

He said: “The league table never lies after 22 games. The cream always rises to the top and Swardeston were the most consistent side by far.

“We were very underwhelming and to be honest if I had to score our season out of 10, I’d probably give us a four.

“We just weren’t at the races enough and after starting slowly, you’re always playing catch up.

“That being said, we still finished second and if you’d said when we got promoted three years ago that we’d win the league twice and finish second, we’d have snapped your hand off. It shows the standards we’ve set that we’re disappointed to have finished second.”

While the season may have only ended earlier this month, Heath’s thoughts have already turned to how Sawston & Babraham will go about attempting to recapture the top prize.

Recruitment is one area that will be looked at in great depth, but the skipper also believes that the disappointment of this term will be a big motivating factor.

He added: “It’s slightly inevitable when you’ve won two in a row that focus slips a little bit, even if it’s just one per cent.

“It’s not that the players don’t care as much or aren’t still motivated to win, but when you’ve had the success it’s tough to keep churning it out.

“But we’ve got a good group, both as people and players and we’ve already had discussions about next season. There is a definite sense that minds have been refocused.”

And Heath is as keen as ever to be the man that leads the team into battle once again.

Next year will be the wicket-keeper’s sixth as skipper, and he feels that he has at least another 12 months in him.

“Five years is a long time but me, the club and the players have already had a talk about it and they’ve made it clear they’re keen for me to stay,” he said.

“I’m 33 and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be doing it, but I’m very excited to go again next year.

“We’ve had so much success, so much so that finishing runner-up is hard to take and I wouldn’t want to go out as captain in that way.

“This year will have remotivated myself and the players, so hopefully we’ll come back stronger.”



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