Sabin is keen to hold to third place

Lloyd Sabin’s side are only five points ahead of last year’s champions High Wycombe but Banbury will need to match them to hold on to third place.

Banbury travel to Slough looking to avenge a defeat from earlier in the year while Wycombe make the short trip to Reading where they will be expected to take maximum points. Second-placed Henley entertain Tring Park in what could be a tight affair but Banbury trail them by 16 points.

Following the trip to Slough, Banbury are in cup action the following weekend when they meet Oxford in the final of the Bernard Tollett Cup.

Sabin said: “If we can finish third and win the Bernard Tollett Cup that would be a very good season. We’ll be doing all we can to hold on to third place, which would be a very good achievement.

“Slough beat us up here earlier in the season so we owe them one.”

Looking back on Saturday’s abandoned game with Reading at White Post Road, Sabin said: “We’ve had three games abandoned and two of them have been against Reading, so that is a lot of points which we would have been favourites to pick up.

“I knew the bad weather was on its way so that’s why we tried to bowl Reading out as quickly as we could as it was the best chance of winning the game. At 83-7 after 35 overs the rain came and we knew that was that.”

On his first year at the helm, Sabin added: “The most pleasing aspect has been seeing six or seven players make their league debuts. Young players like Ollie Clarke and Will Hawtin have come in and done really well.

“Also, I’ve been pleased with the way the batsmen stepped up when Kurtis Patterson went back to Australia. We still continued to score runs and win matches.”