Ashington CC skipper relishing the chance to take on the reigning league champions

The blanket of rain which fell across the region last Saturday saw the entire programme in the North East Premier League abandoned – with all clubs receiving five points.

Now the Mighty Acorns prepare for a clash against South Northumberland – last season’s league champions – and McCafferty reckons his lads are relishing the challenge.

“We will be treating it just as any other but these are the games which you really look forward to,” he said.

“We will go into it full of confidence and it’ll be a good test for us to see where we are at, but we are certainly looking to get a positive result in order to keep going the right way in the table.”

He continued: “Last year we had two close games against South Northumberland.

“The clash at home was a high scoring affair where they ended up chasing down a good total, but I thought we were very unlucky in the game at Gosforth and probably deserved to win it, so it would be nice to come out on the right end of a result this time round.”

Ashington have been drawn away to Morpeth in the semi-final of the Smithson Cup, with the game to be played on July 25, and McCafferty added: “We would love to get into the final again to defend it after we beat Benwell Hill to lift the cup last year.”