Cornwall take on Cheshire at Truro tomorrow (11am) sitting proudly joint top of the Western Division of the Minor Counties Championship.
They share the halfway lead with Shropshire, with the chasing pack some ten points adrift.
The Duchy will admit to having some fortune in the last round of games when they were able to force a final-session win over Wiltshire at Falmouth, while the four other Western Division games around the country had already been abandoned.
In the past decade, matches against Cheshire have all produced draws, with the exception of last year when a youthful Cornish side pulled off a spectacular win at Chester’s Boughton Hall.
It was their first on Cheshire soil since Championship matches between the counties began in 1983.
Cheshire’s last visit to the Duchy was drawn at Falmouth three years ago, when the second day was washed out. This season they’ve lost to Shropshire and drew a rain-affected game with Wales at Usk.
They were out of luck in the last round of games when the clash with Dorset at Alderley Edge was abandoned without a ball bowled.
Thankfully the forecast, at long last, for the next few days beside Truro River appears much more favourable.
Cornwall have been forced to make two changes from the team which beat Wiltshire at Trescobeas.
Professional Keith Parsons is captaining the ECB Unicorns in the CB40 competition against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. Dan Davis is also unavailable due to work commitments.
It is only the second three-day game he has missed since his debut at the start of the 2009 campaign, and that was due to injury which saw him miss Dorset at St Austell in 2010.
The selectors have brought in both the Smeeth brothers from Werrington as replacements. Alex was excluded from the last game due to a side injury – he is still not fit to bowl but will play as a frontline batsman.
He averaged around 50 in Australia during the winter and has continued in similar vein back home. He has hit a century and four half-centuries in Premier League and 50/50 Cup games this season.
His brother Ben is recalled to the side after almost three years’ absence. He made 14 Championship and two MCCA Trophy appearances between 2002 and 2009, and will be in familiar surroundings as six of those games were played at Boscawen Park.
He has also been in good form this season with a couple of centuries to his name and an 86 and 62 in his last two Premier League innings.
Cornwall: T G Sharp, M L Robins, J D Libby, B A Smeeth, A G Smeeth, C A Hunkin, T Williams, R J Harrison, B M Kitt, A C Libby, S C Hockin.
Cheshire: J A Duffy, J P Kettle, W M Goodwin, K Sawas, L F Dixon, D O Berry, C Rowe, S J Kirwan, A J Syddall, D A Woods, I J S Tait.
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