Australian Ben's back - but Roffey's top-of-the-table clash hit by rain

Having played a key role in their title-winning campaign two years ago, the spin bowler and middle-order batsman has returned as their overseas this season.

He flew in last week, but it wasn’t the start he would have been hoping for as Roffey’s top-of-the-table home clash with East Grinstead on Saturday was cancelled due to rain and a sodden pitch.

Despite that, Roffey skipper Matt Davies said: “Ben has come back as our overseas. He’s an all-rounder and can bowl spin and hit a long ball, so he’s another batsman that can boost us.

“He has done it at this level before, so we are really pleased to have him back.”

Saturday’s clash was cancelled at 11am with the outfield, wicket and bowlers’ run ups all sodden at Crawley Road.

On whether it wasn’t the worst game to have called off due to the fact it was between the two, rather than East Grinstead playing and them not, Davies added: “It depends which way you look at it. If we’d have won, it would have put us that much further ahead.

“It’s a bit disappointing that everyone else was able to play, so we lost a bit of ground on them, but at the same time, we are still only a couple of points off the top.”

Roffey, who have dropped to fifth in the table, but sit just three points behind leaders Middleton, travel to second-bottom Ansty on Saturday.

Davies added: “We are looking forward to the Ansty game. It is probably another one that we are looking at thinking we should win.

“Hopefully, we can put in a decent performance and get the points. We are just waiting on Stuart Whittingham’s availability at the moment, other than that we are full strength.”