THE next fortnight could make or break Amersham CC’s season.

That is the view of captain Luke Jackson, who expects Division Two of the Home Counties League to have split in half by the end June and has challenged his players to make sure they’re on the right side of the dividing line by the end of the month.

He said: “Nobody is quite sure who the favourites are yet. Everybody apart from Reading has lost a couple of games and that fact that we’re joint second having won two and lost two tells you how close it is.

“But I think in the next couple of weeks the league will sort itself out into two halves.

“It will split into those fighting relegation and those fighting for the title, so the next few weeks are really important to make sure we’re in the right half.”

Although they’re second now, Amersham are still just 11 points from third from bottom and next Saturday they host early pace-setters Reading.

Jackson said: “When we play well I think we’re a really good side, but every now and then we have a bad day and we need to make sure we have more good days than bad ones.”

Last Saturday was a good day though, when opener Bruce Friderichs put Great & Little Tew to the sword with a crushing 130 at the top of the order.

Andrew Viney (21) and Paul Langley (42) gave him good support in the middle order as Amersham powered to 257-6 from their 58 overs.

Jackson said: “Bruce was pretty impressive, it was a really high quality innings and he was well-supported in the middle order.

“I’d have been happy with about 230 runs so I knew the opposition would have to bat well to get there, but we’ve never played this longer format before and it was a quick outfield so I wasn’t sure if our score would be enough.”

Adding to the uncertainty, front line seamers Alex Lines and Nick Buchanan were missing from Amersham’s attack.

But Stuart Rogers stepped in with figures of 3-31 while Stephano Jourbert (2-40) offered support at the other end to curtail Great & Little Tew’s reply.

Despite their efforts though, the game was still in the balance at tea with the visitors poised on 130-5 and plenty of time left.

Jackson himself swung it though, taking three quick wickets to reduce their opponents from 132-5 to 138-8 and their innings was eventually snuffed out on 170 in the 40th over.