High Wycombe captain Nathan Hawkes says his team must beat Henley this weekend or kiss goodbye to their hopes of winning the title.

Eight wins from eight has put Saturday’s opponents 49 points clear of second place Wycombe heading into their Home Counties Division One clash.

Henley benefitted from squeezing in a victory when Hawkes’ team and the rest of the league were frustrated by the weather and it has left the rest of the league with a mountain to climb.

This match marks the half-way stage of the championship and the Wycombe skipper feels defeat would end their hopes of winning a first title since 2012.

“You’ve only got to look at the league table to see that the situation is black and white,” said Hawkes.

“If they beat us it’s over a 50 point gap which in half a season you’re not going to get back. If we beat them then it leaves the league wide open.

“I can’t see them slipping up in three games, I think they might slip-up against Slough or Banbury but I can’t see another team in the league turning them over.

“If we lose then I think it could be title race over, so I definitely think it’s a must win.”

The 26-year-old and his team go into the weekend’s clash at London Road on the back of a six wicket victory against Harefield – a win which again highlighted the side’s strength with the bat.

Chasing a target of 234 win, opener Gavin Baker hit 67 off 45 balls to start the innings off on the right note alongside James Benning (39), who came to the crease early on after the dismissal of Adam Hose for 5.

The skipper then hit ten boundaries en route to an unbeaten 64 which helped take his team to their fifth triumph of the season in tandem with George Russell (29) and Cameron Parsons (32*).

Hawkes said: “It was nice to get another win on the board and keep that momentum going into the game next week.

“All round it was nice to bowl a team out. We’ve struggled in the last couple of weeks to take all ten wickets and bowling a team out is something that we’ve been looking forward to doing all season.

“It was quite nice to do that and get a convincing win after chasing their score down.”

The Wycombe bowlers had earlier done the damage, as their captain eluded to, restricting Harefield to 233 all out from 61 overs.

Kyle Simmonds was the pick for the visitors, finishing with highly economical figures of 3-40 from his 19 overs, and Hawkes said it marked a return to form for the seamer.

“He started off well for us in pre-season and then at the start of the season,” he said.

“Like all bowlers, you can have your off weeks which has been the case for him in the last couple of weeks but on Saturday he was the pick of the bowlers and his figures show that.”

Wycombe are well stocked in the bowling department and young spinner Uzair Amjaid is the only absentee as they look to take down Henley.

Paul Sawyers and Alan Duncan are back in contention after missing out against Harefield and it has left Hawkes with a pleasant selection headache ahead of Saturday.

He said: “This week we’ve got players back, so the selection of bowlers and all-rounders that we’ve got at the club allows us to pick and choose what sort of attack we want to go with.

“With the players that we’ve got in the first and second team it’s never easy to leave anyone out, especially when everybody’s fit. Selection will be pretty tough this week.”