NORMANBY HALL are hoping their overseas professional arrives in time for the weekend programme.

A delegation of officials travelled to Manchester Airportto greetthe expected arrival of Sohaib Maqsood, who should offer a big boost after the club’s less than auspicious start to a campaign which sees them playing every game away from their Cricket Lane home.

Two defeats have left the Hall in the bottom two, and with a Bank Holiday double header against the top two sides looming Normanby will be hoping that Maqsood can quickly get over jet lag.

He will have a day’s rest to recover from his journey as Hall don’t play until Sunday when their ‘home’ match against table-toppers Darlington is played at Marske.

Just 24 hours later they take on the only other team with a 100 per cent record, Great Ayton.

Pakistani Maqsood, who has previous experience of English conditions, arrives with a strong reputation, the right-handed bat and offspinner has had such a successful season in his home country, where he was the leading run scorer, that he was called into the national squad for training which delayed his trip to the NorthEast. Averaging 44 in firstclass cricket it is hoped he will add the necessary stability to a batting order that wobbled last week.

If Maqsood starts it will put the Hall at full strength, with just university student Henry Blackett missing. But they willfind the Quakers in buoyant mood following their victory over the champions last week, and with more depth to their batting this time around they will be keen to extend their winning run.

Maqsood could not have asked for a more testing first match as he comes face to face with the Darlington attack.

Darlington are back at Feethams on Monday when they tackle struggling Redcar who have picked up just a pointin their firsttwo matches back in the top flight. The Seasiders will haveTim Hood and Tyler Easton back after missing tomorrow’s trip to Richmond.

Great Aytonhave wontheir opening games convincingly with skipper Chris Batchelor in form. He’s racked up 168 runs without being out, and with South African Nick Hendrie having had a week to acclimatise, the top of the batting order looks strong.

21-year-old Hendrie’s fledgling first-class career with Kwazulu-NatalInlandis inits infancy, but already he has two centuries to his name and an average of 36.

Ayton begin their programme at Leven Park whereBarnardCastleare the visitors, and Monday’s match against Normanby takes placeatStockton.Barney will be missing Rich Borrowdale for the trip to North Yorkshire, but Brett Upton returns, although both he and Ben Usher will miss the second game of the weekend, at home to Middlesbrough, because of school commitments.

Lewis Stabler will make his league bow for champions Richmondshire following an exciting couple of weeks.

After being handed a Yorkshire second team contract over the winter, Stabler featuredas12thmanfor thefirst team in their match against Durham at the Emirates ICG last week, and was then turning out for the county second team a few days ago.

Stabler will play in both games, firstly in the home match against Redcar, and then in the trip to Hartlepool on Monday, and his skills will be welcomed by the Dalesmen following their inability to bowl out either oftheir opponents in the opening games.

Guisborough have to reckon without the services of Richard Dunn and Stu Mackay when they open their double programme with a home game against Hartlepool, although the pair return for Monday’s trip to Thornaby where the home team will be missing Omar Shahid.

Players returning to their sides after missing last week include Neil Coverdale (Hartlepool), Tom Reid (Marton) and Dave Cross (Sedgefield), while Middlesbrough at last get to see Brett Roberts following his recovery from a football injury.

Focus will be on Division One to see if Marske’s John Glendenen and Guisborough’s Johnny May can make it a record-breaking three consecutive centuries in the first three games of the season