Not since their Jaidka Cup triumph in that season have Town challenged and beaten their most powerful rivals. Three titles in four seasons at the start of The Millennium came from the lower divisions of the Rutland League.

But captain Ajaz Akhtar is hopeful that sequence will come to an end this summer. Many good judges would suggest that Town are probably a quality slow bowler away from winning the Northants Premier Division, but the skipper disagrees.

He certainly has two powerful Pakistani professionals, paceman Waqas Chugthai and stylish batsman Aseem Butt, in his squad and he's bolstered an exciting batting line-up by recruiting hard-hitting batsman Shardel Brahambhatt from March.

Akhtar said: "It's been too long since we won anything of note and that has to change. We finished strongly in the Northants League last season to claim second place so if we start better we must have a great chance of winning the title.

"Last summer we only won two of our first six or seven matches and we can't get afford to let that happen again. Fortunately the early fixtures are in our favour this year.

"We certainly have a seam attack which will be among the best in the division and I would expect Aseem to get close to 1,000 runs in the season.

"We have spinning options as well so we must have a chance. The usual suspects like Finedon and The Northants Academy will be there or thereabouts, but they will be worried about us.

"But if we can't win the Northants League, we want to win the Rutland First Division or the Jaidka Cup. It's remarkable that we haven't won the Jaidka for 10 years after dominating it for so many years, while we also used to win the South Lincs League on a regular basis - it would be great to go back to those days!"

Brahambhatt has joined Town to improve his chances of Minor Counties caps for Cambridgeshire. Town have a great chance of a fast start as they face mediocre opposition in Burton Latimer and Irthlingborough on the first two Saturdays.

Town can field two overseas players as Butt is married to an English woman and carries a British passport. Neither Chugthai nor Butt will play for Town in a Rutland League side skippered this season by Basharat Hussain.

Town open at Burton Latimer on Saturday April 26.

Last major Town titles:

Northants Premier League: 1996.
South Lincs Premier Division: 1996.
Jaidka Cup: 1998.

Town won Rutland League titles in 2000 (Division Four), 2002 (Division Three), 2003 (Division Two).

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