It’s back to back days of cricket with play in round 11 on Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

The top seven teams will all remain in contention for the finals irrespective of results on the weekend.

However, losses by Northern Suburbs, Kurri Weston, Raymond Terrace, Western Suburbs and Port Stephens will start to put them into a must-win scenario to make the top four with three rounds after this weekend.

Eastern Suburbs are out of contention but have found form after the break and will love nothing more to create headaches for their opponents with upset results.

There are a number of tantalising encounters with the derby between Port Stephens (seventh) and Raymond Terrace (fifth) at King Park 5 topping the list.

The form side of the competition Thornton travels to Lorn Park to take on Northern Suburbs, who have Old Boys Day on Saturday followed by Ladies Day and the club’s McGrath Foundation Pink Stumps Day fundraiser on Sunday.

Norths had their breakthrough win for the start of 2019 beating Wests in last Saturday’s one-day at Coronation Oval by five wickets.

It was probably Norths most even performance all year and they will need everyone contributing against Thornton if they are to have any chance. Thornton smashed them in round eight dismissing Norths for just 81.

Speaking after last Saturday’s win against Eastern Suburbs, Thornton skipper Jake Moore said the team’s main objective now was to secure a semi-finals spot.

“For us from now it is just about making the top four, we can’t be worried about home finals at this point,” he said. 

“No matter what happens if you get in the four you are a chance. You can’t win from fifth.”

Moore said there had been a number of areas of improvement, but evenness of contributions across the team was a key factor in the success they are having.

“To be honest I don’t think anyone has been a stand-out for us, we’re all putting in.

“Over the last two weeks we’ve had everyone in the top six score runs it’s something we haven’t done in the past few years.

“It’s been one player, maybe two doing something but today we had blokes get two 50s and two 40s.

“It goes a long way to putting up decent scores.”

It’s also handy to have a bowling attack which has secured one outright, pushed for a second and has only failed to take 10 wickets in a completed match once since round four.

City United should be too strong for Western Suburbs in what is the start of three home games at Robins Oval.

Raymond Terrace should get the points against a Port Stephens team missing Jarrod Moxey and Kurri Weston must get the points against Easts at East Maitland, with tougher fixtures ahead.