Normanby Hall have been hit by the news that their overseas professional, Sohaib Maqsood, has been called back to Pakistan for two weeks training with the Test squad, before joining the tour to the West Indies.

While happy that one of their players is on the verge of international honours, the timing could not have been worse for a club already enduring the most testing time in their history.

Effectively left homeless by ground problems primarily created by last year's horrendous weather, Hall are playing every game away from Cricket Lane this summer.

Nomadic Normanby have found life constantly on the road tough and they are the only side who have yet to win a game, form which sees them currently occupying one of the relegation slots.

The leading run scorer in Pakistan domestic cricket last winter, Maqsood made quite an impression with his power hitting which took him to the top of the Premier six-hit league with 24 maximums, and 300 of his 445 runs have come via the boundary.

He didn't often go on to punish teams despite a number of explosive starts, although it seemed odds on that he would make some teams pay in the second half of the campaign. That hope has now disappeared, and with English pro Dan Hodgson excelling with Yorkshire's second team and likely to feature in their T20 campaign the pressure is on Normanby.

And to make matters worse they face a double weekend of Premier fixtures against the two sides positioned directly above and below them in the relegation dogfight with today's game at Sedgefield followed by tomorrow's home match against Thornaby, played at Marske.

Sedgefield hand a debut to new signing Simon Lee who has joined from Darlington, and he takes the place of the unavailable Martin Lower.

The one bright spot for Hall is that Henry Blackett is back from university and available for the rest of the season.

He goes into the side for the double-header. One possible additional ray of light in the Hall way is that Thornaby's overseas man, Bathiya Perera, is suffering with an elbow problem.

Thornaby, 26 points adrift of the safety zone, begin their double with a home game against Great Ayton who have David Grainge as a major doubt following a calf strain suffered.

With the rescheduled Macmillan finals day taking place tomorrow he may not be risked in the league game with Sam Harper set to deputise.

Up at the summit Darlington, top again for the third time of asking, face a tough game at fourth-placed Guisborough and, with Harry Linton attending a family wedding, Ben Wicling's return to action is timely.

The Priorymen are 18 points behind the Quakers so a positive result would put them right back in contention - they go into the crucial game with an unchanged line-up.

Champions Richmondshire, four points behind the leaders, welcome back Craig Swainston for the visit of unchanged Stokesley.

Marton have a full squad to select from at Redcar, Callum Prosser returns to the Hartlepool side who take on a Middlesbrough team expected to include former Pool star Paul Johnston, and Kevin de Silva is fit again and plays for Saltburn against Barnard Castle, the visitors having to reckon without James Sutton who has transferred back to his former club Darlington. Richard Stanwix steps up.

Following the abandonment of last Sunday's Teesside University Macmillan T20 Cup finals day when the monsoons hit Redcar, the four teams gather again tomorrow to have another go, this time at Marton.

The schedule of matches remains the same with Great Ayton playing Redcar at 10am, Guisborough tackling Marton at 1.30pm, and the final timed for 5.30.

All four squads are largely unchanged from last week, although Marton's Ryan Gibson may be on Yorkshire duty so Joe Tait stands by, and James Lines is out of the Guisborough team with Nathan Harding taking his place.