York Cricket Club continue their pursuit of an unprecedented fifth straight Solly Sports Yorkshire ECB County Premier League title this weekend with key home games against Sheffield United and Castleford.

United visit Clifton Park tomorrow and Castleford on Sunday and, despite the favourites tag, York captain Marcus Wood is wary of the opposition.

“We’re coming into an important part of the season and this is a key weekend with 16 points up for grabs,” he said.

“Castleford have been on a good run and we’re expecting to be tested.”

Wood was quick to put to bed any idea that a pair of wins this weekend would give him one hand on yet another Premier League trophy.

He said he was keeping one eye on his side’s testing set of end-of-season fixtures and was keen to point out that “two wins wouldn’t wrap it up.

“Us and (second-placed) Rotherham have both got tough run-ins.

“We’ve got tough games coming up against Castleford and away at Scarborough.

“We’ve still got to play most of the top half and we face Rotherham and (third-placed) Cleethorpes in the last two games of the season.

“Rotherham have only lost three games all season so they’re only going to lose maybe another one.

“We’re only one game in front so we can’t afford to lose many.”

Wood highlighted the impact of the club’s new recruits as vital to the sustained success the club has been able to maintain.

“The York and district area is producing some fantastic young cricketers, which we need to continue”, he said, singling out Jake Murphy and Liam and Ryan McKendry as the club’s standout young players.

“That’s the key to success and we need to keep doing that,” he said.

Murphy is unavailable this weekend, so Andy Tute keeps his place in the side, while Wood is due to sit out Sunday’s match as vice-captain Dan Woods takes over the reins.

Otherwise, the reigning champions field their settled line-up in both of this weekend’s fixtures.