A first title since SL6 the priority for Kathryn Baker and her Tibthorpe side following the signing of Marcus Innanen, who despite recently celebrating his 38th birthday is planning to be around for at least five more seasons, which can only be good news for the Ravens. Trophies have been hard to come by for Tibthorpe, who have long lived in the shadows of local rivals Beverley, that could all change with their new focal point in the team, the sacrifice of Michael Curran to land Innanen certainly working out in pre-season, the Finn has yet to be beaten, as have the Ravens. Four wins from four, including this week at highly fancied second tier side Heatherdale, have made Tibthorpe amongst the league favourites in SL28, Innanen’s presence taking the pressure off fellow heat leaders Soren Kure and Svenne Gregersen—both now in their second seasons with the club—to perform, while the exciting Rasmus Wilhelmsen and Daniel Tuominen have added flair to the lower order. Fans may need to be patient with the latter two, especially Tuominen who was more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’ for Redhill last year, however in scoring paid eight on his home debut following a £15,000 switch to the club expectations are growing that he could make the difference at reserve, especially early in the season. The only other team to have won all four of their pre-season fixtures to date are division two side Boston, their four wins include a two point success at top flight St Ives, a meeting in which new loan signing Kevin Bullock scored ten on his Barracudas debut. He joined from Coventry, who themselves are unbeaten in the warm-ups, a draw at Houston the only blot on their copybook.