THIS year’s King of The Road contest kicks off tonight with defending champ Giles Fagan hoping to hold onto his crown.

The club captain faces stiff competition from 12 others who’ve made themselves available for the knockout single-wicket game.

Here are the runners and riders Gilo will face:

MATT COCKEN: Big Matt can bat and bowl and is always there or thereabouts yet hasn’t shown the form this season to suggest he could be a winner – could he be an outside bet though?

DAN HOWARD: Danno was a force to be reckoned with before he emigrated to the Far East. Since then he’s been rusty, but has he been working on a new ball? A Chinaman, for example?

DAN SHERMAN: Can’t bowl. No hope.

MICHAEL ROSSI: Hit a quickfire 42 last week and bowls a tight line with his finger spin. If he can reproduce his batting form Rossi could be a hot tip.

LEON WATSON: A former champ in 2009, semi finalist last year and has been in decent form this year with both bat and ball. Always in with a chance.

TOM BARNES: Boom Boom Barnes will surely rival Giles for the most dangerous with the bat – but what’s his bowling like? Nobody knows so a difficult one to call.

ANDY SAKER: Big-hitting Andy can bash it a long way but also gives his wicket away – but with his bowling, both spin and seam, he must be up there with the favourites if he fires with the blade.

AMIR ALIPOUR: Amir’s the long shot, but with his tricky spin he could knock out a few of the big boys as long as he has a field day with the bat.

JAMIE KEATING: Last season’s leading wicket-taker and a savage – if unreliable – batsman. Will have to step it up to win though.

SHAM DE SILVA: Wicket-taking spin and a flamboyant bat make Sham another one of the strong contenders.

MATT GLOVER: He’s a late entry, but he’s a great entry. Lanky Matt will be most people’s hot favourite after an explosive first season with The Road in which he’s taken wickets and scored lots of runs.

JEREMY SMITH: Jeremy is definitely the dark horse. He hits it hard, and his bowling is sharp – a bit on an unknown quantity but on a good day he could beat anyone.

King of The Road will start at 6pm on Wandsworth Common.

So far there have only been two winners of the King of The Road crown. Last year Gilo beat Kevin Pittaway in replayed final after the first final had to be abandoned because of an horrific injury to Dr John Gledhill.

In 2009 Leon won.