Derbyshire take 50+ honours

ECBtv was at Derby for finals day - watch the match report in the video player above

Derbyshire beat Cheshire by 10 wickets to lift the Brian Aspital Trophy and be crowned ECB 50+ County Champions with victory on home soil on a gloriously sunny day at Derbyshire County Cricket Club.

Derbyshire skipper David Tee won the toss and elected to field, a tactic that had served his side well throughout the season.

Using the same pitch that had seen Chester-le-Street beat Spencer the day before in the ECB National Club Championship final, both sides were aware that the winners in that match had scored 175 - so there was a clear benchmark for the teams.

The Cheshire openers, skipper Phil Thomas (34) and Steve Yates (15), added 59 for the first wicket but at an extremely slow rate that put pressure on the rest of the batting order.

The introduction of Colin Taylor (3-26) put a stranglehold on even this low rate of scoring and wickets started to fall. Alan Hitchmough came in at the fall of the first wicket and batted through the rest of the innings for his 39.

The only support came from Gwyn Williams with 20 and last man in Chris Lees who scored eight not out. That the other six batsmen did not manage to score a run between them speaks volumes for the accuracy of the Derbyshire bowling.

Derbyshire skipper Tee took 6-32 to finish off the work started by Taylor. Cheshire were dismissed on the last ball of their allotted 45 overs for just 136.

When Derbyshire batted they proved that there were not any demons in the wicket as they cruised to victory in only 32.3 overs.

Openers Harry Cartwright (69 not out) and Ray McGuinness (61 not out) took their side home to a resounding 10-wicket win with 12.3 overs left.

The man-of-the-match award went to Tee, the Derbyshire skipper, for his bowling performance.

The presentation party consisted of Keith Loring, the chief executive of Derbyshire CCC, David Skipworth, Derbyshire CCC committee, and George Hornbuckle, Nottinghamshire Cricket Board and ECB match manager.