Then there were two. The finalists for this year's Royal London Club Championship were confirmed on Sunday as South Northumberland CC and Swardeston CC came through very different semi-finals to book their place in the decider.
Chasing the treble
Norwich side Swardeston are going for a unique treble having already secured the East Anglian Premier League title this season, reached next month's NatWest Club T20 Finals Day and now made the final of the one-day national club competition. However, the latter was thanks to the narrowest of victories.
Swardeston welcomed Surrey Championship’s Weybridge CC to The Common, and the hosts chose to bat first after winning the toss.
Openers Peter Lambert and Jordan Taylor notched up a half-century stand in fewer than seven overs. Taylor was then caught and bowled by Jack Winslade and the home side found themselves 73 for three in the 12th over after also losing Lambert and Stephen Gray.
Swardeston have been indebted to ex-Sussex and Hampshire batsman Joe Gatting on a number of occasions this season and he once again proved his worth as he first added 49 with Lewis Denmark and then 64 with Freddie Ruffell to help Swardeston to 186 for five.
Gatting went on to fall just short of his century as he was caught for 91 by Oliver Mills off Winslade in the 43rd over. Winslade finished with Weybridge’s best bowling figures of 3-39 as a late flurry of wickets saw the home side finish on 245 for nine.
Just as Sam and Tom Curran helped to book Surrey’s place in the Royal London One-Day Cup final, their brother Ben provided the early impetus to the Weybridge reply. Curran enjoyed an opening partnership of 63 with Harry Cripps but when Cripps was dismissed for 32 by Matthew Taylor Curran took control, until he was run out for 75 by Thomas Oxley.
When wicketkeeper Michael Arnott was caught by Matthew Taylor off the bowling of Swardeston captain Mark Thomas, Weybridge were up against it at 172 for seven with 10 overs remaining.
This brought together Brent Kay with Weybridge captain Phillip Mann and they calmly brought their side back into the game, in particular thanks to some impressive hitting by Kay.
They were within touching distance of victory when Kay was bowled by Gatting for 43 from just 29 balls. That left Weybridge needing 11 to win off nine deliveries. Mann then brought Weybridge to within one run of Swardeston’s total with six balls left but Matthew Taylor produced the over of his career, bowling a final-over maiden to hand Swardeston a single-run win.
Northern exposure
200 miles further north, South Northumberland spent the early part of Sunday checking the forecast as morning rain delayed the start of their semi-final against Ormskirk CC of the Liverpool & District Premier League. The match eventually got underway at 3:30pm and was reduced to 36 overs per side with the hosts from the North East Premier League opting to bat first.
South Northumberland have ex-Australian International Marcus North as their captain and, like Gatting for Swardeston, he has put in a number of match-winning performances this season. However, on this occasion it was up to his team-mates to do the scoring as he shouldered arms to his first delivery and was bowled by Nicky Caunce.
It was James Miller who took up the key role in the home side's innings as he hit 66 from 57 balls but his partners struggled as they reached 97 for six, Lancashire U17 player Tom Hartley taking 3-30 for Ormskirk.
Michael Craigs joined Miller at the crease to put on 73 for the seventh wicket before Scott Lees bowled Miller and Caunce returned to finish off the tail in the final over. Caunce took 4-40 as South Northumberland were all out off the final ball for 181.
Stephen Humble took two wickets early in the Ormskirk reply with the score on 18 for two and wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. Michael Jones, Ian Robinson and captain Matthew Glayzer had small partnerships but when Ormskirk went from 53 for three to 68 for seven – thanks in large part to David Rutherford’s 3-30 – South Northumberland could sense victory.
Glayzer was at this point joined by Caunce and they added 35 before Glayzer was bowled by the returning Humble. Humble dismissed Hartley to finish with figures of 4-25 before Caunce was bowled by Lee Crozier to dismiss Ormskirk for 109 and secure a 72-run victory for South Northumberland.
The Club Championship final will take place at Northamptonshire CCC on Sunday 18 September with free entry to the ground for all.
For a full list of results and statistics from the competition, please visit the Royal London Club Championship Play-Cricket site.