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A magnificent season was cemented last night with the Civil Service earning an outstanding victory over much-fancied Cumberland Partners, and with it the Division 3 Chamionship.
Vice-skipper Johns won the toss on a gloomy evening and had no hestiation in batting first. Openers Ward and Lord got us off to a positive start, with the ball increasingly disappearing over the boundary. Giles made the breakthrough removing Colin for a brisk 23.
Duncan strode to the wicket with a decent platform on which to build. The Cumberland bowlers were perhaps a touch guilty of trying to bowl too fast and consequently too short, feeding the strengths in Duncan's game.
The dashing South African (i'm talking about his batting here) continued to be ably supported by Ed who gave him the stike as much ss possible and watched as the ball kept disppearing a longway over the outfield.
The rate was soon in excess of 10 an over and Duncan moved on to yet another half century. The hundred partnership was completed and it was looking as though Dunc's hundred could be on, until a fairly tight LBW went against him for 79.
Ed batted out much of the remainder of the innings for an excellent 37 and two or three more wickets fell at the end of the innings to leave us ona formidable 156-5.
Don and Barry opened with some full, hostile bowling, ensuring that the opposition didn't get away to a flyer. Don (2-8) took a couple of quick wickets with an excellent catch from Martin over his head at mid off, allowing Joe (3-19) and Neil (2-29) to clean up the middle order.
With the gloom descending and increasingly heavy rain, the rush was on to get the game finished quickly. Steve (1-5) bowled what turned out to be the lastover with two run outs from the first three balls, before another catch was skied to Luke at extra cover. 86 all out.
With that, our best result of the season (10 points) and the championship assured!
Thanks to all who have taken part and contributed to such a successful season.
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