Berkshire do the double
HENLEY CC’s Jack Davies, who is only 17, blasted an ultra-stylish unbeaten century as Berkshire won the Unicorns Championship title for the second year running, both times at the expense of Lincolnshire.
Having also beaten the same side in the Trophy final at Wormsley last week, Berkshire have become the first county to win both MCCA competitions in the same season.
It was yet another tremendous all-round team effort, but there were some outstanding individual performances in the final at Banbury CC.
Chris Peploe took 5-71 to help restrict Lincs to 182 in their first innings after they had elected to bat first.
Then Euan Woods, who won the man-of-the-match award in last year’s final with his unbeaten 142, just fell short of successive centuries, but his 97 went a long way towards Berkshire’s modest reply of 215.
It was Peploe again who took the bowling honours in Lincolnshire’s second innings of 319 (Matt Lineker 148) returning figures of 6-113 from 60 overs, giving him 11 wickets for the match.
This left the title holders requiring 278 to win the game.
Despite losing Ollie Wilkin for a duck in the opening over for the second time in the game, they progressed to 120-3 overnight and then it became 135-4 with the dismissal of James Morris shortly after play had resumed on the last day.
However, this brought opener Davies and Andy Rishton together and they wasted no time in putting their side on course for a famous victory.
Wellington College student Davies, who also plays for
Middlesex 2nds, had appeared in the early-season Trophy games, but this was his Championship debut.
Displaying pure class and maturity that belied his tender age, the teenager smashed 127 off 247 balls as he defied the Lincolnshire attack for nearly four and a quarter hours.
And he found an extremely willing partner in Andy Rishton. The Loughborough all-rounder blasted 76 from 77 deliveries with three sixes - the last of which was the winning hit- and 11 boundaries.
The unbroken partnership, which featured plenty of fast running between the wickets, was worth
156, spanning just 24 overs.
It was a tremendous end to the most successful season in Berkshire’s history.
Including the two play-off matches with Lincolnshire, the side captained by James Morris and coached by his Datchet CC colleague Tom Lambert have now gone 20 championship games unbeaten and this season kept a 100-percent record in competitive one-day matches.
BERKSHIRE: Ollie Wilkin (Ealing), Jack Davies (Henley and Wellington College), Euan Woods (Henley), Richard Morris (Henley), James Morris (Datchet), Andy Rishton (Loughborough), Chris Peploe (Datchet), Stewart Davison (Henley), Joe Thomas (Datchet), Tom Nugent (Henley), Ali Raja (Slough).
12th man duties: Harry Jordan (Henley), Sam Burgess (Sunbury), Ollie Birts (Guildford).