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ECB 50+ County Championship
Final at Lord's is Last Ball Thriller
For the first time in the history of the 50+ County Championship the Final has been held at Lord's in a competition that was first played in 1983. The Nursery Ground looked superb and was basked in glorious sunshine all day as Lancashire and Oxfordshire locked horns in the Final in front of a crowd of over a thousand people and came to a pulsating climax as Oxforshire were successful on the final ball of the match.
This was Oxfordshire first ever appearance in the Final whilst Lancashire have been winners on four previous occasions.
Oxfordshire won the toss and elected to bat first. The Lancashire bowlers were quickly on top reducing their opposition to 53-6. Opening bowler John Punchard bowling straight through his 9 over allocation with the superb figures on such a small ground of 9-4-14-2.
There was then a captain's innings from Andrew Wingfield-Digby as he joined Adrian Manger at the wicket. When Wingfield-Digby was bowled for 35 the pair had added a much needed 72 runs. Adrian Manger then reached his 50 with his first six and proceeded to increase the scoring rate as he scored 25 in the next 11 balls he faced. He was eventually caught on the boundary off a steepling catch by Dave Bartholomew with the score on 169. Rob Willis had some lusty blows towards the end as the Oxfordshire innings closed on 186-8, which looked to be well short of par based on the regular Cross Arrows scores of around 300.
The Lancashire innings started slowly and steadily until Andrew Wingfield-Digby struck twice in the 16th over to reduce Lancashire to 34-2. The Lancashire batsmen then accelerated the scoring rate until opener Mike Ingham was snapped up at mid-wicket by a sprightly piece of fielding by Andrew Wingfield-Digby making the score 73-3 after 23 overs. Then there was a regular clatter of wickets as the Oxfordshire spinners strangled the Lancashire batting. John Punchard eventually found a willing partner in Howard Lyon as they took the score from 113-7 to 155-8. John Punchard having reached 76 off 78 balls then swung across the line once too often and was leg-before to Alec Cunningham. Ian Howarth quickly followed and the last pair were left needing 29 off four overs. Howard Lyon (23) and Tony Potter (7*) then took Lancashire to the brink of victory as they reached the last two balls needing 8 to win - with the penultimate ball going for a first bounce four the match went right to the wire. Alec Cunningham held his nerve and bowled Howard Lyon with the last ball to claim victory for Oxfordshire by 3 runs.
The large crowd went wild with excitement as the Oxfordshire contingent started their celebrations. It only remained for Brian Aspital to present the trophies to the players and to Andrew Wingfield-Digby the victorious captain.
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