For the second time in the competition’s history the final of the BCEW David Townley Memorial Twenty20 Cup will have to take part in the following season. On Saturday 21st September in Wolverhampton the final national level action of 2024 saw both semi finals completed before rain & thunder drenched the ground at Wolverhampton CC to make further play impossible.
In the cricket that was played their were two rather similar games; Sussex Sharks and Northants Steelbacks won their tosses and both chose to chase on a day with blustery wind and quite solid cloud cover as play got underway on schedule – all with an eye already on the forecast.
On pitch two Metro’s Matt Dean led a solid batting performance that saw 200 almost in reach as they lost only two wickets in scoring 182 from 19 overs. Northants did gain some momentum as in the final over Matt was caught by David Howells off Hassan Ali’s bowling from the first ball; David then ran out Mo Ghalib and Justin Hollingsworth in the next two balls for a trio of 2024 Ashes squad victims. Mike Shea added just one boundary from the final ball of the over and Northants had a target of 188.
Northants’s scoring rate was a little behind Metro’s when the first wicket fell – David Howells caught by Justin Hollingsworth from Alan Turnbull’s bowling, and Mark Turnham was run out by Matt Dean shortly after. However then Bilal Akhtar and Asif Ali built a solid partnership, so the chasing worm was ahead as Asif was dismissed for 45 in the fifteenth over and stayed ahead until the end of the sixteenth, but by then Metro had taken two more wickets. With Justin Hollingsworth and Mo Ghalib conceding just 20 runs from the last four overs at the Steelbacks tail while taking three more wickets, the Londoners were home by 29 runs and into just their third T20 final.
On pitch one Somerset had similar, but even better, success batting first. Sussex were missing the bowling of Joe Harrison and their strike bowler Phil Daniels was hobbling with the calf injury sustained in the Primary Club Cup final. It meant the big difference to the innings was no early wicket lost, or indeed any losses at all. Ed Hossell with 91 including 10 boundaries and Rob Crisp with 74 and seven 4s amassed 194 after a final over push of 18 runs, to set a challenging chase for the cup holders.
The Sharks lost Mark Bond early but Dave Daniels and Si Ledwith then added 52 until Dave was run out by Rob Crisp, who then caught Si off Ed Hossell’s bowling. There was no panic from Sussex with the worm never far behind but Somerset did continue to take wickets with Aidrian Snellgrove bowling Mark Oliphant as he conceded just 8 runs from his first over. He was on again in the fifteenth over and halfway through Sussex were just one run behind the Somerset score. The match turned here as Dan Field looked to reach 50 with his third six but picked out Rob Crisp near the boundary. Rob palmed with two hands then juggled with each arm before managing to hold the ball off the turf. Aidrian had 2 for 23 and the Sussex tail could not match the scoring rate set by Somerset. They did all they could but at the end two run outs ended their innings one ball short of the full quota and Somerset had a 36 run victory. Will that allow them to win a fourth title to match the number won by the Sharks?
BCEW want to thank all at Wolverhampton Cricket Club for hosting this event so well again.