British Blind Sport Primary Club National Knockout Cup 2008
Path To The 2008 Final
First Round
Saturday 10th May
Birmingham SCVI beat Eastern Vipers
Quarter Finals
Saturday 7th June
Sussex Sharks beat Northern Galloways
Metro beat London Sports
South Wales Dragons v Northants Steelbacks
at Blackweir Park, Cardiff
Northants Steelbacks: 72 All Out (26 overs), A Law 3-39
South Wales Dragons: 73/0 (9.4 overs), T Warren 41 not out
South Wales Dragons won by 10 wickets
Birmingham SCVI v Warwickshire Bears
at Hampstead Hall School, Birmingham, Saturday June 7th
Warwickshire Bears: 158 All Out (22.3 overs), L Sugg 34, A Snelgrove 3-47
Birmingham SCVI: 96 All Out (14 overs), A Powers 5-36
Warwickshire Bears won by 62 runs
Semi Finals
Saturday 28th June
Sussex Sharks v Metro
At Blackstone, near Brighton
Sussex Sharks: 94 All Out (22.3 overs), J Harrison 28, R Field 3-12
Metro: 95/5 (16.2 overs), M Dean 45, D Field 2-6
Metro won by 5 wickets
Sunday 29th June
Warwickshire Bears v South Wales Dragons
at Marston Green CC, Birmingham
Warwickshire Bears: 217/5 (30 overs), N Foy 100, G Griffiths 38 not out, A Law 4 wickets
South Wales Dragons: 113 All Out (21 overs), D Corrigan 50
Warwickshire Bears won by 65 runs (Rain Adjusted Target)
Road to Lords
Taken from the 2008 Cup Final Match Day Programme
This years cup started out in a preliminary round clash between Eastern Vipers and Birmingham. Last seasons BBS league champions Birmingham took a comfortable 8 wicket victory which included an impressive debut from youngster Daniel Branson. Vipers were happy just to get a full eleven on the field and compete as they are a club in the process of rebuilding their squad.
The quarter finals started on a low note as Northern Galloways forfitted their game against Sussex without travelling to the game. The other quarter final in the top half of the draw was a terrific match with a London Sports side with a new lease of life this season pushing Metro all the way. Batting first Metro were reduced to 130/7 largely thanks to an excellent bowling display from London’ captain Charles Ronayne who claimed 5 wickets, but a determined 40 not out from the inexperienced Mark Bond helped the defending Cup holders get to 201/8 at the end of their 30 overs. London started well and were always in the match with Shakir Iqbal snr scoring a half century, but a brilliant 5-25 from Metro skipper Rory Field was nough to restrict London to 179/9 giving Metro a hard fought 22 run win.
In the lower half of the draw South Wales Dragons cruised to a 10 wicket win at home against Northants thanks largely to an excellent all round team bowling performance and a brisk 41 not out from Toby Warren. They were joined in the semi-finals by Warwickshire after they came out on top in a low scoring game against local rivals Birmingham. Warwickshire were dismissed for 159 despite being 115/3 at one stage but a magnificent bowling performance from Andy Powers who took five wickets for just six runs was enough to hand his side a 67 run win.
So we moved on to Metro v Sussex and South Wales v Warwickshire in the semi-finals.
South Wales looked good early on against Warwickshire as the host’s crashed to 34/4 but then a breath taking innings from Nathan Foy and a stubborn knock from Gav Griffiths saw the totally blind pair put on 168 for the fifth wicket. Foy made 101 with Griffiths finishing 38 not out as their side reached 217/5 from their 30 overs. In reply Dragons innings was only set to last 24 overs due to rain with a target of 169 needed to win, but the Welshmen could only manage 114 All Out to lose by 65 runs. Andy Law’s four wickets in the Warwickshire innings were about the only high point of the Dragons day.
The other semi-final was a very low scoring affair. 3-12 from Rory Field helped bowl Sussex out for just 94 with Joe Harrison (28) and Simon Ledwith (18) the only significant contributions. In response Matt Dean’s 45 was crucial as Metro crept home with 13 overs to spare with 5 wickets remaining.