Warwickshire Bears successfully retained the BCEW David Townley Memorial Twenty20 Cup as they saw off surprise finalists Cheshire Cobras by 8 wickets.
Warwickshire’s day started with a comprehensive semi final victory over Lancashire Lions. The Bears scored a huge 265/0 after being put into bat with Justin Hollingsworth scoring 162 & Gerald Porter hitting a half century. In reply Lancashire had to try to score from ball one & this approach meant wickets tumbled at an alarming rate. After his heroics with the bat Hollingsworth took 5 wickets for 7 runs to leave the Lions perilously placed at 31/9 before Tahseen Sabir passed 50 in a 49 run partnership with Abu Bakr Ishtiaq that helped the score up to a more respectable 80 All Out.
In the other semi final a very under strength Metro were crushed by a clinical bowling & fielding performance from Cheshire. Howard Greenhill took 3 wickets without conceding a run & Gav Griffiths took 2 wickets & 2 catches as the Londoners fell for the second lowest score in the history of competitive blind cricket, 18 All Out. The lowest, 16 all out was set by the former Barclays team in a BBS Cup match in the 1980s. Replying Cheshire took less than 3 overs to reach the target.
The third place play off saw Lancashire sweep aside Metro. Usman Afridi & Wasim Afridi both scored half centuries & Sheraz Chohan reached 36 not out as Lions scored 190/3 with Rory Field taking 2 wickets, one of which was thanks to a phenomenal catch by Nick Ebbeck. In response Metro could only manage 43 All Out, Matt Boulding on loan from Kent for the day was the Londoners top scorer with 14.
In the final Cheshire were put into bat & at one stage were 87/2 in the 14th over thanks to a more than fifty run partnership between Howard Greenhill & Tom Kitchen. Wickets tumbled in the latter overs to leave Cobras with a competitive 116/7 from their 20 overs. Justin Hollingsworth & Nathan Foy weren’t in the mood to hang around however & though Hollingsworth was out for 49 & Foy for 50 including a tremendous six, Bears had 13 overs & 8 wickets to spare as they claimed victory.
Justin Hollingsworth won Partially Sighted Player of the Day & Nathan Foy picked up Low Sighted Player of the Day as Warwickshire lifted the trophy for the fifth time in the competition’s nine year history.
Warwickshire’s Twenty20 Cup Winning Players: Justin Hollingsworth (Captain), Asif Ali, Chris Lanwarne, Chris Styles, Ezekiel Alphonse, Gerald Porter, Hassan Ali, Luke Sugg, Mark Turnham, Nathan Foy, Eamon Preston (Quarter Final only), Gary Holmes (Quarter Final only).