25 August 2015
The 2015 BBS Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup Final was both thrilling and record breaking.
On a scorching day that reached 30 degrees during the first innings at the beautiful and historic BroadHalfPenny Down in Hampshire, Warwickshire Bears faced London Metro in the 37th final of the world’s longest running annual disability cricket competition.
After losing the toss Warwickshire were sent in to bat and made a steady start as Justin Hollingsworth and Luke Sugg started to build a foundation. After ten overs Bears were 61/0 when the first drinks break was taken.
The break must have done Warwickshire good as from that moment on they scored far more rapidly, despite losing Sugg for 45 to end a record-breaking partnership that finished at 130 – an all time BBS cup final record for any wicket. Sugg was dismissed by Gareth Jones with Matt Dean taking a good catch. Nathan Foy then shared a 52 run partnership with Hollingsworth before departing for 18, caught by keeper Rory Field off Mo Ghalib’s bowling.
The rest of the innings was totally dominated by Justin Hollingsworth as he smashed the all time cup final record individual score as Mo Ghalib sent his colleagues back to the pavilion at the other end. Firstly Ghalib had Asif Ali caught behind, then he ran out Asif’s brother Hassan before taking a catch to dismiss Eamon Preston from Amit Amin’s bowling.
Warwickshire finished with the joint highest ever cup final score of 260/5 after their 30 overs with Hollingsworth contributing a mammoth 150 not out. Considering the very high scoring rate Ghalib’s bowling figures over six overs of two for 21 were extraordinary.
During the lunch break the teams enjoyed a talk on the history of the venue from Commander Peter Tuke of the BroadHalfPenny Down Preservation Trust.
When the match recommenced Metro started slowly until Preston came on to bowl and felt the full force of England Captain Matt Dean’s attack as Preston’s three overs conceded 72 runs. Ghalib was dismissed for 37 with Sugg taking the catch off of Nathan Foy’s bowling. This sent Hassan Khan to the middle and he shared a brilliant 113 run partnership with Dean before being bowled by Sugg with the score at 194/2.
Sugg then struck again to finally remove Dean for an excellent 133 before taking a second catch this time to dismiss Mark Bond as the first of Ali’s three wickets.
When Simon Butler fell LBW to Ali for 24 the pressure was mounting and Sugg running out Andy Law added to that. As overs ran out Rory Field did his best to get his side over the winning line but a superb final over from Ali, that included having Adam Benjamin stumped by Gerald Porter, and then bowling a dot ball with the penultimate delivery of the match, left the Londoners needing an impossible target of seven runs from the final ball. Field did hit that final delivery for four but it was the Bears who were celebrating a thrilling two run victory.
Justin Hollingsworth was named partially sighted man of the match and Hassan Khan took the totally blind man of the match award.
We would like to thank the Primary Club for their continued support of this wonderful competition and of blind cricket in general. We would also like to thank Leeds Building Society, who sponsored the cricket balls for the whole competition, and the BroadHalfPenny Down Preservation Trust for allowing us to use their fantastic venue for this year’s final.
The Records
Highest Partnership: Justin Hollingsworth and Luke Sugg shared 130 for Warwickshire’s first wicket.
Highest Team Score: 260/5 Warwickshire took the record after tying the previous best but losing fewer wickets than the former record holders.
Highest Individual Score: Justin Hollingsworth 150 not out, Matt Dean also beat the previous record a couple of hours later with 133
original article from http://www.bcew.co.uk/
