Ely wickets to fall - the second one a
diving one-handed catch down the leg side by wicketkeeper David Hodson.
The two Stuarts - Arnold and Fox - then took
over, taking three wickets apiece as Ely were bowled out for 134.
Off-spinner Fox took his league tally to 30 wickets with his 3-39, while
seamer Arnold picked up 3-14 off his 10 overs.
But how fitting it was that the final
wicket was taken by Matt Hubbard, the only player in the side to have played
in all 16 of the league matches.
"We were made to sweat for a week,
following the defeat at Over last week," commented skipper Pat Ringham.
"But when you think we were bowled out for
just 45 runs on a cabbage patch first game out, this team has come a long
way in just one season.
"We have talented young players in the side
who will play second team cricket next season and will soon end up in the
club's 1st Xl - that's what third team cricket is all about. I wish them
well."
Big-hitting opener James Hilliard rode his
luck to smash 130 at Ely, as the 3rd Xl were crowned champions of CCA Junior League Division 3A, on a
do-or-die final day's cricket.
The third team needed nine bonus points to
go up as runners-up if they lost, but having totalled 213 that was unlikely
to happen.
Put into bat, they could well have lost
Hilliard first ball of the game, when he offered a sharp chance to gully.
But to his credit he was unfazed by the error, or the four other chances of
catches that were to follow.
Instead he blazed a trail of 17 boundaries,
including two 'sixes'. Not bad for a player who suffered a serious knee
injury playing American football in April and has hardly picked up a bat in
anger all season.
Andrew Wright opened with him and he hit 32
from the first 69 runs. The young all-rounder then claimed three of the
first two
Third XI Home 