Losing the toss the 13s were happy to bowl first. Weakened by the loss of their skipper and wicket-keeper/batsman Haris Sohail and demon bowler Jenna Plain to injury, the 13s also do without the unavailable opener and spinner Yash Machani. To make matters worse they were unable to draw upon the leg spin of Ethan Plain who due to a finger injury had to bowl mainly seam for the first time this season.

The 13s were captained by Edward Clews and the average age of the team was well below 12. To win the final the team would have to play intelligent cricket against a strong Wellesbourne team, that included two players who were in the club's adult second team on the previous day. The Earlswood win earlier in the group stages against the same opposition counted for nothing.

The Wellesbourne opening pair got their team off to a strong start. They put on twenty six for the first pair. For the first time in the tournament Jibreel Hasani went wicket-less. The second pair of batters, however, were soon under pressure with the left arm seam of Ben Fitzgerald and leg spin of Milan Dogra. Earlswood spilled a catch and missed a run out opportunity but then Ben struck twice, with a caught and bowled and a stumping eventually given with some sharp glovework by Ed standing up to the bowling of Milan.

The third pair of batters soon were to feel the force of Junaid Hussain's pace as he knocked over yet another batter's middle stump. Ethan then with his new found variety rolled/bowled one of the batters!

The talented fourth pair of batters soon sought to attack. Ashish mixed up his bowling well and Oscar finished with 3 dot balls. Sharp fielding by Ashish Chakrapani saw him take a catch off a no ball and then in the melee have the nous to run the batsman out. Oscar Henrick also bowled three good economical overs.

In the field the team chased all of the potential boundaries down. The field setting from Ed was improvised and the team morale was high during and at the end of the first innings.

Wellesbourne finished on 301-6 a net 277. Earlswood thus needed a net 278 to win.

The first pair got the team off to an absolute flyer. Ed was again aggressive from ball one as he had been throughout the whole tournament. He played a pull and flick with power to the boundary and he was almost matched shot for shot by Ashish who cover drove and straight drove the bowlers to the boundary. The pair put on 36 in the first 4 overs.

The next pair to the crease were Ben and Jib. They kept the scoreboard ticking. Jib rotated the strike and called sensibly. Ben played a number of strong shots off his pads and a sumptuous shot off the spinner over mid on to the fence.

The third pair came to the wicket at 252. Oscar played a beautifully timed shot over mid on and smashed one to the cover boundary. Junaid drove and pulled boundaries. The scores were level at the end of their partnership.

The pressure was on the last pair. The square leg umpire was biting his nails. Cometh the hour cometh the ice man Ethan Plain. Knowing exactly what the team had to do in the absence of his normal strike partner the skipper, Ethan took on the mantel. He kept out 3 yorkers in the first over he faced before nonchalantly flicking one off his hips to the fine leg boundary. At the other end Milan took guard and with some sensible calling the game came down to the last over. Earlswood needed to not lose two wickets to win the match. Milan played the most important 0 of his career by seeing out a last over maiden to see Earlswood home to ease some of the pain for the loss in last year's final.

The weather held out for the presentations. This was a great chase by the team in a really well contested and sporting match.

Earlswood will have high ambitions in seeking to defend this trophy next year under Ed's Leadership.

Champagne Moment for his Leadership in the third pair partnership went to Oscar.

Man of the match for his all round performance with bat, ball and in the field playing two years up- Ben Fitzgerald.

Thank you to all of the parents who turned out in numbers and to Mark Dixon for his work on the CHL Committee.

Scorecard