Battling Staffs fall just short in their bid to keep hold of crown

STAFFORDSHIRE came agonisingly close to retaining their NCCA Championship Division One East title after a dramatic final day against Cambridgeshire.

- Chris Travers

Staffs had their hosts nine wickets down with two overs to go at Peterborough, but just couldn’t find that last piece of magic to keep hold of their crown.

They had set Cambridgeshire 244 for victory after declaring late in the afternoon session, which was affected by the rain.

And it didn’t look like there would be any early evening fireworks as Cambridgeshire made their way to 30-0 at tea.

But as Staffs set attacking fields in the final chapter, Cambs took the aggressive approach and put themselves in a position to win the match.

However, despite Ben Saunders making a rapid 52 and Will Routledge earlier chipping in with 43, Cambs eventually drew stumps on 224-9.

Those statistics just scratch the surface of an enthralling last session in which both Staffs and Cambs could claim to hold the advantage at various points.

As it was, there wasn’t an outright winner and there would have been a mighty sigh of relief in Buckinghamshire as they were crowned champions after seeing their clash with Lincs abandoned earlier in the day.

It was a mighty effort from James Kettleborough’s players as they inched to within just one wicket of securing victory.

A decision or two may have fallen in their favour on another day, but there was no doubting that Staffs had risen to the challenge in the dying embers of the contest.

They managed to make the breakthrough early in the evening passage of play when Wayne White looked to slog off-spinner Jack Batchelor, but was bowled for 22.

And 50-1 soon became 50-2 when left-arm spinner Tom Brett trapped Callum Guest lbw for 26.