Bretton retained their county indoor cricket title before their potentially decisive match had started!

It’s the 10th time the club have won the title since 1999.

Bretton went into the final day at Bushfield knowing the only team that could topple them was second-placed Hampton.

Hampton, who have been runners-up for the past two years, knew they had to beat Ufford Park and hope that Pak Azad did them a favour and beat Bretton.

However, Ufford Park (who were still in with a chance of second position) produced one of their best performances of the season to skittle Hampton for just 53.

Hampton had slid to 15-3 due to the bowling of Andy Larkin (2-9) and two outstanding one-handed catches from wicket-keeper Jonathan Bigham.

Wickets continued to follow and a shell-shocked Hampton were soon dismissed with 4.3 overs still remaining. Despite Hampton taking three wickets, a quickfire 20 from Waheed Javed saw Ufford home.

Bretton went on to lose a thriller against Pak Azad thanks to Saf Ul-Hassan who made an unbeaten 48 and, faced with needing one run from the final ball, he promptly struck it for four.

It was fitting end to a cracking competition with the top four sides all finishing on 15 points after winning five of their seven matches.

Bretton took the title based on head-to-head wins.

Bretton will now represent Hunts in the ECB National Indoor Championships in March 2023. But they travel to Bedford on March 6 to play in the 2022 Championships by virtue of winning last season’s Hunts & Peterborough title!

Final table: 1 Bretton 15pts, 2 AK 11 15pts, 3 Ufford Park 15pts, 4 Hampton 33pts, 5 Pak Azad 12pts, 6 Werrington 9pts, 7 CAMRA 3pts, 8 Orton Park 0pts.

Highest scores: 99 Muhammed Waqas (Hampton); 55no Sam Tyler (CAMRA), Jonathan Bigham (Ufford); 54no Kash Hussain (Pak Azad); 52no Andy Larkin (Ufford), Waheed Javed (Ufford); 51no Sam Jarvis (Orton), Andy Larkin (Ufford).