Sunbury Cricket Club’s 1st X1 crowned another excellent season last weekend when, on Saturday, they beat Ashtead in the final League game of the season to secure second place in the Premier Division of the Surrey Championship, having won the title in the previous two years, and then on Sunday scored a famous victory when they beat Middlesex champions Ealing to win the Club Cricket Conference Cup Final.
On a small ground at Chingford, Sunbury batted first and, taking advantage of the short boundaries, ran up a total of 292 all out in their allotted 45 overs, with skipper John Maunders, a former county player with Leicestershire and Essex, scoring 125. So prolific were the six hits that six balls were lost in surrounding gardens.
Ealing, who came with a lofty reputation, were never in the hunt, with accurate bowling and brilliant fielding from Sunbury reducing them to 27-3 after ten overs, and they were eventually all out for 192, with Sunbury winning by 100 runs.
It was a long-awaited revenge for Sunbury’s defeat to Ealing the last time they appeared in this competition’s final a number of years ago.
The Club Cricket Conference Cup, which used to be the Evening Standard Cup, was merged this year with the Bertie Joel Cup, a mid-week knock-out competition for clubs in the London and the south-east, and, now known as The Conference Cup for The Bertie Joel Trophy, is the primary Cup Competition for clubs in London and the Home Counties.
