Another week of poor weather saw all but one of the planned Junior League finals cancelled as pitches were too waterlogged to allow play to take place.

However, the one game that did take place must rank as one of the best ever Junior finals.

Cockermouth and Keswick under 11's have both enjoyed excellent seasons, along with Carlisle Green, finishing top of their respective regional leagues.

That put them into the Under-11’s League play-offs which were curtailed by rain the previous weekend and will hopefully be finished this coming weekend.

However, on Sunday, the two Allerdale based teams met each other in the Under 11 League Cup final, staged at Workington. It provided the many spectators with a game blessed with some excellent individual and team performances, and above all a thrilling finale.

Keswick won the toss and elected to bat. Progress in the early overs was steady thanks to some accurate bowling from the Cockermouth bowlers, with Tom  Norman conceding just five runs in his three over spell. Keswick opening bat Charlie Robson built a solid innings of 23 as the innings gathered some pace.

Runs remained hard to come by, however, and some excellent fielding saw several batsmen run out by direct hits, including two run outs by Daniel Fisher.

Megan Saxton (16) and Alfie West (24) provided some impetus. West hit one large six and several fours in his quick-fire innings, as
Keswick reached a very respectable 90-7 in their 20 overs.

Cockermouth’s innings then followed a very similar pattern to that of Keswick as tight bowling from Megan Saxton, Charlie Robson and Sam Barrett saw only 15 runs conceded from their nine overs.

Daniel Fisher anchored the Cockermouth innings with 18 runs to add to his run-outs but, with just five overs to go and more than 40 runs required, the task looked too much.

However, enter man of the match David Houghton !! He  hit 30 runs in double quick time to set up a thrilling finish and  leave the Sandair team needing eleven off the final over.

A six helped matters but, with one ball to go, two runs were still required to level the scores.

The batsmen duly scampered these two runs to leave Cockermouth on 90-4  - a tie on runs scored, but their victory by virtue of having lost fewer wickets.

Both sets of players received a good ovation from the appreciative spectators and should reflect with pleasure in having taken part in such an outstanding final - another advert for the strength of Junior Cricket in the county.

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