Bath and Bramhall to contest National Final at Lord's

A winning cash prize of £6,000 is at stake as Bath Cricket Club, from Somerset, and Bramhall Cricket Club, from Cheshire, contest the final of the National Club Championship at Lord's on Thursday 6 September.

The prize-money has been donated by competition sponsors, play-cricket.com, the ECB's recreational web-site partner, and guarantees the losing finalists a £3,000 consolation.

Of the two finalists, from a competition which featured 379 original entrants, only Bath has ever previously made it to Lord's - in 1998 when it lost to Yorskire's Doncaster Town. This year it crept into the final courtesy of winning a low scoring semi-final at High Wycombe.

In a rain affected match of 37 overs-a-side, High Wycombe batted first and posted a score of 117-9 with Stuart Priscott returning impressive bowling figures of 7-1-11-3. In reply, after being 67-6 at one stage, Bath was steered home by an innings of 27 not out from Gregg Brown, winning by three wickets with 3.5 overs remaining.

Bramhall Cricket Club, meanwhile, won its semi-final match by four wickets over Scotland's Ayr Cricket Club. Ayr's captain, Albert Simpson, won the toss, elected to bat, and scored an unbeaten 75 from his team's total of 216-6 in the alloted 45 overs.

Bramhall's victory, achieved with 2.2 overs to spare, owed much to young opening batsman Paddy McKeown, who has had trials with Lancashire and Essex and who scored 105. Andy Hall also made a valuable contibution with 42 runs.

The 45 overs-a-side National Club Championship Final will start at 11.00am.

Routes to the final:

Bath CC

1st Round Bath 164 all out, Cardiff 159 all out
2nd Round Bath 195 for 6 Cheltenham, 110 all out
3rd Round Swansea 152 for 8, Bath 156 for 8
4th Round Bath 256 for 8, Lansdown 232 all out
5th Round Bath 174 all out, Bovey Tracey 162 all out
6th Round Bath 221 for 5, Havant 129 all out
Quarter-Finals Bath 194 for 7 Saffron Walden 176 all out
Semi-Finals High Wycombe 117 for 9 Bath 118 for 7


Bramhall CC

1st Round Bramhall 148 all out, Longridge 147 for 9
2nd Round Fulwood & Broughton 115 all out Bramhall 117 for 7
3rd Round Winnington Park 141 for 9, Bramhall 142 for 2
4th Round Wallasey 170 for 8, Bramhall 171 for 5
5th Round Bramhall 251 for 9, Kearsley 107 all out
6th Round Bramhall 161 for 9, Harrogate 134 all out
Quarter-Finals Bramhall 230 for 6, Wolverhampton 230 all out
Semi-Finals Ayr 216 for 6, Bramhall 217 for 5