Woodhouse Grange lift npower Village Cup

It's the best value ticket in town, but also sadly the best-kept secret: free entry for the npower Village Cup final at Lord's. Still, the several thousand spectators who took advantage were rewarded with another tense final to match last year's, with Woodhouse Grange sealing the win in the penultimate over.

It's the second time the Yorkshire side have lifted the trophy and their third appearance in the final. Their captain Steve Burdett said he was confident that on a blameless track, Findon's 220 for 2 from their 40 overs wouldn't be enough and so it proved, with a well-paced chase that had its tense moments.

Groundsman Mick Hunt told Cricinfo before the match that the pitch "had nothing in it" and Graham Waller's decision to bat looked well justified, he himself weighing in himself with a fifty as he and Toby Kingsbury put on 146 for the second wicket. Waller eventually fell to a well-judged, well-watched catch out on the deep by Jon Bean off Nick Hadfield (150 for 2).

Kingsbury went on to complete a stylish century off 122 balls with eight fours and four clean sixes, sharing a second substantial partnership of 73 with Paul O'Sullivan (36*). It was enough to earn him the Man of the Match award, presented in honour of the cup's founder Ben Brocklehurst who died earlier this year. But it wasn't enough to win the match.

Hadfield's 73 was the bedrock of Woodhouse's innings. He and Simon Dwyer's second-wicket stand of 108 from 106 balls was well-paced and paved the way for the Burdett brothers, Steve and Mike, to add a further 35. Joel Hughes (14*) and Mike Burdett (27*) then added a polished 22 between them to take Woodhouse home.

'Village' is a term often used pejoratively, but here - bar the odd fielding slip - were standards fit to grace Lord's and reward the many coachloads of spectators. Moreover the game was played in a friendly, but competitive, spirit. Andy Caddick, Ronnie Irani and Ian Blackwell watched the early stages and were impressed by some of the batting.

Caddick and Irani were here as nPower ambassadors - which in the past has meant cricketers such as Jason Gallian and Chris Lewis donning the nPower orb suits to run mascot races - but they weren't required to do any such thing here. "My knees wouldn't have held up," said a relieved Irani, while Caddick has done more than enough penetrative bowling this year and helped Somerset win promotion to the top flight in the Championship. Instead they were here to offer advice to the teams before the game, a neat touch which certainly added to the sense of occasion.

Mike Gatting was also in attendance, and even turned his hand to acting, for a part in The Archers, who were recording the Lord's final for a programme broadcast later that evening. This year the Village Cup attracted not just 429 real teams, but also one from Ambridge, the village in the Radio 4 programme. That was just a clever storyline, though, while Woodhouse were the real winners on the day.