In a nail-biting end to the season, the 1st XI hosted a strong Burghill side, needing a win to stay up in Division 1. Put in to bat, the visitors were reeling on the ropes after some quick early wickets - at 66/6 Bartestree hopes were high. But further progress was expensive and as the threatened rain finally lashed down their score had reached 163/8. Valiant efforts with covers and sheets left our players soaked to the skin but ensured that the game could continue after a couple of hours.

In bright sun again, the B&L batsmen set about attacking a revised target of 133 in 28 overs. Early run outs made the task harder, and boundaries were rare as even big hits were slowed in the wet outfield. A solid captain's innings from Ryan Trattell pushed the score along and for a while a win really looked on the cards. The hero of the day was Marcus Ashcroft, coming in at 3 and unbeaten at the end on 65, playing a secure but aggressive innings none of us will ever forget. The asking in the dramatic last overs was around a run-a-ball, but Burghill bowled well defensively and the required 4 off the last ball was not to be.

Demotion then for the 1sts, a really tough outcome from a season where some close defeats could so easily have been wins. Better availability of key players would perhaps have meant a mid-table finish, as appeared likely in mid-season. But spirits remain high and we are already planning for next season and a quick return to Division 1.

Nigel Shore (Chairman)

1st XI vs Burghill, Tillington and Weobley CC 1st XI (home) - LOST by 3 runs

6 points

Burghill, Tillington and Weobley CC 1st XI:
163 / 8 off 30.2 overs
Chrissy Brown 3/31, Ryan Trattell 2/53

B&LCC 1st XI:
129 / 6 off 28 overs (revised target 133 off 28 overs)
Marcus Ashcroft 65 no, Ryan Trattell 18, Ethan Lerego 11, Sam Pratley 11
So this was it. A season of many ups and downs rested on one performance against local rivals Burghill. With Hagley near certain to lose to Netherton, a victory would guarantee survival in our second season of Division One cricket.

Burghill, with nothing to play for and plenty of beer still in them, switched up their batting order and looked to get the game moving quickly, with very few leaves on display. This gave us several oohs and aahs and then some rewards as Mash and Chrissy both rattled the stumps of an opener. This trend continued for a while - a batsman would walk to the crease, look to play some positive shots and soon enough be undone by some clever bowling. Sam took three sharp catches behind, and Simon as always has the safest pair of hands in the game as long as he doesn't need to move. They were soon 66-6 and we were right where we'd hoped to be. However because of their change of batting order, this only brought more traditional players to the crease who looked to play with a lot more sensibility. As our standards started to slip in the field, so too did our control of the game. While Ryan and the two Ethans bowled economically, Burghill were happy to rotate strike and Lee was this week's victim of dropping a high catch off Trattell’s bowling. Ryan eventually took a sharp one himself off his own bowling to put them 7 down, but that 46 run partnership was followed by a 44 run one, and with Captain Morgan both at the crease and in their system, they still looked in good standing to push their 156-8 off 30 into a very competitive 200-250 score.

But it was never going to be that easy. The forecasted downpour came just as expected, but what no one was able to predict was the severity of it. Despite just 15 minutes of showers, the sheets had become lakes and the outfield which was already muddied by the start of the football season was covered in puddles. I cannot personally remember a game where that much damage had been done to a pitch in such a short amount of time. That band of rain was heading northwards, abandoning every pitch it sat above, including Malvern where our second XI had just set off for, and critically for us, Netherton. Despite Hagley being in all sorts of bother and looking set for a 0 point return, the abandonment lifted them to 6 points. This meant we could no longer survive on a draw plus bonus, we needed to win. On any other day, the game would get called, especially with the damage done to the wicket from the rain hitting under the covers from the winds and dampening a spot right on a length at one of the ends. But with the sun now drying the outfield and the super soakers clearing buckets of water off the infield, we made sure to distract the umpires and drag it out as long as we possibly could. Burghill in that sense were very generous, willing to sit around and entertain themselves while we took to using towels on the square to get as much water out of the pitch. The umpires would eventually get past the distraction and walk to inspect the pitch, and looked unconvinced by the conditions, but some serious diplomacy from Simon and Ryan (wasted on a cricket field, they should consider careers in international relations) had both Burghill and the umpires on the same page - at 4:50, we would get back on for 28 overs chasing 133 to win.

In truth, this was massively beneficial to us. DLS hadn't taken kindly to their 8 wickets, and as such our chase was as easy as you could have hoped for a reduced game (and we've been on the receiving end of some crazy numbers this year in reduced games). An unchanged batting order meant Saminda and Nick were first to the crease, and it didn't take long for us to find ourselves in the mire again. Saminda was out cheap, losing grip when turning to run a second and falling well short, and Mash, keen to make the most from some sloppy fielding from Burghill, looked to run three and made it comfortably, but left Goph stranded on his way back for the third. Two run outs almost become three with some miscommunication between Ryan and Marcus. Those two eventually steadied things, but the bowling was very tidy and the outfield was a lot slower than usual, so runs were not flowing like they normally would. They did look for more positive shot selection with both playing lovely lofted drives down the ground, but at drinks (still not entirely sure what the need for drinks was in a 28 over game) we were behind the rate at 56-2 and they had yet to bowl their overseas.

Ryan fell quickly after drinks looking to play a big shot, and Ethan came in looking composed as he stroked a few singles and then flicked an unbelievable 6 onto the pavilion roof. But they then brought on their premium bowlers who could now bowl straight through to the end, and a lapse of concentration meant Ethan was gone. Lee did his best to get Mash on strike, who was now our main threat looking in excellent form for a man who hadn't touched a bat for three weeks. Their overseas was eventually too good for Lee, and Simon quickly followed, his knee buckling as he went to play a cut close to the body, falling to the floor and needing to be carried off the field which was comically attempted by our two shortest players. He was quick to mention it was not given out so we will ignore the huge sound off the bat into the keepers gloves before he fell. Now needing six an over, Sam played and missed at a few but dispatched Morgan brilliantly through the covers for 4. In the end our survival came down to 7 off the final over, with Marcus on strike. A play and miss off the first, 7 off 5. A single to mid on, 6 off 4. Sam missed the third of the over, they ran to get Marcus back on strike but Sam couldn't make it to the non-strikers in time, meaning 6 off 3 with Chrissy walking out for the final 3 in white pads (amateur). Another play and miss from Marcus, 6 off 2. Then he connected with one, drilled into the leg side into a gap on the boundary, some quick ground coverage restricting us to 2. So, as you can probably expect with us this season, another game went right to the death. 4 needed off the final ball. Marcus on strike, probably the player you'd most fancy in this sort of match and the one who had dragged us all the way to the verge of victory. But he couldn't do it. Hagley, no doubt crashing Play Cricket with the amount of refreshes of our live score, would survive by the thinnest of margins.

As Ryan would point out, that was not the reason we have gone down. Damaging results against the teams around us over the last month - Himley, Hagley and Halesowen - were the ones we let slip away, and hit or miss availability throughout the season meant we were very rarely playing at full strength. That being said, in my personal opinion this team will be one of the strongest teams to ever get relegated from this division. It is quite telling that, in spite of relegation, there is not one player who will turn their back on playing Division Two next season. The quality of players and togetherness at this club has never been higher, and I don't think it'll be very long before we are back playing Division One cricket.

Ryan Clements