CHAMPIONS: Hyde end season with silverware

Cheshire Cup Final: Chester BH 105ao (25.2 overs)   Hyde 109-5 (31.3 overs)

Hyde pulled off a major shock as they cruised to a five wicket victory over champions Chester Boughton Hall to win the Cheshire Cup on Sunday.

After winning the toss Chester chose to bat first on a grey afternoon and soon lost the dangerous Warren Goodwin for one, trapped LBW to Jason Whittaker.

This brought Alex Money to the crease, he and Lloyd Aspin looked to take the attack to the opening bowlers Whittaker and Glenn Hannah.

Despite losing Money for 16 Chester brought up their 50 in the ninth over and it looked as though Hyde would be chasing something well in advance of 200.

Whittaker and Hannah stuck to their task and then simply ripped the heart out of the Chester middle order as they were reduced to 61-7, with Hannah claiming 4-38 and Whittaker taking 3-31 from their nine overs.

The fact the pair bowled their allotted overs in one spell was testament to the quality their partnership produced.

In particular Man of the Match Hannah had produced a quite scintillating spell of bowling that put Hyde in firm control.

The home side rallied briefly with Jack Williams (24) and Andrew Metcalf (19) helping them reach 105 before Cole Turner claimed the last wicket.

So the maths was simple, Hyde needed 106 from 45 overs to claim the Cheshire Cup.

The openers, Tom Partridge and Luke Young, made a steady start as the visitors went about their task.

Luke Young may just have left school but the 16-year-old batted with the authority of a seasoned player as he and Partridge put on 52 for the first wicket, before the latter went for 12.

George Balderson (10) went 12 runs later and when James Duffy was dismissed, Hyde were 69-3.

Whilst Luke Young was looking assured, the others were finding scoring difficult as the Chester spinners put a squeeze on the Hyde batsmen.

When Luke Young went for a classy 34 Hyde were just 15 runs from victory and although they lost Elliot Young  with the score on 96 David Fitzsimmons and Danny Cranmer made sure there were no more scares.

Cranmer had the honour of smashing the winning runs, resulting in cheers from the travelling supporters that could probably have been heard back on Werneth Low.

A delighted Tom Partridge then made his way to collect the trophy before the celebrations began.

By Matt Hewitt