The Team was: Arthur Attrill, Mats Colling, Jack Curtis, Aaron Dawson, George Day, Ryan Golesworthy, Liam Hignett, Daniel Prickett, Paul Scullard

This year we were in a strong group of established counties and we had a young team without George Houghton and Josh Goodall.

We planned for the first pair to possibly win three, the second pair to win two and the third pair to win one, so we had a chance of beating the counties 5/4 with some leeway.

Staying was the aim.

Day 1 v West of Scotland

The team was:   1 – Hignett + Curtis      2 – Day + Attrill      3 – Dawson + Prickett      Sub – Colling

The last time we played West of Scotland, we got beaten badly by them.

As normal on the first Monday morning, we all started off badly, but as time went on, we found our feet and turned it around getting to lunch to one up with a great win from third pair Aaron and Daniel.

After lunch, we did the same going 4/2 up at tea.

We repeated again and finished 6/3 with our first win.  Remarkably, the third pair won 1 rubber, the second pair won 2, and the first pair won 3.

Day 2 v Leicestershire

The team was:   1 – Hignett + Curtis      2 – Day + Attrill      3 – Golesworthy + Dawson       Subs – Prickett + Colling

We thought that Leicestershire would be one of the teams that would go up so this was going to be a tough match.

We got off to a strong start going up 2/1 with a great win from Arthur + George beating the 1’s.  Then after lunch we ran through all matches to be 5/1 at tea and ended 7/2 winners.

A great day with Liam and Jack on 6/6 looking at 15 and Arthur and George on 5/6.

Day 3 v Bucks

The team was:   1 – Hignett + Curtis      2 – Day + Attrill      3 – Golesworthy + Dawson      Subs – Prickett + Colling

We now had a first pair that could win 3, a second pair that could win 2 and a third pair that can guarantee 1.

It continued on going 2/1 up at lunch then 4/2 up at tea and finishing 5/4 winners.  Solid team performance.

Liam + Jack were now on 9/9 and really looking at 15.

Day 4 v Essex

The team was:   1 – Hignett + Curtis      2 – Day + Attrill      3 – Golesworthy + Dawson      Subs – Prickett + Colling

One more win and we were going up!  And of course with that we found ourselves down in each match.

It was not looking good!   Slowly Ryan and Aaron turned their match around and won the 3’s but Liam and Jack couldn’t, losing in two tight sets.  Maybe it was unravelling.  But King of the tie breaks, Arthur and George came good and won in 3!

Back on track we went 4/2 up by tea and Liam and Jack gave a very professional performance to clinch the 5/4 win.

We were up !

Sadly Liam + Jack were now not on for 15, but the team was up.

Day 5 v Suffolk

The team was:   1 – Hignett + Curtis      2 – Day + Attrill      3 – Colling + Prickett      Sub – Scullard

Suffolk were down, so this was going to be an easier match.  With a great win from Colling + Prickett at three we went 3/0 at lunch then finished 5/1 winning all five county matches.

We were champions!

Liam + Jack finished with 14/15,  George + Arthur finished with 11/15, and the 3rds (Ryan/Aaron / Dan/Mats) won one match every day.

Exactly what we planned to do from the start!

This was a complete team performance.

Great professional work from Liam and Jack but, to be honest, it was expected they are that good.

Arthur + George showed experience beyond their ages to beat the quality of the opposition and that was not expected!

It was great to see Ryan back having been injured right up to a week before it started and still winning the important matches with Aaron as a great third pair.

Mats had come in for his first county week and won his first match with Dan, and Dan had to play the most important match at the beginning with Aaron and won it, setting us up for the week.

I’m not going to say any more about them, but David Fothergill from the Isle of Wight came up to watch and sent me a text after he left and it said:

Hi Julian

Just thought I would say how well drilled, prepared and professional your team was yesterday.  Your boys set the standard at Hunstanton in so many ways.  The County should be grateful and proud of their achievements.

Hope you secured the well-deserved promotion today.

Kind regards

David Fothergill

and they were the youngest team, but I thought that summed it up well.

Looking forward to Division 2.

Julian Godfrey – Men’s Captain