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Warwickshire win record breaking British Blind Sport Cricket Cup Final

Warwickshire Bears Visually Impaired (VI) Cricket Team defeat London Metro in a thrilling final for the British Blind Sport Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup.

The final of the 2015 British Blind Sport Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup took place at BroadHalfPenny Down in Hampshire, on Saturday 22 August. Warwickshire Bears VI Cricket Team and London Metro VI Cricket Team battled it out for the trophy in the 37th final of the world's oldest annual disability cricket competition.

On a scorching day that reached 30 degrees, London Metro won the toss and sent Warwickshire in to bat for the first innings. Opening pair Justin Hollingsworth and Luke Sugg started strong and after ten overs Warwickshire were 61/0.

Warwickshire soon picked up the scoring pace, despite losing Sugg for 45 to end a record-breaking partnership with Hollingsworth. Sugg was dismissed by London Metro's Gareth Jones, with Matt Dean taking a good catch. Nathan Foy then shared a 52 run partnership with Hollingsworth before departing for 18, caught by keeper Rory Field off Mo Ghalib’s bowling.

The rest of the innings was totally dominated by Justin Hollingsworth as he smashed the all time cup final record individual score. While Mo Ghalib sent his colleagues back to the pavilion at the other end. Firstly Ghalib had Asif Ali caught behind, then he ran out Asif’s brother Hassan before taking a catch to dismiss Eamon Preston from Amit Amin’s bowling. 

Warwickshire finished with the joint highest ever cup final score of 260/5 after their 30 overs, with Hollingsworth contributing a mammoth 150 not out. Considering the very high scoring rate Ghalib’s bowling figures over six overs of two for 21 were extraordinary.

During the lunch break the teams enjoyed a talk on the history of the venue from Commander Peter Tuke of the BroadHalfPenny Down Preservation Trust.

When the match recommenced Metro started slowly until Preston came on to bowl and felt the full force of England Captain Matt Dean’s attack, conceeding 72 runs in 3 overs. Ghalib was dismissed for 37 with Sugg taking the catch off of Nathan Foy’s bowling. This sent Hassan Khan to the middle and he shared a brilliant 113 run partnership with Dean before being bowled by Sugg with the score at 194/2.

Sugg then struck again to finally remove Dean for an excellent 133, before taking a second catch this time to dismiss Mark Bond.

When Simon Butler fell LBW to Ali for 24 the pressure was mounting for London Metro. As the overs ran out Rory Field did his best to get his side over the winning line, But a superb final over from Ali, that included having Adam Benjamin stumped by Gerald Porter, and then bowling a dot ball with the penultimate delivery of the match, left the Londoners needing an impossible target of seven runs from the final ball. Field did hit that final delivery for four but it was the Warwickshire Bears who were celebrating a thrilling two run victory. 

Justin Hollingsworth was named partially sighted man of the match and Hassan Khan took the totally blind man of the match award. 

Match records

Highest Partnership: Justin Hollingsworth and Luke Sugg shared 130 for Warwickshire’s first wicket.

Highest Team Score: 260/5 Warwickshire took the record after tying the previous best but losing fewer wickets than the former record holders.

Highest Individual Score: Justin Hollingsworth 150 not out, Matt Dean also beat the previous record a couple of hours later with 133.

British Blind Sport provides visually impaired people with opportunities to participate in sport and physical activity.