LONGPARISH cricketers have put the icing on their long-standing president John Woodcock’s 90th birthday cake by celebrating a remarkable triple promotion, writes Mike Vimpany.
They won the County Division 2 title, thus regaining their place at the league’s top table they vacated 20 years ago.
The seconds finished third in Regional 1 North and the 3rd XI fourth in Regional 3 North, into which they were promoted at the start of the season.
Eight straight wins made Parish first’s firm favourites to win County 2 from the start – opener Will de Cani’s 569-run aggregate certain to be a candidate for the divisional batting award for the second consecutive season.
President Woodcock (pictured below) often looked on from the boundary side as Matt Jackman (22 wickets), Scott Sturt (16) and Alex Coetzee (15) grabbed a lion’s share of the wickets.
Longparish took their foot off the pedal and managed to win only one of their last four matches, but their promotion had long since been assured.
The club’s second and third teams followed suit in the promotion stakes, with Justin Jackman (210) and Gary Taplin (210) each scoring more than 200 league runs and Barry Blackmore weighed in with 20 wickets.
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