Reaction: NYSD champions!

Barnard Castle are champions of the North Yorkshire and South Durham League for the first time. The Premier Division title was assured on Saturday when all fixtures were cancelled because of the weather, meaning that Barney’s position became unassailable with one match left.

If they were not the ideal circumstances, the prize was thoroughly deserved after a season in which the first XI has lost only two league matches. They have played a brand of exciting cricket which has been matched by their hard-nosed determination if matters were not going their way.

The team was loudly cheered by scores of supporters crammed into the pavilion for what would have been a pre-match lunch. Although there was an informal handing over of the league trophy by league president, Chris West, the official presentation will take place after the side’s final match at Stokesley this Saturday.

“This is a historic moment in the history of the club, the town and the league,” said the club president, Stephen Brenkley. “Barney has always punched well above its weight since being formed in 1832. The club has regularly produced superb cricketers but this triumph is the culmination of a youth policy and a commitment to improve off the field which began in the early part of the new century.”

None of the 16 players who have played for the league team during the season is yet 30 years old, most are in the early twenties. They have been calmly and maturely led by 27-year-old James Finch, who joined the club as its first professional when they were promoted to the NYSD’s top division for the first time in 2011 and took over the captaincy the following season.

He said better performances from the club’s homegrown players was key to winning the title. The club came up just short of glory last season and the captain pointed to an all-round improvement this year.

“The young lads of the team have grown up in a cricketing sense,” he said. “The contribution from the likes of Richard Borrowdale and James Quinn have made a massive difference. We have also been together as a team for longer We have a great team spirit which has really shown during the run-in.”

Finch pointed to the Kerridge Cup final victory as a pivotal point. “Beating Marske in the Kerridge Cup was a psychological thing, as if we were not going to win the league it looked like they would.”

Then came the critical bank holiday Monday victory over Darlington. “I don’t think any of us enjoyed that game. It was just relief.”

Barney’s Kerridge Cup success meant they have become the 12th club to achieve the league and cup double. They joined the NYSD League in 1962 after several years of playing only cup and friendly cricket but although they were champions of the second division several times the league did not allow automatic promotion.

The changing of out-dated regulations coincided with renewed ambition at the club and Barney then began to make swift progress. The club’s director of cricket and former captain, Michael Stanwix, said: “The winning of the premier league has been several years in the making. We identified a captain in James Finch who is not only a very good cricketer but a quite exceptional leader.

“We have added to that Karl Turner one of the most prolific run scorers not playing County Cricket and an Australian amateur Lachlan Pfeffer who has been fantastic. But for me the real achievement has been the development of our juniors who have matured into very good premier league cricketers and without whom none of this would have been possible.”