Southwell missed out on the opportunity to claim their first piece of silverware in 19 years on Saturday, but first team captain Tom Clarke said it didn’t dampen the spirits as the club celebrated a successful season.

Southwell Cricket Club 1sts hosted Bingham Cricket Club 1sts in the Division D play-off finals, but inconsistency on the day saw their 135 all out fall 15 runs short of Bingham’s 150 all out.

“It was a great day for the club, but obviously the score was hard to take,” said Clarke.

“Looking at it from the scorecard, it looked mint for us with them on 49 for seven.

“We started brilliantly and Max Collins bowled great for us in that opening spell.

“One problem within all of the celebrating was David Rimmer, who pulled his calf while jumping around after one of the wickets — and he is a decent spin bowler for us, so that didn’t help with what followed.”

A strong eighth wicket partnership between Stuart Mills and Morgan Smith saw the 49 for seven transform into 112 for eight; then the former was caught on 28.

“We bowled well, and perhaps we lost momentum a bit after a dropped catch, which was quite important given the context of the game, but nobody drops catches on purpose,” said Clarke.

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Cricket cup final: Southwell vs Bingham cricket at Top Ground, Brackenhurst Ln, Southwell NG25 0QF. Southwell player David Bates bowling.. (42225240)

“They pulled it back pretty well after that, and we then had to chase 150.

“It was a shame because we were very loud and fired up for the final, and after being on top we just lost it a little bit.

We didn’t bowl badly, their batters just took it away from us.”

In reply, Southwell got off to a good start but failed to keep the early good form.

“We were 91 for three, and then we finished on 135,” said Clarke.

“Joe Fryer and I felt really good, but our middle order had a bit of a collapse which was unfortunate because we were in a really good position.

“David Rimmer, who was injured, even came out at 11 and hit a couple of fours, but it just wasn’t to be in the end.

“We all sat down at the end of the game and I said ‘lads, look how far we have come’, because we were rock bottom last season.”

For Bingham, their success didn’t stop in Southwell as the club’s second string clinched the Division J play-offs with a seven wicket win over Kinoulton 2nds.