What a wonderful day was had at Highfields on Saturday. Celebrations began early when news filtered through in the morning that the First Team game at Miskin was called off so the 1s were guaranteed promotion irrespective of what happened between Abergavenny and Chepstow - subject to a satisfactory ground inspection, a great start.

Secondly, despite stirling efforts by Lyn, Eric, Derek, Bill and a host of others, the pitch was still damp due to all the rain so I had no hesitation inviting Tondu to bat first when Clive Holmes called tails.

Opened up with Tom and Bob and with only 8 on the board (thanks to the generous Mr Extra who has been in superb form all season but I'm not sure why he's been allowed to play for every team we've played!) and a mix up between the two Tondu openers saw Gumpy running out Brett Wadlan, 8 runs later and Tondu were 16-3 as Tom bowled Gary Donachie and Bobby got the prized wicket of the Tondu skipper. It would have been 16-4 if the Little Fella hadn't dropped Craig Townsend first ball and the 5th wicket pair put on 30 before a timely change in the field saw Townsend hit the ball straight to Steve Hall at short cover off Tom who picked up a well deserved 2nd wicket as he modestly told us himself!!! Four runs later and Dai Rees was on his way, caught superbly by the skipper and Tondu were in trouble at 50-5.

Tom finished with superb figures of 10 - 0 - 19 - 3 and topped off a superb year with the ball 69.3 - 13 - 186 - 20 at an average of 9.30, a strike rate of 21.85 and an economy rate of 2.68 runs per over.

The skipper then brought on Carl Gwilt at the bottom end but he bowled more like Steve Gwilt and was quickly whipped out of the attack after two ineffective overs that cost 16 runs and replaced by Hally, probably playing his last game for Blackwood and delivered a stingy spell of 10 - 3 - 23 - 1. The sixth wicket fell at 83, the seventh at 119, eighth at 155, ninth 159 and another run out to close the innings on 162 leaving Blackwood a target of 163 off 52 overs to go up as Champions.

During the innings, it was confirmed that the ground passed the criteria for entry to the Premier League and both the 1st team and the 2nd team would be playing in the Premier Division next year a superb achievement and without the help of everybody on the ground in the last two weeks it certainly would not have been possible

The run chase commenced with Ronnie Birch and Rhodri 'Fizzy' Evans who put on 23 for the first wicket before Fizzy was undone by Holmes. Hally then entered the affray but was unable to hit the ball off the square (no change there!!!) for the early part of his innings but he dug in and gave dogged support to Ronnie who was also struggling at the other end. They put on 43 for the second wicket before Jamie Baker bowled big Ron for 29.

Enter the Little Fella who looked initially if he hadn't picked up a bat before before getting off the mark with a six into the pavilion. Lusardi scored 40 off 40 balls before getting out but he had taken the wood to within 40 runs of victory.

Ebby went in next and scored a brisk 16 before being caught behind off Jason Bishop. That brought Andrew Shelton, the Blackwood skipper to the wicket and he had the honour of hitting the winning runs that saw Blackwood go up as Champions.

What a season boys, my thanks go out to Nipper, RJ, Geoff Ford and Adam who skippered the team when I was on holiday, weddings etc and without their input we wouldn't be going up. Thanks to everyone who has played for the 2nds this season, highlights were Tom Watkins and Rhys Norville getting us out of jail down at Tondu and giving us the belief that we could get promoted this year, Cletus Clark's 80 against Newport Fugitives the highpoint of a superb year for Cletus who can only get better surely? Thanks also to Steve Hall who's 200 runs and economical bowling helped immensely.

Its going to be tough next year in the Premier Division but I can't wait to have a crack at it.

Congratulations also to Nelly and the 1s who achieved back to back promotions and also well done to Derek who gained a respectable mid-table finish and winning games they really had no right to win!!

See you all at the League Dinner

Shelts