Cumbria have reached the final of the NCCA Trophy for the fourth year in a row when they beat Suffolk by four wickets at Sudbury.
There were more than eight overs left when Matthew Sempill swept the winning boundary to take his side through.
Cumbria had decided to field first, as with rain forecast later, they felt that batting second might be advisable with Duckworth Lewis possible coming into the equation.
As it happened they got through it without interruption, although initially they might have been disappointed that Suffolk got 149 in 47 overs before they were bowled-out.
Suffolk looked to be in deep trouble at 74-7 but the last three partnerships were able to double that total, largely through the efforts of wicket-keeper Jacob Marston (52no) who guided the tail to a more competitive score.
Chris Wright, the experienced Leicestershire seam bowler who is moving to Sussex next season, bowled a particularly penetrative opening spell as he removed the top three home batsmen.
His third delivery moved away enough to find the edge of Alex Oxley’s bat and keeper Drew Postlethwaite took the catch.
In his second over he swung one away from Jack Beaumont and Marcus Stables took the catch at third slip.
The movement from Wright was causing problems for all the top order and he then had Ben Claydon caught at second slip by Ben Walkden.
At 8-3 Suffolk were in all kinds of trouble but they did, at least recover to 50-5 before Josh Cantrell (16) and Ben Parker (14) were both removed by Freddie Fallows.
Skipper Michael Slack bowled skipper Adam Mansfield with one that nipped back at him and Matthew Siddall had Tom Harper trapped leg before, nipping one through quicker as he spotted the batsman’s habit of walking across his stumps.
At 74-7 it then needed Marston’s excellent knock, 52 not out from 85 balls at a difficult period of the game for his side, and hitting six fours and a six.
Wright completed his ten overs with figures of 3-24 while Fallows finished with 3-37. Slack had 2-17 and the other wicket takers were Siddall (1-22) and Nico Watt (1-12).
Cumbria started badly, losing Fallows off the second ball, when he was caught and bowled by the off-spinner Cantrell.
It became 25-2 when Sam Dutton was too early on a delivery from left-armer Beaumont which seemed to stick in the pitch and he skied a catch to mid-off.
Walkden (35) and Stables (30) made useful contributions to take Cumbria to 108-4 with 14 overs left.
Slack (20) was caught at wide mid-off going for a big hit and then Wright hit a six over mid-off, followed by a four straight to the sight-screen before he was trapped leg before.
But Cumbria were virtually home and Sempill was able to hit the boundary that carried Cumbria to a fine victory and continue their love affair with this particular competition.
But will it have a happy ending this time after three successive defeats to Berkshire? Would you believe it, they will meet Berkshire again on Sunday, August 27 at Wormsley. They beat Wiltshire by six wickets to make the final.
