Sam Dutton played himself into the Cumbria County cricket records when he completed a third successive century at Peterborough.
As the final NCCA Championship game petered out into a draw the spotlight was on Dutton for his performances with the bat.
He had made 104 in the first innings and followed-up with 111 in the second to become the first player for the county since Steve Knox 21 years ago to score a century in both innings of a Championship match.
But Dutton, son of former county skipper Simon Dutton, had scored a century in the second innings against Northumberland (106no) in the previous Championship game.
That puts him up there on his own as the only Cumbrian player to score three consecutive Championship tons.
It certainly brightened-up the final day as Cumbria – left an impossible task at Hertfordshire in a previous Championship game – didn’t endear themselves to Cambridgeshire by batting on to make 361 all out in their second innings.
It left the hosts needing to score 349 in two sessions and in a disappointing climax after such a high-scoring game they eased to 115-3 in 45.1 overs for the draw.
That’s the Championship season completed, but for Cumbria the big day still awaits on Sunday when they take-on familiar opponents Berkshire in the final of the NCCA One Day Trophy at Wormsley.
They have met in the last three finals with Berkshire winning them all but after some confident performances in reaching the last hurdle again Cumbria will feel they have a chance of loosening their opponents’ long hold on the silverware.
The scores in the final NCCA Championship game in the Eastern Division – Cumbria 342/8 (90 overs) Sam Dutton 104 and 361 (all out, 115.4 overs) Sam Dutton 111 Wayne White 4/75
Cambridgeshire 355/7 (90 overs) Daniel Andrew 107 and 115/3 (45.1 overs).
