Downham Stow delight as club wins promotion to East Anglian Premier League

Downham Stow will be playing in the East Anglian Premier Cricket League for the first time in the club’s history after defeating Cambs champions Ramsey by 23 runs.Pat Yates’ side triumphed in a nail-biting affair at Cricketfield Lane as they made up for their play-off heartbreak of three years ago.Speaking after the win, an ecstatic Yates said: “It’s amazing to win today and get to the EAPL.”I knew the boys were good enough but it’s about delivering on the day and they certainly did that.”Next year will be a tough test but something we’re certainly looking forward to. The boys are buzzing and they deserve to enjoy tonight!”The performance was very measured, we set the game up beautifully at the top, played their overseas very sensibly, and we scored 100 off the last 10 which was just brilliant batting from Owen Stacey and Ben Wilcox.”Ben batted beautifully, when he’s in that mood he can take the game away from you and did that today. “We bowled well, Ramsey put us under a lot of pressure early on but Owen Stacey picked up a vital wicket. “From there the spinners bowled well and Arthur returned at the end and bowled his yorkers beautifully. He fully deserved his first five-wicket haul for the club.”After winning the toss and batting first, Downham Stow made a cracking start against the Rams with Will Denny and Finlay Wilcox putting on an opening stand of 99.The dismissal of Finlay Wilcox saw the runs start to dry up before Denny and Freddie Fairley followed him back to the pavilion in quick succession as Downham Stow found themselves on 129-3. It was left to Ben Wilcox to rebuild the innings with his brother Arthur Wilcox and then Yates, who was the fifth wicket to fall with the score on 192.Ben Wilcox, receiving valuable support from Owen Stacey, produced a batting masterclass with an unbeaten 85 from as many balls, including five boundaries and five maximums. Stacey was 24 not out as the pair shared an undefeated sixth-wicket stand of 70.With the threat of rain in the air, the Ramsey reply began quickly with an opening stand of 68. But two wickets for two runs in as many overs put the brakes on, leaving the home side on 70-2.A third-wicket stand of 50 swung the final back in Ramsey’s favour and a rain break saw the hosts set a revised target of 242 from 42 overs.That total looked well within the Rams’ reach until Arthur Wilcox returned for his second spell with the ball.After already picking up the wicket of opener Michael Cafferkey, Wilcox ripped through the home side’s middle-order during a brilliant spell of 5-38 from his eight overs. As the wickets began to tumble, the required run rate became too much for Ramsey who ended their innings on 219-8.Downham Stow will enjoy the moment before thinking about the next step up.”It puts us in a great position,” admitted Yates.”The EAPL does bring with it greater demands on the club but from a playing point of view if we hadn’t got up I think we were at risk of losing a few.”Getting there will hopefully allow us to attract a few new players and build on what we’ve got.”For the club as a whole it just helps us grow and hopefully attract more youngsters into the game which can only be good.”