In the final action of the 2021 season, Clara Vale came out on top in their re-arranged Division Two match with Humshaugh.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat, the hosts faced one of the youngest opening attacks in Humshaugh's long history in the shape of 15-year-old Josh Wallace and 14-year-old Lawrence Milburn. They bowled well without reward in their first spells as Clara Vale reached 33/0 after 10 overs.

Adam Murphy and 13-year-old Johnny King-Lewis were then introduced to the attack and the changes did the trick as the home side slipped to 49/4 after 18 overs with Murphy taking the crucial first wicket of Manav Seth (30) who was caught by Wallace, while King-Lewis picked up two wickets in his first three overs.

A mini-recovery by Clara Vale saw them on 75/4 in the 24th over before Johnny King-Lewis claimed a well deserved third wicket off the last ball of his spell when Johnny Lee was caught behind by Hedley Renton.

Avtar Dhillon kept the scoreboard ticking over with some powerful hitting as the total passed three figures with five wickets in hand and 12 overs left. He was eventually caught on the boundary by Lawrence Milburn off Murphy's bowling for 42, which included three sixes, with the score on 122/9 in the 35th over.

The last pair of Ed Snape and Isaac Lee did well to survive the closing five overs as they finished on 131/9.

Humshaugh captain, Adam Murphy had outstanding figures of 3-3 from eight overs, with the other six wickets falling to Johnny King-Lewis (3), Johnny Lodge (1), Lawrence Milburn (1) and a run-out.

In reply, Humshaugh lost opener Hedley Renton in the fourth over. After hitting two boundaries, he was caught by Alex Wildman off the bowling of Johnny Lee to leave them on 9/1. They found runs hard to come by and were reduced to 12/2 in the eighth over when Josh Wallace was caught by Matt Wildman off Lee's bowling.

Although Duncan Sewell and Craig Stanners also fell cheaply, Paul Hunter (25) steadied the ship as Humshaugh reached the half-way stage on 45/4. He put on 23 with Johnny Lodge for the sixth wicket before being bowled by Matt Wildman in the 27th over. Lodge and Stefan Yeatman (14) took the score from 71/6 to 96/6 in the in the 33rd over when Yeatman was out to a brilliant catch by Matt Wildman off Ed Slade's bowling.

Any slim hopes of a Humshaugh victory were soon dashed by the introduction of Avtar Dhillon, who started with a double wicket maiden.

Johnny King-Lewis was caught by Matt Wildman off Dhillon's first delivery and Lawrence Milburn was clean bowled. He completed a man of the match performance with another wicket from the first ball of his second over when Lodge (24) was clean bowled as the visitors were all out for 103, including 21 extras, to lose by 28 runs.

Dhillon took three wickets without conceding a run from just seven deliveries. As well as taking three catches, Matt Wildman picked up 3-33 runs from eight overs and Johnny Lee had figures of 2-14 from eight overs.

Despite taking the maximum 20pts from the win, their ninth of the season, Clara Vale finished sixth in the final standings, while Humshaugh (6pts) moved up to fourth place.