Man-of-the-Match James McGown’s cool head under intense pressure won Keswick Cricket Club’s all conquering LakeHawks Under-19 team the county T/20 championship.

The thrilling latter stages of the competition were played out in late evening and it was virtually dark when the last overs of the final between Keswick LakeHawks and Egremont Thunder were bowled and the competition reached a heady climax in the gloom.

The ‘light’ was so bad the ground was actually illuminated by the bright orange glow from the electric scoreboard and the flashing bails.

A crowd estimated at more than 300 in late afternoon was bathed in sunshine at KCC’s award winning Fitz Park ground and they enjoyed some fantastic cricket between the four clubs that had fought their way through to the finals day: Carlisle Cobras, Furness Ram Raiders, Egremont Thunder and the eventual winners, Keswick Lakehawks.

All the excitement of T/20 was brought to the fore by the host club and there was music and commentary to accompany every boundary hit and wicket. Face painting, nail art, a bowling speed gun competition in the nearby practice nets and a barbecue were all part of the entertainment that is T/20 cricket at its best.

KCC LakeHawks even had a mascot in the shape of a flightless bird called Hawkeye, alias Les Shaw, father of spin bowler Adam. There was even a flypast by the celebrated Red Arrows who flew over the ground in mid afternoon en route to another event, bringing play to a temporary halt – a change to the usual ‘rain stops play’!

But this was a finals day that nearly never took place because of the torrential rain in the lead up the event.

Ground staff at Keswick CC, including LakeHawks manager John Bryson, his son Andrew, who is KCC 1st XI captain, and the club’s overseas professional, the Sri Lankan Geeth Kumara, were at the ground at 6am in a bid to make it playable.

The rain had stopped but, by 8am, the overall condition of the cricket square (three match strips had been protected under covers) was most definitely not fit for play.

Fortunately, a decision was taken to press ahead regardless and before the first semi-final (Furness Ram Raiders v Egremont Thunder) was due to start at 11am the sun was peeping out from behind the clouds and all was well with the world.

The sun stayed out for the rest of the day and played a massive part in making this a very special occasion for all involved.

Furness Ram Raiders, captained by Workington Reds’ footballer Nathan Waterston, were winners of last summer’s inaugural competition and were favourites to reach the final. But they came up against a determined Egremont Thunder outfit in the first semi-final. Egremont bowled tightly, battled to protect every run and eventually – with the fall of the key wicket of Waterston, for 23 – restricted the Ram Raiders to 69/8 from their 20 overs.

In the second semi-final, Keswick LakeHawks were comfortable victors over Carlisle Cobras. The host team made a useful 141/6 from their 20 overs with Steve Moss taking full advantage of a string of dropped catches to hit an undefeated 54 at the top of the order. James McGown (25), Charlie Robson (18) and Greg Cameron (16) also contributed invaluable runs. For the Cobras, Henry Walker took 3/19 from his four overs, but they were never really in the chase with the bat.

And so it came down to the final.

Thunder won the toss and decided to bat first but made only 99 with opener Grant Reid top scoring on 29 and captain Mathew Sempill 21.

Having successfully defended 81 in the semi-final against last year’s winners, there was always the possibility they could produce a repeat performance. It looked as though they were about to as Keswick lost their top order with hardly a run on the board and were reduced to 6/3 as the medium pace of Cody Scott accounted for Moss, Barrett and Cameron. McGown came in at No4 and he and Will Atkinson steadied the ship.

Although two more wickets were to fall, McGown was resolute and showed tremendous calm, defending his wicket, keeping the scoreboard ticking over and never missing an opportunity to hit the ball hard and far.

McGown was joined by his captain, Joppy Hodgson, and the pair saw Keswick safely home. McGown was 53 not out at the close (batsmen have to retire on reaching 49 runs plus one scoring shot) while Hodgson was undefeated on 23.

For Keswick CC, the staging of the finals was something of a triumph in after the club’s ground and pavilion were hit with devastating effect by Storm Desmond.