Chorleywood 3rd XI clinched the Division 11 title on Saturday, despite falling to their first (& only) defeat of the season at the hands of Broxbourne III.

Chorleywood, who were already at a considerable disadvantage as they were without both their top bowler, Mick Rose & their inspirational Captain & run-machine Simon Dare who were both on holiday, needed to take just 2 points from their final game to make sure they would finish above their closest rivals for the title, Bragbury.

Woods stand-in skipper, Rob Dunstone lost the toss and was asked to bat first as the home team soon found themselves in trouble as some tight bowling from Broxbourne as well as a couple of injudicious shots found them at 45-5 early on. But a fine partnership of 49 between birthday-boy Michael Dunning (39) and Matt Sinderbury (18) helped them limp up to 131 all out from 47 overs.

Faced with defending such a small total, Chorleywood knew that they had to bowl very tightly indeed to try and make things as hard as possible for their opponents and try to get the wickets that would give them the bonus points they needed. Wood stuck to their task well and made things difficult for Broxbourne all the way through and the tension was finally lifted when they picked up the vital 2nd wicket as Rob Dunstone held on to a simple chance at mid-off from the bowling of Michael Dunning who finished with fine figures of 16-5-43-2. However, despite tight spells from all of the other Chorleywood bowlers as well, particularly Peter Dunning, who conceded just 8 runs from his 6 overs, they were only able to take one more wicket as the visitors reached their target with 9 overs to spare.