Horspath Cricket Club News story

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Horspath celebrate league and cup double

11 Apr 2025

Horspath celebrated being crowned Cherwell League champions and Pullinger Cup winners last season at the Cherwell League's 50th Anniversary Awards Dinner at the Oxford Belfry, Milton Common.

Seventeen Horspath members were among a crowd of 97 and the biggest roar of the night came when Horspath captain Will Eason stepped up to receive the Division 1 trophy and a glass memento from England batting legend David Gower.

The cheers rang around the room again when T20 skipper Amin Rafiq was presented with a glass memento by Gower for the Pullinger Cup triumph (the trophy is in the clubroom!).

Gower, an Ashes-winning captain and the fifth-highest England run scorer in Test matches, had earlier entertained the audience with a 35-minute speech on his cricketing and broadcasting career.

Included were amusing anecdotes about the late, great Shane Warne and England's 1981 Ashes hero Ian Botham as well as his own infamous Tiger Moth exploits during an Ashes warm-up game in Queensland.    

Will led Horspath to the title and promotion back to the Home Counties Premier Cricket League this season with the side winning 13 of their 18 games - suffering just one defeat - to finish an impressive 60 points clear of runners-up Didcot.

The points tally of 363 also eclipsed the club's previous best of 359 when winning the league for the first of three times in 2010.

Amin, meanwhile, skippered Horspath to an unlikely nine-run win over Didcot in a nail-biting Pullinger Cup Final at the Recreation Ground.

Fresh from being crowned Division 1 champions the previous day, Horspath looked to be up against it after being restricted to 117-9 in the decider of the inaugural T20 competition for Tier 1 and 2 sides.

However, Rafiq's decision to employ a rare all-spin attack proved a masterstroke at Didcot fell short on 108-4. 

The league and cup double formed part of an unprecedented four-timer for the club last season with the side also winning the Hartwell Trophy and Oxfordshire final of the Voneus Village Cup.