WESTERN District produced a piece of cricketing history yesterday when

they won the NCA County Championship trophy by beating Hampshire CA by

58 runs in the final at Hamilton Crescent.

In doing so, they became not only the first Scottish side to take this

title, but also the first county to take the trophy outwith England. It

was a momentous achievement, in terms of Scots cricket, surpassing even

Freuchie's triumph in the National Village competition.

Batting first, West's batsmen set about both the task in hand and the

Hampshire bowling attack.

Skipper Aidan Docherty was an early casualty, the first of four

victims for New Milton paceman Neil Taylor.

But the fall of his wicket paired Donald Orr and Gordon McGurk and

they produced the partnership of the match, adding 108 for the second

wicket. Orr fell two short of his half ton, leaving McGurk, who has been

in fine form for everyone bar his club side, Uddingston, to carry on the

attack.

Orr's departure made way for Dom Rigby, a player who has threatened so

much in the past, but never quite made the desired impact. Yesterday

though, was the Ayrshire man's day.

Indeed, it wouldn't be far off the mark to say that Rigby's innings,

and Hampshire's failure to take catches, was the difference between the

sides.

Rigby clattered 52 off just 45 balls faced, including six boundaries.

McGurk, too, hit his share of 4s, nine in total, as he top-scored with

82, an innings which earned him the man of the match award.

Western CA totalled 242-7, leaving the English side around five an

over to win. If the home side's batting had been effective, then so,

too, was their work in the field.

Peter Duthie, Craig McKnight, and Muzaffer Mahmood kept things tight,

the last named picking up the wicket of Hampshire skipper Rob Savage,

courtesy of an acrobatic diving take from Greig Williamson. From 129 for

3, the Englishmen collapsed to 161-9. To go with his catch, Williamson

collected a run out and two wickets, producing a lovely slow ball to

remove Chris Knight.

However, it was the introduction of local man David Snodgrass which

ended the visitors challenge, the West of Scotland man snapping up three

for 33 to secure a memorable win.