Suffolk finish as runners-up

August 27, 2026

CLOSE, but not close enough!

Suffolk Men’s 1st XI had to settle for runners-up spot in the Eastern Division of the NCCA Cluberly Championship after drawing their final match of the season versus Staffordshire.

To take the title race to the last over of the season was a magnificent effort by Suffolk, who could not take the final three wickets that would have seen them crowned champions.

The match at Stafford CC will be best remembered for two blistering century opening stands by Alex Maynard and Nico Boje and a farewell century from Darren Ironside.

Maynard and Boje, coming into the match with just three Championship appearance between them, tucked into the Staffordshire attack on day one after Suffolk had won the toss.

They raised three figures in just 12.3 overs and had secured Suffolk’s first batting point (for 175 runs) before lunch – none of the county’s officials present could remember the last time that happened!

The stand was worth 145 before Maynard was dismissed for 79 off 67 and Boje was out nine short of his hundred from 103 balls, both striking three sixes.

That gave Suffolk the platform to post 398 all out in 75.4 overs, Josh Cantrell (88 off 84) and Hamad Arshad, a late inclusion in place of Freddie Heldreich, adding 84 for the sixth wicket.

Staffs struck back, Matt Morris (125) and Dan Lincoln (165) compiling a third-wicket stand of 242 in their 353 for 9 declared off 86.2 overs, Cantrell claiming 4 for 40.

Maynard (72 off 85) and Boje (50 off 46) were at it again in Suffolk’s second innings, smacking 120 in only 17.2 overs this time.

Nico Boje scores runs on the offside during his 91 in Suffolk’s first innings. Main photograph:
Alex Maynard, who scored 79 and 72 for Suffolk, batting in the second innings.

Once Ironside, 51 not out at the start of day three, got in again there was an air of inevitability that he would mark his farewell appearance for the county before emigrating to Australia with a three-figure score, finishing 100 not out before the declaration came.

He added 101 with Arshad, whose 46 not out meant he became the fourth Suffolk player to record a personal best with the bat after Maynard, Boje and Freddie Cloud, who made 26 in Suffolk’s first dig.

Suffolk’s 325 for 5 from 70 overs left Staffordshire, who could no longer win the title themselves following Buckinghamshire’s eight-wicket success at Cambridgeshire, 74 overs to score 371 for victory.

Already without opening bats Jack Beaumont and Ollie Burle plus professional Feroze Khushi, who only played in one of their four Championship matches, Suffolk were handicapped by the loss of opening bowler Chris Steele to injury after just one over.

James Kettleborough’s 71 set the hosts on their way, but Harper’s 4 for 92, including his 50th Championship wicket, kept them in check, and after the loss of Michael Hill for 45, the chase was up.

Staffordshire closed on 285 for 7, the two teams shaking hands on the draw with one ball remaining.

Cloud, who took two wickets including that of Hill in his final innings of a distinguished career, said afterwards: “It was a shame not to get over the line, but over the last three days we have done a really good job with ball and bat and it is one of those things.”

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