Maidenhead & Bray defeat White Waltham to lift Julian Cup Plate

Maidenhead & Bray’s top scorer Ben Ward

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Maidenhead & Bray have won this year's Julian Cup Plate final after beating White Waltham by 69 runs at Cookham Dean CC's Ricketts Field on Tuesday evening.

Both sides have been in dominant form in this season's competition, emerging from their pools as winners before Bray got the better of Marlow Park in last week's semi-final and Waltham saw off the challenge of Burnham's B team.

Maidenhead & Bray won all six of their pool matches to progress to the knock-out stages, while Waltham lost just one of their six games. An even final was predicted with Waltham having excelled in cup competitions this season.

However, Maidenhead & Bray took control of Tuesday's final from the outset after winning the toss and opting to bat.

Captain Kieran Grey retired not out after slugging 53 runs while Ben Ward was also in tremendous form as he smashed 66 before having to retire. Denman (25) and Howard Thomas (22) backed that up with some punchy scores of their own to take Bray to 221-6 at the close of their 20 overs.

It looked like a challenging chase at the changeover and that proved to be the case as Waltham finished 69 runs shy of their target on 152-6.

Nikjil Jathavedan drove their innings on with 25 but the loss of Ben Scarborough (8) - so influential in Waltham's semi-final win over Burnham - was a blow. Matt Furness (17) and Dan Molloy (54) fought on valiantly against Bray's in-form bowling attack, however, they quickly fell behind the required rate and couldn't quite match the big innings of their rivals. SingDaya finished with Bray's best bowling figures, taking 2-26. The Plate victory capped off a good week for Maidenhead & Bray, who've moved up to fourth in TVL Division 3B following Saturday's 90-run win over Amersham.