THE sun has set on the 2018 season with Halesowen CC yet again picking up honours on the last day to make it four club trophies in four seasons.

Following on from the 2nd XI's promotion (2015), The Worcestershire County Cup (2016) and the 1st XI promotion (2017), the club's 3rd XI have bagged title success.

Whilst the first and second teams were thrashing Himley and Shrewsbury respectively, the third team encountered a tricky away fixture at Alveley.

Going in to the game just four points ahead of Astwood Bank and 10 points ahead of near neighbours Romsley, a win and 24 points was the only safe way to take the title and that they did in style.

Restricting Alveley to 145 all out thanks to the line and length of bowlers Naim Luhar (4-19) and victorious Captain Chris Jones (4-26) they then made hard of work of the reply finding themselves 24-4 at one point until Sam Preece (43) and once again Richard Cox (48*) steering to them to the title.

After the game Jones said: "It’s been a long season with plenty of tight matches and exciting moments but I am delighted in my first year of captaincy to have pulled it off.

"In Siddesh Chavan, Carl Bust, Jonty Preece and Richard Cox I have had some reliable allies week in, week out when the going gets tough and today was no different. However, the icing on the cake must be the amount of under-18s that have also contributed to the season and the success. The club looks in good health for the new league set-up in 2019 and we can’t wait."

The first team ended up with victory thanks to a century from Ed Kilbee (101) and a half-century from Alexei Kervezee (53) saw Halesowen to 267 all out against Himley for whom Thomas Rhodes took 3-58. Only two Himley batsmen scored more than 13, in reply, with Dan Durman the best with 83. Kervezee took 3-33 as Himley were bowled out for 198.

The second team chased down 105 comfortably but were indebted to Hassan Akram’s haul of 4-13 and Tom Williams 45 runs. The fourth team’s season petered out as they were defeated by Alveley seconds but not before Alex Jordan (105) led with the bat.