Tickets for Finals Day: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/one-day-ncca-trophy-finals-2026-tickets-1981484150434

Cheshire and Berkshire will meet in the final of this season’s NV Play National Counties Trophy after contrasting victories in today’s semi-finals.

Cheshire held their nerve to beat Cumbria by 27 runs in a low-scoring thriller at Keswick while Berkshire eased to a 94 runs victory over Oxfordshire at Wargrave. They will now face each other in the final at the Copdock & Old Ipswichian club near Ipswich on Sunday July 19.

Hyde seamer Andrew Jackson was Cheshire’s hero at Keswick where he opened the bowling, delivered an unchanged spell from the River Greta End and returned the remarkable figures of 10-8-3-5.

Cumbria managed just three singles off Jackson, who took the first five wickets to reduce the hosts to 25 for five in pursuit of a target of 178. Jackson’s figures were Cheshire’s most economical five wicket haul in the competition and his outstanding effort more than compensated for the absence of two seamers, Luke Young (unavailable) and Jack Corran (injured).

Jackson’s bowling set Cheshire on their way to victory but they still had work to do before they secured their place in their second final in three seasons.

After Jackson completed his allocation of overs, Cumbria regrouped through Matt Sempill and Max Winskill, the heroes of their one wicket victory over Staffordshire in the quarter-final.

This time they added 66 in 19 overs for the sixth wicket with Sempill, who survived two difficult chances, anchoring the innings and Winskill playing the more aggressive innings. Winskill struck two fours and two sixes in his 33 from 61 balls before he swept slow left-armer Isaac Brooks to deep square leg.

Sempill and former Cheshire batter Ed Wade (23 from 17 balls) then kept Cumbria in the chase with a seventh wicket partnership of 41 in five overs before Cheshire captain Sam Perry recalled seamer Henry Dobson who bowled Wade with his first ball back.

Didsbury off-spinner Will Sweet struck two decisive blows when he bowled Drew Postlethwaite  and Sempill, whose 72-ball 41 included just one boundary, and Dobson sealed the win by having Nico Watt caught behind by Lancashire Academy prospect Freddie Vaughan-Hawkins.

But it was Jackson who deservedly took the plaudits for a memorable spell of accurate seam bowling in which he had the dangerous Freddie Fallows taken of a miscued drive to cover for a second ball duck, bowled Calum Rowe and Ben Walkden, who offered no shot, in successive balls and then had the in-form Tom Fraine smartly taken by Vaughan-Hawkins standing up to him.

Jackson hit the stumps again to account for Cumbria captain Michael Slack and Perry’s calm captaincy and clever bowling changes helped to thwart Cumbria’s fightback.

Perry also played a decisive role with the bat after rain had delayed the start for 90 minutes and reduced the match to a 46 overs-a-side contest.

The pitch, as it had been when the sides met at Fitz Park in a group match last month, was slow and made strokeplay difficult but Perry played a patient and sensible innings – 69 from 105 balls with four fours – to get Cheshire to what proved to be a match-winning total.

Fallows, who took three for 39 with his left-arm spin, and Slack, with four for 22, chipped away at the other end but former Leicestershire batter Harry Dearden (12) helped Perry add 47 valuable runs for the sixth wicket. After Perry was stumped by Postlethwaite off Fallows, Will Valentine (22) and Jackson (14) added 29 for the eighth wicket, runs which almost accounted for the winning margin.

It was more straightforward for Berkshire at Wargrave where a competition-best 104 from Charlie Dunnett laid the foundations for their victory.

Dunnett, with his second Trophy century, and Ben Salter (76) added 168 in a Berkshire record fifth wicket partnership which surpassed the 134 that David Gorman and Kevin Murray added, also against Oxfordshire, in 1987.

That stand rescued Berkshire from 68 for four with seamer Hayden Rossouw taking three of those wickets.

Dunnett and Salter departed in the space of  three balls from Julian Laird but Berkshire’s 285 for five proved too many for Oxfordshire.

Netherlands international Zach Lion-Cachet made 41 from 56 balls but the departure of Luke Maslen and Rossouw, both caught and bowled, in the same over from off-spinner Rhys Lewis, saw  Oxfordshire slip from 105 for two to 112 for five.

Laird, with a half-century, and George Tait staged a partial recovery before Tait fell to off-spinner Euan Woods and former Middlesex seamer Toby Greatwood accounted for Srvan Konidena and George O’Connor in the space of four balls.

Laird was ninth out and Oxfordshire were dismissed with more than eight overs unused.

Berkshire’s win took them to their fifth Trophy final in seven seasons but their first since 2023 when they beat Cumbria for the fourth successive season at Wormsley. Their running win came to an end two years ago when Cheshire beat them by 133 runs at Alderley Edge, a result which will no doubt add extra space to an already tasty final.

NV Play National Counties Trophy

Semi-finals

Wargrave: Berkshire 285-8 (Charlie Dunnett 104, Ben Salter 76, Julian Laird 4-63, Hayden Rossouw 3-35), Oxfordshire 191 (Julian Laird 50, Zach Lion-Cachet 41, Toby Greatwood 3-12, Rhys Lewis 3-17). Berkshire won by 94 runs.

Keswick: Cheshire 177 (Sam Perry 65, Michael Slack 4-22, Freddie Fallows 3-39), Cumbria 150 (Matt Sempill 41, Andrew Jackson 5-3). Cheshire won by 27 runs.

Final

July 19 (11am)

Copdock & Old Ipswichian CC: Berkshire v Cheshire.