HUMSHAUGH'S midweek team made it a year to remember by wrapping up the double.

Having won the Northumberland C Division for the first time in their history, they added to the silverware by capturing the Ian Appleby Cup with victory over Benwell and Walbottle.

Their opponents won the toss and elected to field first, and it seemed a good decision as they removed both Chris Heslop and Nick Reid for ducks in the opening two overs.

Rob Forster came and went quickly but Crispin Straker began to get the scoreboard moving along at the other end with some sublime, effortless drives through the offside.

He was unfortunate to be bowled for 24 with one that stayed low, with Jack Garrett and Nathan Byerley then dismissed in quick succession.

Humshaugh were struggling at 53-6 off eight overs, until the Crawford brothers, Andy and Ed, rebuilt the innings as they accumulated runs for the next seven overs.

They put on a partnership of 37 to stabilise things, taking the score to 89 until Andy became the seventh wicket when smartly stumped for 22.

Ed continued to knock the ball around before being stumped for 26, however, the momentum changed when Luke Parkinson arrived at the crease.

He managed to amass 29 runs in quick time as he smashed 16 off the last over to propel Humshaugh to 139-8.

In reply, Humshaugh’s opening bowlers of Will Forster and Garrett started well with the former picking up the dangerous Brown in the third thanks to a classy catch from Heslop at mid-wicket.

It was again the in-form Garrett, fresh from his five league wickets the day before, who was the stand-out player as he bowled a sublime, match-winning five over spell.

Ending with five wickets at the cost of just 12 runs, Garrett ripped through the Benwell line-up, with Will Forster picking up another wicket and Straker recording an excellent run out as he threw the stumps down with only one stump to aim for.

Benwell tried to put up a late defence, but the change bowlers of Parkinson and Byerley wrapped things up 88 runs short to secure the league and cup double for Humshaugh.