Cambridgeshire cricket club formed in 2021 set for Lord’s final

Cricketers at a club created three years ago are set for the game of a lifetime.

Foxton Granta, who play in Foxton, Cambridgeshire, have reached the final of a national competition.

The club’s first eleven are preparing to take on Gloucestershire side Dumbleton in the the Voneus Village Cup final at Lord’s on Sunday.

Players spent a night in a London hotel before the game and nearly 150 supporters are expected to travel from Cambridgeshire.

The club, whose first team play in the Cambridgeshire & Huntingdonshire Premier League Division 1, formed when Foxton Cricket Club and Cambridge Cricket Club merged in 2021.

Foxton made the village cup final in 2015 but lost to Woodhouse Grange Cricket Club, who are based in Sutton-Upon-Derwent, York.

This year, they have won five games on the way to Lord’s and progressed through regional and national rounds.

Players hoped around 300 supporters would be at Lord’s cheering them on.

Two players who featured at Lord’s nine years ago are in the Foxton Granta line-up and set to return.

Opening bat Adam Webster, now 33, was captain nine years ago.

Harry Hopwood was a promising junior player in his early teens who did 12th man duties in 2015 but did not play.

He is now in his early 20s and one of one of Foxton Granta’s leading bats.

“It’s something you don’t expect to do as a club cricketer, to walk out at such a famous ground,” said Webster, a financial controller for a software company.

“It’s a very different experience this time.

“I think in terms of the side we have got, we have got much higher expectations compared to nine years ago.”

Webster said the 2024 line-up was “head and shoulders” a better side and added: “I’d like to think we are quietly confident this time.”

He said Hopwood was now a “mainstay” of the side.

“Harry was one of our best juniors in 2015,” he added.

“He was 13 … we wanted to get him involved and [we] asked him to carry the drinks.

“Roll forward nine years and he’s now an integral part of the club.

“He’s been the leading scorer this year.”

Webster added: “It’s a great story.”