Cuckney's Village Heroes Complete Historic Double at Lord's

On Sunday at Lord’s, under the same pavilion balcony where World Cups have been lifted and Ashes careers defined, a village side from north Nottinghamshire quietly made history.

Cuckney, a club drawn from a tiny community near Warsop, chased down Blackheath to win the Village Cup by five wickets, with 19 balls in hand. The margin was comfortable. The achievement was anything but ordinary.

This was no one-off fairytale. Twelve months after lifting the National Cup at the same ground, Cuckney returned to the Home of Cricket and did it again in a different competition, becoming the first team ever to win both titles.

For captain Richard Bostock, it felt like a day that belonged in the club’s folklore the moment they walked through the Grace Gates.

“It was a special day,” he said, still absorbing what his side had done. Lord’s, he explained, does something to you. The aura, the long shadows on the outfield, the sense that every blade of grass has a story. “Everything about Lord's just brings it out in you – the excitement, the history, the privilege to play it where international cricketers are playing, it's amazing.”

The scale of the effort behind the scenes matched the scale of the stage. Cuckney had already slogged through 22 league games before even factoring in a 10-match cup run. Players, coaches, volunteers – all of them juggling work, family, travel, selection, logistics. “These days are special, they don't come around for every cricketer,” Bostock said. Organising it all, then topping it off with Lord’s, “was more than worth it.”

For a club of Cuckney’s size, this is giant‑killing territory. “For a tiny village to do what we've done is huge,” the captain said. “I'd say there's not a lot of people here, but we all come together, one big team.”

Blackheath arrive in style, Cuckney answer with substance

The day began with a touch of theatre from the opposition. Blackheath captain Peter Melhuish arrived by helicopter, dropping in for his date with Lord’s. Once out in the middle, he backed up the entrance with runs, anchoring the Surrey side’s innings with a composed 48.

For a while, Blackheath looked set for something imposing. Then Cuckney’s bowlers tightened the screws.

The pivotal figure was seamer Jake Tong. He ripped through the innings with a four-wicket haul that broke the backbone of Blackheath’s line-up. Each strike chipped away at their ambition, the scoreboard stalling as Cuckney’s fielders circled and the pressure mounted.

Blackheath never quite escaped. Bowled out for 186, they finished short of the kind of total that usually haunts a chasing side at Lord’s. Tong’s spell had dragged the game firmly towards the men from Nottinghamshire.

Ullyott leads the chase, nerves give way to belief

Chasing 187 in a final at Lord’s tests more than technique. It exposes nerves. It asks who really wants to be the one walking back up that long pavilion staircase with the job done.

Cuckney’s reply was exactly what a captain would script: calm, organised, relentless. Opener William Ullyott set the tone, compiling a composed 62 that gave the innings structure and belief. While others played around him, he occupied the crease, soaked up the occasion and turned the chase into a procession rather than a scramble.

At the other end, fellow opener Leighton Ambrick felt the weight of the moment as he took guard on that famous square. “It was unreal to be fair,” he admitted. The nerves gripped him until the bat finally connected and the first run arrived. “I was so nervous until I finally got off the mark and then I was fine after that.”

There was a personal layer to it as well. “It was my dad that introduced me,” Ambrick said, knowing full well how much it meant in the stands. “I think they were getting a bit emotional when I was batting.”

From there, Cuckney never really let Blackheath back in. The target shrank, over by over, the tension easing as the runs ticked along. The job was finished with one ball left in the 37th over, the winning moment the trigger for a release that had been building since that first league fixture months ago.

A club living its dream – twice

For coach Will Butler, the win carried an extra resonance. This wasn’t a new group parachuted in for a one-off shot at glory. This was a core that had already felt Lord’s under their boots in 2023 and wanted more.

“Three or four of them were actually there in 2023,” Butler said. They had seen the National Cup lifted, felt the noise, the nerves, the sheer scale of the place. Some of the younger players had been inspired just by watching that triumph. Now they were in the middle of it.

“So to have gone back with that team and to have done it with that group of boys was just fantastic,” Butler said. “It's what dreams are made of really for a club like ours.”

On Monday, as the players and staff rolled back into north Nottinghamshire, that dream took on a new shape. This wasn’t just a good side having a good year. This was a tiny village side that had marched into Lord’s twice in two seasons and come out with both the National Cup and the Village Cup.

In professional sport, dynasties are built with chequebooks and scouting networks. In Cuckney, they are built with car shares, midweek nets, and the stubborn belief that a small place can keep punching above its weight on the biggest stage of all.