Cuckney's Historic Double Victory at Lord's

On Sunday at Lord’s, in the shadow of the Pavilion usually reserved for Test greats, it was an amateur village side from north Nottinghamshire that owned the turf.

Cuckney, a club drawn from a small community near Warsop, strode into history by lifting the Village Cup with a five-wicket win over Surrey outfit Blackheath, sealing the chase with 19 balls to spare. By Monday, the players and coaching staff were back home to a hero’s welcome, silverware in hand and a story that will echo far beyond their own boundaries.

This wasn’t just another good day out at the Home of Cricket. Cuckney have now completed a unique double: National Cup winners in 2023, Village Cup champions in 2024. No team had ever managed to win both titles before. A village side, first to the summit.

“Special day,” said captain Richard Bostock, and he barely needed to say more. Lord’s has that effect. The walk through the Long Room, the sightlines, the sense of history pressing in from every angle. “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.”

This is not a club that stumbles into success. It grinds towards it. Twenty-two league games, a 10-match cup run, the logistics of getting an amateur squad to Lord’s and everything that comes with it. “These days are special, they don't come around [for] every cricketer,” Bostock said. For Cuckney, the work has been relentless; the payoff, immense. “For a tiny village to do what we've done is huge. I'd say there's not a lot of people here, but we all come together, one big team."

Blackheath arrive, Cuckney strike

The spectacle began with a flourish from Blackheath. Their captain, Peter Melhuish, set the tone before a ball had been bowled, dropping into Lord’s by helicopter. It was a grand entrance, the kind you might expect from a franchise star rather than a village skipper.

Once the blades stopped whirring, Melhuish backed it up with the bat. His 48 anchored Blackheath’s innings and hinted at a total that could stretch Cuckney. But the pressure never quite broke the Nottinghamshire side. The turning screw came from seamer Jake Tong, who cut through the Surrey team’s middle and lower order with a four-wicket haul that shifted the day decisively.

Blackheath were bowled out for 186. At Lord’s, on a big occasion, under the gaze of the Pavilion, that can feel like a tricky chase. Cuckney made it look measured instead of manic.

Ullyott leads the chase

Any nerves in the Cuckney dressing room began to ease once opener William Ullyott settled in. He played with the kind of composure that calms a balcony, crafting 62 that gave the innings its backbone and, crucially, its tempo. No rush, no panic, just control.

From the other end, fellow opener Leighton Ambrick fought his own private battle. “It was unreal to be fair,” he admitted later. “I was so nervous until I finally got off the mark and then I was fine after that.” Every village cricketer knows that feeling: the weight of the occasion hanging on a single run.

For Ambrick, the day carried an extra layer. “It was my dad that introduced me and I think they were getting a bit emotional when I was batting." Lord’s does that too – it pulls generations together, makes every shot feel like a shared memory.

The pressure finally told on Blackheath as Cuckney’s top order chipped away at the target. Wickets fell, but not in clusters. The chase never spiralled. By the time the 37th over arrived, the equation was simple and the outcome inevitable. Cuckney crossed the line with one ball left in that over, the Village Cup secured with something to spare and everything to savour.

From inspiration to legacy

For coach Will Butler, this victory carried a sense of continuity as well as celebration. “Three or four of them were actually there in 2023 so they would have lived the moment when we won it and probably got inspired through that,” he said.

That matters. The 2023 National Cup win at Lord’s wasn’t just a one-off; it planted something. A belief that a side from a “tiny village” could walk onto the most storied ground in the game and win – and then do it again. “So to have gone back with that team and to have done it with that group of boys was just fantastic. It's what dreams are made of really for a club like ours."

Two years. Two trophies. One ground. One village.

Cuckney may return to their usual league fixtures and familiar local surroundings, but the bar has shifted. They are no longer just a good village side with a remarkable day out to talk about in the bar. They are the first club to conquer both the National Cup and the Village Cup, and they have done it on the most famous square in cricket.

The question now is simple: after a journey like this, what on earth do you do for an encore?