Boston won the toss and asked Burghley to bowl first and the theme of early wickets continued despite an unusual opening bowling partnership. James Laud started proceedings with a maiden before Burghley's genuine all rounder Pete Foster, usually seen behind the stumps, struck with his first delivery when Damien Lawson offered a simple catch to Ryan Gilmour at mid on. After following the wicket with 3 full tosses that were all duly dispatched to the mid wicket boundary, Foster struck for a second time in the over when Jack Tetther got a top edge which was taken easily by stand in wicket keeper Chris Logan. After a few quiet overs, foster picked up his 3rd wicket of the day when Andrew Hewitt found the safe hands of Laud at square leg. Laud was bowling with good control from the other end but was unlucky to go wicketless in his first spell.

After a good 5 over spell from each of the openers, 6ft 10 Sulieman Benn aka Josh Gallimore and David Platt took over the reins. Both men bowled well but unfortunately went wicketless through their 5 overs whilst Luke Gilding and Ben Troops were able to move the score beyond 100. With Gilding just 1 away from 50, Ryan Gilmour, bowling some filthy medium pace, whilst running in like a T-rex with massive grin on his face, was offered a simple caught and bowled chance that he duly took to break the partnership just short of 100. Meanwhile, from the other end, Josh Weller was staking his claim to be the frontline spinner next season and building pressure which eventually led to a second wicket for Gilmour when he found the edge of Manish Kumar's bat and Logan took his second catch of the innings. James Laud came back for a second spell, this time twirling down some off spin and was immediately rewarded. Raimonds Mailits was bowled by Laud for 8 and when Ben Troops found the safe hands of Josh Gallimore in the sty from the spin of Sam Potter, the end looked like coming quickly. From 199-7, the final 3 wickets fell for 13 runs, Laud claiming 2 in an over before Josh Gallimore returned and took just 3 balls to finish the innings when Stuart Biggs took a good catch on the boundary to remove Martin Hodgson.

With a reasonable total on the board, Burghley's Bowlers went about starting the run chase. They were helped by the fact that 3 of the Boston players had got lost on their way back from the shop and missed the first few overs of the innings. Skipper Alex Ashwin and Stuart Biggs, who HAD never been out opening the batting for the first team moved the score well to 37, Ashwin being the main aggressor of the partnership, before Biggs was beaten by Damien Lawson to depart for 5. Mohammed Azhar lasted just 5 balls and added just 2 to the total before walking back to the pavillion offering a simple catch to Mailits at point from Lawson.

Chris Logan was his usual aggressive self for his 12, but came unstuck from the deadly full toss from Martin Hodgson when he could only manage a top edge to cover. Sam Potter came to the middle to partner Ashwin. With the score at 86, Potter offered Hodgson a simple catch at mid off to depart for 10. Josh Weller joined his skipper in the middle and the pair were moving the score along nicely taking Burghley past the halfway mark of the Boston target. Ashwin went to his 3rd league half century of the season before he miscued a cover drive to offer the easiest of catches to the man at extra cover and had to walk off for 72. Josh Weller and David Platt took the champions beyond 150 but Weller was dismissed for 23 caught by Troops from the spin of Tetther. Ryan Gilmour, Burghley's leading runscorer in the SLB league this season, walked out to join Platt and the pair got the park side to within 12 runs of victory. Unfortunately, neither man could see the chase through, but that honour was afforded to the opening bowling partners of Laud and Foster to seal a final 20 points of the season.

After the disappointment of the first week loss, just 4 points have been dropped in the remaining 15 games of the season to see Burghley playing premier league cricket in 2025 for the first time in the club’s 252 year history. A remarkable effort by all involved and here's to another excellent year for the club in 2025.