The helicopter came first. Then came history.
On a sunlit Lord’s outfield more used to international stars than village stalwarts, Cuckney – a tiny community near Warsop in north Nottinghamshire – completed a feat no club had ever managed before, adding the Village Cup to the National Cup they won in 2023.
Captain Richard Bostock called it a “special day”, and he did not need to embellish the point. His team have now conquered Lord’s twice in two seasons, first in the National Cup and now in the Village Cup, the first club ever to land that double.
Blackheath’s captain, Peter Melhuish, made his entrance by helicopter and then set about imposing himself with the bat. His 48 anchored the Surrey side’s innings, hinting at a total that might stretch amateur nerves on the biggest stage of all. For a while, it looked like the script would belong to him.
Cuckney tore it up.
Seamer Jake Tong ripped through Blackheath’s middle and lower order, collecting four wickets and stripping the innings of momentum just as it threatened to surge. Every time Blackheath tried to rebuild, Tong intervened. From a platform that promised much more, they were dragged back and finally bowled out for 186 – competitive, but far from untouchable at Lord’s.
Cuckney's Chase
For Cuckney, the chase was about temperament as much as technique.
Opener William Ullyott set the tone with a calm, measured 62 that quietened any early nerves and turned the famous old ground into his own village green. He picked off the bad ball, left well, and refused to let the occasion swallow him. At the other end, fellow opener Leighton Ambrick admitted the scale of it all hit him hard until he finally got off the mark. Once he did, the anxiety melted away and Cuckney’s reply began to move with purpose.
The pressure from the stands never really relented. Friends, family, and villagers who had made the trip down from north Nottinghamshire knew exactly what was at stake: a second title at Lord’s in as many years and a place in grassroots cricket folklore. Every run drew a roar; every boundary felt like it belonged to everyone.
Cuckney paced it smartly. They never allowed the required rate to become a burden, nudging and driving their way towards a target that shrank with each over. When the winning runs finally came – with one ball left in the 37th over and five wickets still in hand – the outpouring of emotion told its own story. This was not a smash-and-grab. It was a composed, professional chase from a side that now looks entirely at home on cricket’s most storied square.
The scale of the effort sits behind the scenes. Twenty-two league games to navigate, then a 10-match cup run, all the logistics, the training, the juggling of work and family life that comes with village cricket. Cuckney’s players and coaches pushed through all of it just to earn the right to walk through the Long Room again.
Coach Will Butler knows what that means. Several members of this side were there in 2023 when Cuckney first triumphed at Lord’s, and that memory clearly fuelled them. They had tasted it once. They came back to prove it was no one-off.
On Monday, they returned home to north Nottinghamshire as history-makers, greeted as heroes in a place Bostock describes as “tiny” but united. Not many clubs, at any level, can point to a double like this. The question now is simple: how far can a village team that keeps conquering Lord’s really go?
