Rumburgh Cricket Club players and officials were made to sweat it out waiting for a result elsewhere to confirm whether or not they were to be promoted as Division C champions or runners-up.

Rumburgh Cricket Club players and officials were made to sweat it out waiting for a result elsewhere to confirm whether or not they were to be promoted as Division C champions or runners-up.

After it was discovered Eye had won their game, meaning Rumburgh were champions, the party started with the Champagne flowing freely, having been generously donated by The Buck landlady and club president P Van Dijk.

After last week's win had guaranteed promotion it was down to the last day of the season with Martlesham one point ahead of Rumburgh away to third- placed Eye, and Rumburgh at home to bottom Coddenham & Grundisburgh.

Hopes were high for the title with Rumburgh's largest crowd all season watching.

Coddenham's captain won the toss and chose to bat. Brennan and Milne opened the bowling for Rumburgh and bowled with pace and swing, but it wasn't until the 10th over that Milne finally got the first wicket, sending the stumps in all directions. It took a change of bowler to claim the second wicket with Godbold's spin bamboozling the batsman.

This brought Coddenham's captain to the crease who batted extremely well to frustrate the bowling attack at 62-2 off 21 overs, Rumburgh had to get wickets - eight wickets - if they were to claim maximum bowling points.

Youth bowler Jack Baldwin claimed the next wicket and with Milne now back in the attack, his pace proved too quick for the next two batsmen as he again sent the off-stump cartwheeling.

Coddenham were now 125-5 off 35 overs. Two more wickets fell in the last two overs with B Baldwin taking them to finish the innings on 142-7.

The Rumburgh team left the field disappointed not to have taken more bowling points, also a score that meant that Rumburgh would only be able to pick up three of the five batting points possible.

At this point the omens were not looking good and now Martlesham must be favourites for the title. Rumburgh's openers Haddingham and Baldwin started off knocking the ball to all parts of the ground, reaching 77 before Haddingham was bowled 40.

J Haddingham made a club record of 543 runs for the season beating the previous 516 (K Gowing).

Baldwin fell one over later for 39, leaving Gowing and Milne to steady the ship taking the score on to 133 before Gowing lbw 29 was out. J Cross was run out 14, leaving Milne and J Baldwin to hit the winning runs.

With Rumburgh only managing to take 16 off the 20 points on offer, Rumburgh's only chance of winning the league was to hope Eye had beaten Martlesham.

Anxious phone calls were made to try and find out, but no answers were forthcoming, leaving Rumburgh to sweat. When finally contacting an Eye official, the game was still be played; yet more waiting.

Then, after what seemed hours, the phone finally rang with the result Rumburgh had been waiting for, and confirmation that Eye had won - leaving Rumburgh to be crowned Division C champions.

So next season Rumburgh will be playing in Section B for the first time in their history and after losing only two games all season hopes will be high to remain, or even push for section A.

J Haddingham has been in hot form all season with bat and gloves. J Cross has also been in great shape with the bat, and with Ben Baldwin 183, the batting side looks to be in good hands, ably assisted by the captaincy of G Moon.

On the bowling side, D Milne has had an excellent season, taking 23 wickets, strongly backed up by Godbold 20 and Gowing 18.