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Norfolk
Norfolk

So it was all eyes were on the three teams vying for second place in the table and it wasn't
looking bad for Cambridgeshire, two of the games resulted in good wins while the other one
could have gone either way, unfortunately for Cambridgeshire a stubborn Bedfordshire team
wouldn't let the game go and ended up taking the win by a single shot. But with 4 points secured
it was far from over as they had to stand by and watch the Norfolk/Essex matches conclude.
With the exception of one of the games, which always looked like it was going Norfolk's way,
there was no telling how it might finish. But bit by bit Norfolk were edging away.
It had been a good day for Essex up to this point, but this was their worst by far, they
weren't completely out of the games by any means but they were up against a Norfolk team
who knew exactly what they needed to do and were determined to do it as in the end they won
all three games to secure the runner-up spot by 3 points over Cambridgeshire.
Although they had a better day on Sunday than they had on Saturday Northumberland
finished 9th, a position which looked in little doubt after the lost out to their nearest rivals early
in the day. Despite only finishing 8th Bedfordshire were delighted with that result, finishing off
the bottom of the standings for the first time since their debut year in 2011 and outscoring 3
other teams on Sunday.
After a fifth place finish last year Durham will be disappointed with 7th, overnight they
were only 3 points behind 5th but Sunday did not go well for them, although they did hold off
Bedfordshire having been in danger of finishing next to bottom. Having finished in second place
in 2016 and run Suffolk close for the Inter-County title on Friday night, 6th place for Sunderland
was both a surprise and a disappointment for them. Fifth overnight they were only 3 points be-
hind Cambridgeshire at that point and given that Cambs only just fell short of second, Sunder-
land will know that they could have done much better.
Up until the very end Essex had had a very good Sunday but their last 6 games yielded
only 2 points leaving them in 5th place. But despite that they still outscored everyone except
Suffolk on Sunday. However if that last session had gone their way instead of Norfolk's they
are the ones would have finished in second place overall.
There was a faint hope at the very end that Hertfordshire might, if the results had gone
exactly right for them, have finished second. They did all they could, but the odds were always
against it. While fourth place represented a big improvement on last year's seventh place, they
were second overnight and may feel a little disappointed with the final outcome.
After finishing 6th last year Cambridgeshire must be very pleased to have improved to
third this year and to have come so close to finishing as runners-up, particularly since they had
started off pretty slowly on Saturday. It was a sterling effort to haul themselves up bit by bit
across the weekend.