THE chairman of Bromley Cricket Club has spoken of his pride for his players, despite them losing the Cockspur National Cup final.

Richard Lane's men lost to South Northumberland (SN) in the showpiece final at Lords by 83 runs.

Bromley retained the Kent League Premier Division title at the weekend but there is an air of disappointment at the club after they lost their Evening Standard Challenge trophy in the semi-final the weekend before.

Richard, who was on holiday in Tenerife during the final but kept informed of the score throughout the day by text, said: "Obviously we are extremely disappointed in the way we performed."

He added: "But to reach the final itself was a magnificent achievement by the team and we could not be more proud of them.

"To win the Kent League, reach the semi-final of the Evening Standard Trophy and the final of the national cup is excellent.

"We have firmly established ourselves as one of the best clubs in the country."

At Lords, Bromley won the toss and put SN into bat.

It was first blood to Bromley as Michael Bluett dismissed SN's skipper and opening batsman John Graham for a duck with Leo Taylor taking his first of two catches on the day.

SN added 40 more runs before Brendan Ford was bowled by Tom Mees for 29.

The dismissal was swiftly followed by Chris Hewison being run out and SN were floundering on 58-3.

There was more success for Bromley when James Miller at number five was caught LBW by Nadeem Shahid and SN were 81-4.

But then came a dogged display from the middle order as Matthew Hall hit 60 helping SN to 173 before Adam Heather, at number two, was bowled by Matthew Issacs for 68.

Steve Humble (30) and a single from Lee Crozier saw SN to 227 off 45 overs.

Most worrying, Bromley's normally reliable bowling had gifted SN a telling 29 extras.

Bromley's opener Leo Taylor suffered a similar fate to SN's skipper being caught LBW for a duck and when number three Grant Sheen went for 14, leaving Bromley on 30-2, things looked tough.

However, Shahid was in inspired form with the bat hitting 78 before being bowled by Richard Brook.

Unfortunately his batting partners could not keep up and the wickets tumbled - including a double LBW score off one over for Crozier in dismissing James Watson and Matthew Isaacs for ducks.

Bromley found themselves 120-7 and despite a late rally they could only reach 143 all out off 39.2 overs.

Man of the match went to SN's Steve Humble for his 3-16 bowling figures and 30 not out with the bat.