St Ronald have won the 2008 Oxy Cup following a hard and closely fought 17 run victory over the DeC Rebels at DP1. The final unfortunately had to be switched from Mannofield at the eleventh hour due to the Mannofield pitch still suffering from the effects of heavy rain over the weekend. Apart from a light shower during the early part of the match, the weather held out well. Ian Goodenough and Chris Watson were the umpires on the night.

St Ronald won the toss and elected to bat. St Ronald batted very well on the night, reaching 153 for 8 after 20 overs, with a number of mighty blows to the boundary. Gaurav (27), Sunny (30 no), Rob (28) and Arun (24) were the main scorers for St Ronald. Pick of the bowlers for the Rebels were Amol (1 for 19) and Guneet (1 for 18).

The Rebels started well and matched the required run rate of nearly 8 per over, but were eventually pegged back by some good bowling by St Ronald in the latter half of their innings. At the close, the DeC Rebels reached a creditable 136 for 8, falling 17 runs short, with Kapil (33 no), Swapnil (22) and Shiraz (16) top scoring. Pick of the bowlers for St Ronald were Stuart Clark (3 for 16 off 3 overs), Affi (1 for 16 off 2 overs) and Vaibhav (1 for 24 off 4 overs).

The AECL prize ceremony then followed.  First up was Martyn Budd of Grammar Hockey, receiving a tankard for AECL Batsman of the Year (see previous story for full details). Rahul of the DeC Rebels was also awarded a tankard, for AECL Bowler of the Year.

The umpires on the night, Ian and Chris, awarded the Cup Final Man of the Match tankard to Gaurav of St Ronald, for his all round performance with both bat and ball.

The League trophy was presented by the President, Mike Shepherd, to the skipper of Inn at the Park, Mudassar Kazi.

Finally, the Oxy Cup was presented to the winning St Ronald skipper, Stuart Clark.

This brought to an end the AECL for another season...........