After a season of toil and disappointment, winning the Central Counties final against Social Club at The Den on Sunday was a “beautiful ending to a difficult season” according to Devonshire Rec's player/coach Ricky Brangman.

Rec ended Social Club's hopes of a rare domestic treble thanks to a resounding 80-run victory - as YMSC were bundled out for 167 on a difficult pitch chasing Rec's imposing 247 all out.

“It was a good all round performance from the guys on Sunday and we're obviously very happy to have finished the season with some silverware,” said Brangman.

“We said before the start we needed to bat first and score a minimum of 250. But with the wicket behaving like it did I thought a score in the 240s was good enough to be a winning total. In the field I just told the bowlers to concentrate on being accurate because the wicket would do the rest for them and it turned out to be right.

“We also held on to a number of good catches which is a vindication of the amount of hard work we have put into that area of our game during training.”

The bizarre dismissal of veteran left-hander Charlie Marshall, who was bowled by the gentle left arm medium pace of Derek Brangman after the ball pitched and literally rolled onto his off stump, was a turning point in the game, Brangman conceded.

“Charlie was unlucky and obviously getting him out relatively cheaply was crucial,” he said.

“But I was still a little worried with Kevin Hurdle and Kenny Phillips at the crease. Both those guys are big hitters and on such a small ground were always going to be dangerous. I have to admit I was glad to see the back of Kenny when we got him out and after that I was pretty confident we had it in the bag.”

Reflecting on the season as a whole, which saw Rec. survive in the Premier Two-Day League but relegated from the top-flight Limited Overs competition, Brangman argued that greater discipline in the batting department was needed for future success.

“Our batting certainly needs improvement,” he said.

“At the moment most of our batsmen are still looking to play too many shots and we certainly don't run that many ones and twos. Overall we are very, very disappointed with how things have gone. It was very difficult for some of our guys who have not had that much exposure to Premier Division cricket but we do have a core of players that if we stick together can come bouncing back.”

On a personal note, Brangman said that he will now fade slowly out of the picture as a player and concentrate on his role as coach.

“From a playing point of view it was really nice to pick up some silverware because originally I was not going to play at all,” he said.

“I'm not sure what I'm going to do next season and I'll think about it more over the winter. For the moment though I'm not sure I'll be playing that much and I'll move more into my coaching role. I enjoy working with players and hopefully we can begin to make the improvements we need to.”