WERRINGTON captain Paul Smith believes his side’s team spirit was key as they reclaimed the ECB Cornwall Premier League title by just a point after beating Falmouth by eight wickets at Ladycross on Saturday.

Heading into the final round of fixtures, the North Cornwall club knew that any slip-ups would likely result in the title heading to Penzance instead following the West Cornwall club’s victory at Werrington seven days previously.

Penzance kept up their end of the bargain with a rountine nine-wicket thrashing of Callington at St Clare, meaning all eyes were on Ladycross to see whether Werrington could do likewise and secure the title in Smith’s first season in charge.

After winning the toss and choosing to field, Smith couldn’t have asked for a better start as Tom Dinnis clean bowled South African Grant Stone with the first ball of the match.

Dinnis (3-40) and the wily Ian Worsnip (3-31) then reduced the shellshocked visitors to 18-5 and an early finish looked on the cards.

However, teenager Oliver Paull made 92 from 99 balls to get Falmouth up to 146 all out with Adam Hodgson (2-14) chipping in at the end.

Despite a few dark clouds around, Werrington knew that they could still afford to lose five wickets en-route and batted sensibly.

Opener Matthew Robins and Adam Hodgson (32) put on 79 for the first wicket before Robins departed for 47 off 66 balls at 105.

Smith came in at number three and batted in his typically aggressive style.

After reaching 31 from 26 balls, he proceeded to hammer the ball through the off-side for four to win the game and secure their first title since 2015.

Smith admitted that it couldn’t have gone any better.

He said: “Before the game I was pretty nervous and didn’t have much sleep as I was going through every scenario in my head.

“However on the day I was pretty confident as we treated it like it was any other game.

“We always back ourselves to do the business at Werrington and I had every confidence that we’d win, but we knew we had to get 20 points.

“I had a sneaky feeling that if Dinno (Tom Dinnis) could get the first ball straight at a decent pace you never know, and he bowled a beauty which swung about half a foot and that put us right on the front foot.

“We then got four or five early wickets which was very handy and put us in total control.

“We were then able to dictate a bit and allow them to post a score which we wanted. We were thinking anywhere around 125 would be perfect for us as it allowed us to lose five wickets.

“When they got to 120 odd for 9 we were happy but then they got 20 more than we would have liked but we had every confidence we’d do it, which we did. We just batted normally and Mini and Hodgy got us off to a good start and then I came in and finished it off.”

Reflecting on their success, Smith admits that doing it with his best friends was just magical.

He said: “It was an unbelievable feeling to hit the winning runs to win the league, nothing comes close to it on a sporting field. Just the fact that we’ve done it with a team of best mates means a hell of a lot. It means a hell of a lot to every single person at the club as it’s where we want to be, challenging for trophies.

“The last two years we’ve been in mid-table and when we’ve won it before we always went into the season as one of the favourites. This year we were written off four games in after losing two and having one rained off.

“I think at one point we were about 30 odd points behind, so to come out at the end of the season winning the league by one point is a remarkable achievement.

“Our bowlers have performed as a unit. Jono (Jonathan Balcock) has 27 wickets, Dinno 26, Hodgy 26 and Ben (Smeeth) has 25 so there’s been no standout, but they’ve all contributed and then there’s Snippy (Ian Worsnip) who bowls ten overs for less than 30 most weeks.

“Batting wise, someone seems to stand up every week whether that be myself, Mini or Gribby (Mark Gribble), who did on several occasions in the last few weeks.”

Such faith in his troops is backed up by the number of players who have stood up in pressure situations.

Smith said: “The key to our success is 100% our team spirit. I’ve never been part of a team which has so much belief and a want to do well for each other. This season we’ve got ourselves out of a few sticky situations.

“However, I’ve said to the players a number of times, that regardless of whether you bat at one or 11, there’ll come a time when you’ll be required to win us the game or get us over the line.

“We’ve obviously played some really good cricket as well, it’s been a heck of a journey with my best mates around me and it’s been an honour to lead them out on the pitch but there were three main turning points to our season.

“First of all was Grampound Road away when we chased their score in the last over with Darren Webber hitting the winning runs and also St Just away.

“Going into that game, I had a look at the fixtures left and the St Just game was the one before our bye, so I thought if we could keep the momentum going at St Just, which is a very tough place to go to and win, we’d be right up there come the end of the season with mainly home games remaining.

“There, Gribby made a brilliant 96 to get us up to a decent score after a poor start and then our bowlers closed the game out.

“The last crucial moment was at St Austell a couple of weeks ago. We were cruising at 90-0 chasing 169 but we lost six wickets for two runs.

“We had to rely on Tom Lyle, who’s been a hero on many occasions and Tom Dinnis, who had been telling me how much he can bat for the whole season, to see us over the line.

“That was an incredible feeling going into the Truro game on the Bank Holiday Monday which we won.”

Smith, who has been travelling down from Birmingham every weekend to play, sees no reason why they can’t be up there once more in 2019.

Smith continued: “Looking ahead to next yearhopefully we’ll be up there again.

"At the start of the season we lost James Turpin to Wadebridge but brought in Jono from Australia. So really we’ve had a fairly similar side for a number of years.

“The great thing about our club is that everyone loves the club and the people around it, which makes it easy to retain players. That said, we’re always on the lookout for new players to add strength in depth throughout the club.

“However, we won’t be going out searching for too many players as we’re very happy with the squad we’ve got.”