No vacancy

It all came down to the last game. We had to beat our promotion rivals, Ibeju Lekki 2, by a convincing margin in order to secure the division II championship and a spot in next season's 1st division.

The TBS oval was in top condition, the FGCW players gathered from far and wide. We won the toss and decided to bat. The first half of the innings was watchful, bordering on pedestrian, punctuated by the fall of two wickets. Amen Edebor joined Roland Ilube with the score just past 60, and the pair carried on from where they had left off in the last match, pushing things along to the 90 run mark. Then it was time to put the pedal to the metal as the skipper decided he was tired of running and so would hit some boundaries. The next ten overs produced nearly a hundred runs as the pair tucked into the ILCC2 attack. Roland finally departed for 88, but if our opponents thought their problems were over, they were to be disappointed. Obo Omoigui proceeded to despatch the ball with clinical precision, compiling a brutal 65* as we took our total to 279-5 off our 50 overs.

Faced with the run mountain that we had constructed, Ibeju's batsmen never really got into their stride, and Friday Udoh (4-24) swung the new ball well to effectively decide the game in the first 10 overs of their reply. Femi Oduyebo took two at the other end and it was left to Michael Agbiboa - The Delta Express - to wrap things up with the last 3 wickets. All out for 66 and victory by 213, yes I said 213 runs.

A few weeks ago the sponsor of the Ibeju team had told me that there was no vacancy for promotion to division 1 this season. He was right, this championship was always going to be ours from the start of the season.