CANON Frome won the GB Liners Marches League Division One title decider against Ledbury thanks to an outstanding century from Sam Pratley.

The game earlier in the season was cancelled following a Covid-19 outbreak causing the match to be rearranged.

Canon Frome went into the match 16 points clear at the top having been unbeaten all season but it was still all to play for as Ledbury had recovered from their opening day defeat to Frome by winning all of their matches and were fresh from winning the Marches T20 final.

Josh Evans, the Ledbury captain, won the toss and confident of early wickets he elected to field first. Ledbury started aggressively seeking to put the Frome openers under a lot of early pressure.

Pratley (125) and opening partner Ben Child (27) played superbly to take the shine off the ball and absorb the pressure, putting on 90 for the first wicket which fell when Child was out for 27.

The Frome innings continued in a similarly steady fashion with noticeable contributions from Pete Richards (19), Adam Atkin (14) and Suresh Panchaksharaiah (28) but it was Pratley’s innings of 125 that set the standard as Frome posted a decent target of 253.

Some suicidal running between the wickets accounted for three Frome wickets late on meaning that the team were all bowled out and despite the decent total, the title was still very much to play for.

In response Ledbury's fire power of Josh Evans (39) and Josh Emery (53) took them to task scoring at more than six an over for the first 12 overs causing a lot of rethinking for Frome skipper Andy Lloyd.

In the end it was Lloyd who was responsible for the breakthrough, having turned to left arm seamer Will Stephens, the Frome skipper held on to a huge hit from Emery at deep mid off who departed for 53.

Will Stephens bowled one of the best spells of the season and soon accounted for the other danger man Evans, one of three batsman caught behind by wicket keeper Sam Pratley.

Stephens turned the game with his 10 over spell, finishing with 3-21 while at the other end Panchaksharaiah took 2-34 from his 10 overs.

At this stage Frome were well on top and clear favourites.

However, there was still a twist in the tail.

Some heaving hitting from Brandon Caffull (46) and Duncan Bell (30) threatened to bring the title back to Ledbury.

But in the end the run rate was just too high and Canon Frome finished the season champions.