Burghley Park Cricket Club stages its finals night of the sixes competition

The finale of the popular Burghley Sixes tournament takes place tonight (Friday).

Teams have been playing each night this week to try and secure their place at finals night which gets underway at Burghley Park at 6.15pm.

The remaining quarter-finals of the competition were held last night (Thursday) with Market Overton defeating Newborough, Bourne beating Ufford Park and Oundle overcoming Oakham.

Barnack booked their place at finals night in dramatic fashion after the first last eight tie on Wednesday evening.

They smashed 14 runs off the last three balls of the final over to defeat Castor and seal their semi-final spot.

Barnack had earlier ousted holders and hosts Burghley Park in the opening match of the competition. They take on Marko in the opening semi-final with Oundle then facing Bourne.

Market Overton and Castor were also winners on the first night with Ufford Park and Newborough progressing to the quarter-finals from Tuesday's matches.

Bourne took the first steps towards regaining their crown with victory in their first round match over Easton-on-the-Hill.

Bourne last won the event in 2019 and will again be targeting success after losing out last season to Burghley Park who won the competition for the first time in their history.

The Sixes matches have followed on from the day games where Burghley have had mixed fortunes against visiting sides.

They beat Free Foresters on Monday as Alex Ashwin and Caius Headley both took three wickets each as the visitors were bowled out for 256.

Ben Potter (60) and Ryan Gilmour (59) then laid the foundations for the run chase before Daniel Costello cracked 14 fours and two sixes in his 30-ball 73 not out.

George Holmes took 4-36 and James Biggs claimed 3-26 as Authors XI were bowled out for 235 in Tuesday's match.

Stephen Harker-Brown then top-scored with 60 as Burghley were bowled out for 200 in reply.

They were dismissed for 156 in Wednesday's defeat against the Gentlemen of Leicester as Costello top-scored with 45.

Thursday's tussle with West Norfolk also ended in a 113-run loss after the visitors declared on 264-7 with Burghley being dismissed for 151 in reply.

They concluded their day games today (Friday) with a home match against the MCC which gets underway at 11am.