Blackheath are through to the final of the London Club Championship after overcoming Bath in the semi-final stage at Rectory Field.

It is the first time Blackheath have reached the final of the national competition and they will now face Liverpool-based Northern CC on September 20, with the game likely to take place at the Beckenham County Ground.

Despite the dank conditions, Blackheath won the toss and decided to bat first, facing a very lively early over from Bath’s danger man Lloyd Davies.

At 11-2 from nine overs, and with Bath’s seamers making the most of the conditions, it looked like it would be a difficult task to build a competitive total.

But Tanweer Sikandar and Michael Thornley played the perfect innings, taking the sting out of the attack, then gathering runs before powering fours around the ground.

Sikandar batted 78 balls for his 51 before being caught on the long-on boundary, Thornley reached 75 off 108 balls but was caught trying to go over the top for another boundary.

Their 100-run partnership put Blackheath on the front foot, and then a classic run a ball innings from Dipayan Paul (18), Duncan Willetts (33) and Mahi Mahfuzul (10no) bought the total to a competitive 217.

In reply, Bath never really got settled against some highly disciplined Blackheath bowling, led by Sikandar.

Bath were 19-2 from seven overs but could not consolidate as Blackheath had done from an almost identical position.

As Jahed Ahmed switched on his radar, wickets fell at regular intervals, making it 38-3, 38-4 and 40-5.

With the heart of the batting removed, Bath’s Jenkins (43) and Padgett (21) added 50 runs before the partnership ended.

No one could stay with Jenkins as the Blackheath bowlers finished off the visitors, the wickets were shared two apiece for Ahmed, James Hands and Tom Mees.

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