CAPTAIN Simon Belston notched up a half century to lead Bury to their first ever Cross Cup final victory on Sunday.

And he is already gunning for a next maiden success, as the club bids to pip Flixton to the Bolton Association title.

The Radcliffe Road men, who are currently joint second in the league, beat Edgworth by four wickets to clinch the trophy at Winton and now Belston is aiming for double glory.

“To win the Cross Cup means everything to us,” he said. “It means everything to me, the club and its members. It was a great team effort and the victory will last long in our memories.

“However, the business is not over yet. We want to win the double, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do in the league.”

Edgworth won the toss and decided to bat first in the 120th staging of the final, but the Recreation Ground men got off to a nightmare start, losing both openers cheaply.

Professional Liam Watkinson top-scored with 37 to steady the innings, while his father Mike Watkinson (33) and skipper Guy Haynes (32) helped Edgworth to a total of 173.

Bury trio Nekoli Parris (3-58), Alex Breckin (3-33) and overseas Matt Twentyman (1-19) impressed Belston.

“They all did the business for us,” he said. “We were lively in the field, we took our catches well and we ran a couple of players out.

“They had three men who got into the 30s, but, no-one really pushed on to get them over the line.

“Wickets fell at just the right time for us. We had a couple of very good early run outs which were very important. We took Simon Lord out and then I hit a direct ball to take the South African overseas player Jaco Fourie out. That was a big run out in itself.”

An opening 91-run partnership from Belston (59) and Mumtaz Mirza (48) gave Bury plenty of confidence in the early stages of their reply, before Mike Watkinson skittled the first four batsmen as Bury struggled to remain in control.

However, Irfan Rana, Mukthar Nasir and Matt White helped Bury to 174-6 to clinch the victory.

“The opening partnership set us alight,” said Belston. “But when we lost Mirza and our pro in quick succession we needed to rebuild. Then it was just about getting over the line.

“Taking nothing away from Edgworth, it was a tough game of cricket, a great game of cricket. It went down to the wire and right down to the last over.

“The crowd were out in numbers and it was brilliant. It was everything you could ask for from a cup final.”