'Long time coming': Knights prevail in classic to end 23-year flag drought

That's how Cobden captain Simon Murfett summed up the mood after his side broke a 23-year South West cricket division one premiership drought on Saturday.

The Knights downed Pomborneit by just 17 runs in a high-scoring grand final that will live long in the memories of those who witnessed at Cobden Recreation Reserve.

Batting first, the home team amassed 6-236 from their 50 overs, thanks largely to half-centuries from Matt Kemp (77) and Kaplan McCann (58).

In reply, the visitors' looked on target for most of the innings and even after a late collapse it seemed as though the hard-hitting Tharaka Sendanayake (75 off 67) would get them home.

However, any hopes of a Bulls' premiership evaporated when Sendanayake was dismissed by Angus Uwland (3-34) with 19 runs from 15 balls still required.

The final two wickets fell inside the over, handing the Knights the flag, just a year after they lost the 2022-23 decider to Bookaar.

Murfett, who didn't play in the club's last premiership in 2000-01 but featured in a losing grand final not long after, was near speechless.

"It feels so surreal," he told The Standard.

"I don't know how to feel at the moment, it's just a weird feeling. A long time coming."

The Knights skipper understands just how much the win means to his club.

"It's just phenomenal, just the work that everyone else does to get us out on the park it's just great for them," he said.

"It means probably more to us to win it for them than it does to us to actually win it. The mountain of work that's gone in the last 20 years to keep teams on.

"We dropped back to one team for a little while and struggled with numbers and then we got it back to three strong teams."

Murfett praised his opponents for a "cracking game", as well as Kemp, who was deservedly awarded player-of-the-match honours.

"Up until country week he'd been in great form and then he lost a bit of nick and was panicking a little bit but we all said to him 'just keep going, you know what to do' and today he proved it," he said.