Despite a dry start, persistent rain from around 1pm caused the tournament to be abandoned in favour of a ten-ball bowl-out.

At that stage, three teams had emerged as early favourites, with Darley Dale, Marehay and Aston on Trent each having won their first two matches.

But with no one team having yet been eliminated, organiser Steve Haslam decided that the fairest way to determine the outcome was to give each side ten attempts to hit the stumps, with the team removing the bails the most times taking the honours.

After nine of the teams had taken their turn, three were level on four bowl-outs - Darley Dale, Matlock Stallions and Aston.

Last year's winners, Alvaston and Boulton, then stepped up and hit the stumps four times within the first seven balls.

Two misses followed and a sudden death shoot-out looked odds-on before Achin Chand, who was the 2007 tournament's top bowler, prepared to deliver.

Despite some light-hearted barracking from A&B's rivals on the boundary, Chand kept his cool and struck the stumps to prompt wild celebrations among the Derby side's squad, who had retained the Matlock title.

A&B captain Mohammed Waseem received the winners' trophy and the first prize of £100 from the event's sponsor, Maazi Indian restaurant owner Irfan Shabir.

A batting award was shared by Darley Dale's Jamie Watts and Tom Burke, of Marehay, both of whom struck three sixes in one innings.

The bowling award was awarded to Chesterfield side Spital for actually failing to hit the stumps with a single delivery during the bowl-out, while Cutthorpe's Chris Pemberton took the 'champagne moment' award for a superb caught and bowled.