LION-HEARTED Leon Watson proved he was the MANE man to be crowned King of The Road.

The in-form all-rounder beat off fierce competition to reign supreme over his subjects at Wandsworth Common.

He dispatched Dan Howard, Chris Beckett and Chris Simmons on his way to the showpiece final.

Then, facing-off against Matt Cocken in bad light, the 31-year-old hit him for six to be the first to win The Road’s Single Wicket Challenge trophy.

The competition was played in matchplay format with players drawn against each other in a first round, quarter final, semi and final.

Each player batted and bowled against each other in the ties – played over four overs for the first two rounds – while the rest of the competitors fielded.

Matchplay champ Leon, from Streatham, arrived late to the event on Friday with the competition already underway.

Gritty Chris B had already sparked the shock of the day by thrashing Kevin “KP” Pittaway, who has wowed the crowds recently with his all-round performances, in the first round.

Then beefy all-rounder Matt put in a series of sparking performances to see off Adam Majeed and Giles Fagan to get to the final.

It set the scene for a nail-biting final played with just eight balls each as the light faded.
Leon batted first and hit 14 ‘- including a towering six to the square leg boundary.

Matt then went in and crumbled under the pressure as he was bowled to hand his rival the crown.

Jubilant Leon said: “It was a great competition and Matt put up a great fight in the final. That was the first time I’ve hit a six and I was over the moon.

“Hopefully next year we can make it a bigger and better day and it’ll end up being the highlight of our year.”

Club captain Raju Mazumder wasn’t available to compete but the other players attending were James Pritchard, Jamie Keating, Amir Alipour-Mehraban and Simon Biffen.

Aussie John Gledhill, who couldn’t take part because of a dodgy arm stopped him bowling, was on hand to keep wicket.

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