HEAVY rain brought a dismal end to Monmouth Cricket Club's second season in Division 2 of the Crusader Worcestershire County League.

Storms which swept the country inevitably washed out Monmouth's final league match of the campaign at lowly Avoncroft last Saturday.

Monmouth knew that a win at Avoncroft could have lifted them to third-place but the wet weather meant there was no play in any of the league's final round of matches.

While Herefordshire outfit Colwall have been crowned the Division 2 champions, with Coombs Wood taking the runners-up spot, Monmouth have finished in sixth position.

Chaddesley Corbett and Lye look set to be demoted from the division after finishing in the relegation zone, while Droitwich and Netherton were the bottom two sides in Division 1.

Dan Head's Monmouth side will be reasonably satisfied with their season's efforts – they ended up just 11 points behind third-placed Malvern.

But Monmouth will probably feel that in securing a mid-table place they, ultimately, under-achieved after making such an impressive start to the summer.

Monmouth, who are sponsored by Misbah Tandoori Restaurant and The Priory Nursing Home, were in the promotion shake-up during the early stages after chalking up four wins from their opening seven games.

Monmouth then endured a disastrous June, in which they failed to win a game, and that scuppered their hopes of a top-two placing.

To their credit, Monmouth proved hard to beat in their final 12 matches, suffering just two further defeats, while they also won two and drew five of those games.

The Welshmen finished their campaign with a total of 266 points from 22 matches which included six wins, four defeats, seven draws and five abandonments.

In 2007, Monmouth finished in seventh place with 220 points from 22 matches which consisted of seven wins, nine defeats, two draws and four abandonments.

Monmouth Seconds, who came fifth in 2007 with 247 points, finished a testing summer in seventh spot with 218 points from their 22 matches in 2nd XI Division 2.

Their last league match against promoted Hagley Seconds at Colwall was called off on Friday night owing to the heavy rain.