IT was a three-wicket win that was met with somewhat muted scenes of celebration – at least at first. But as results from elsewhere hit home on Saturday, the Hampstead players finally realised that they had done it: they had driven their club back to the top-flight of the Middlesex County Cricket League at the first time of asking.

Last season’s relegation won’t be easily forgotten, especially by club captain Mubasher Hassan. But he can take great pride in leading by example to guide Hampstead back to the Premier Division as he compiled a rapid half-century – hitting 50 not out off 51 balls – to help his side see off Barnes at Lymington Road.

After watching the action unfold at their ground in West Hampstead, club secretary and former chairman Nick Brown was keen to stress that winning the Division One championship doesn’t mean the players are about to take their foot off the gas.

“Obviously we’re delighted,” he said. “It was an emotional drain getting relegated last season, and our objective was clear this season that we wanted to get straight back into the Premier Division. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but the players have shown a great attitude and a good mentality.

“We’ve got a good team from top to bottom, and the players have shown good consistency all season, and put in some good performances. They deserve great credit.

“I think we benefited from having a host of new players who didn’t have that malaise of being relegated. They weren’t bothered by the fact that we weren’t playing against the likes of North Middlesex, Ealing or Shepherd’s Bush every week – they just wanted to get on with playing cricket for Hampstead.”

With one more home match left to play against North London sandwiched in between away days at Wycombe House and Harrow St Mary’s, Brown added: “The season isn’t over yet. We’ve got three games to go and are playing against sides that are still chasing the second promotion spot, so we want to be fair to everyone and play to our very best.”

Hampstead certainly had to produce at the weekend after James Gray and Ross Talmage put in knocks of 65 and 52 respectively to help Barnes climb to 178-7 off 45 overs. Liam Hehir did his best to restrict the chase as he took three wickets at the expense of just 40 runs.

Hampstead got off to a difficult start with openers Rafay Ahmed (four runs) and Amogh Karpe (2) both quickly departing after being picked off by Dan Scott (2-26).

That left the home side sitting on 17-2 and facing a long road to recovery. But recover they did with Joe Kendall and Damien Burrage putting on 77 for their third-wicket partnership. Kendall scored 42 while Burrage finished on 47.

With skipper Hassan arriving at the crease in fine form to finish the job off with his unbeaten 50, Hampstead reached their championship-winning total of 182-7 inside 35 overs.

Meanwhile, in the Premier Division, North Middlesex’s title hopes took another big hit as they suffered their fourth defeat in five games. Divyanshu Bhartiya (53 runs) and Joe Cracknell (49) both batted well for North Midd in what always promised to be a tough home match against Teddington.

Their efforts, along with Luke Hollman’s knock of 37, saw North Midd reach 209 before being dismissed in the 42nd over.

It was a lead that Jacob Miltz’s side were more than capable of defending, and they got off to a good start when Ethan Bamber removed Sam Greenland for a duck. Joel Hughes and Alex MacQueen also made early breakthroughs as they collected the respective wickets of Jack Victory and Daniel Escott, who both departed on 21 runs.

But a formidable and unbreakable fourth-wicket partnership of 149 between Ben Williams, who hit 95 off 108 balls, and Joe Ludlow, who scored 63, drove Teddington to victory – the visitors soaring to 210-3 to seal a seven-wicket win.

The defeat leaves North Midd sitting fourth in the table, albeit just 10 points behind leaders Shepherd’s Bush. They travel to relegation-threatened Stanmore this weekend.