Big-hitting Colchester and East Essex cricketer Graham Napier has come within a whisker of creating a new chapter of club and Shepherd Neame Essex League history.

Teenage Essex all-rounder Napier blasted five sixes and a four in the final over to bludgeon promotion-chasing Colchester to a six-wicket first division win over Brentwood with 13 overs to spare.

A similar result over second-placed Hadleigh and Thundersley in a crunch promotion decider at the John Burrows Recreation Ground on Saturday will secure Colchester premier division cricket next season and the continued future for Napier and his Essex clubmate Ian Flanagan at Castle Park.

Napier's incredible feat came as Colchester were chasing a Brentwood score of 162 for nine declared.

Opener John Butcher hit 29 to see Colchester off to a good start, but Napier was undoubtedly the star of the show.

His match-winning 96 not out included five sixes and 12 fours in 49 minutes off 56 balls and he finished off his devastating display of big hitting with 34 runs (6-4-6-6-6-6) in the final over of the match.

"I hadn't hit a six until the final over and then I went berserk and hit five," said Napier.

"The fifth ball went for the biggest six I have ever hit in my life.

"The boundary was 60-70 yards away and the ball clipped the top of a tree which must have been all of 60 feet tall - it was huge.

"We needed three to win off the final ball and I pulled it over the boundary once more."

Napier's hopes of finishing with a century were scuppered in the previous over when his captain Andy Kennedy edged a delivery for four.

"Napier said: "I looked at the scoreboard then and realised I couldn't get my ton."

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