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Conner Haddow will be back at his home from home when he leads Buckinghamshire in the NCCA Cluberly Championship final against Devon at West Bromwich Dartmouth starting on Sunday.

Slow left-armer Haddow plays his club cricket for High Wycombe but it is at Sandwell Park in the heart of the West Midlands where he has produced some of his most eye-catching performances.

In his last three appearances for Buckinghamshire at West Bromwich – two in Championship finals – Haddow has taken 33 wickets including 16 in last year’s final, nine of them in Devon’s second innings.

The pitch for last year’s final took spin from an early stage and produced a compelling contest in which Haddow eclipsed the 12 wickets that Callum Harvey took for Devon to secure a 19 runs victory and Buckinghamshire’s second title in three seasons.

The same sides are back again this season having retained their respective divisional titles with Haddow helping Buckinghamshire edge out Suffolk in Eastern Division One in his first season as captain having succeeded Alexei Kervezee who stepped down after last season’s victory to become Worcestershire’s Second XI coach.

Haddow has led from the front with 24 wickets in the four group matches which has taken his aggregate to 124 in 17 matches in the last four seasons with the likelihood of him adding to that haul over the four days at the ground where he has been particularly prolific, although conditions may be less spin-friendly after a week of rain in the West Midlands.

“I think everyone has grounds that they tend to do well at but I’m not quite sure why I have done well at West Bromwich,” Haddow said.

“For me it’s the same wherever we go – go to the ground, do what we do well, try and nail or skills and see what comes of it.

“Last year was very extreme with the dry weather. It spun from day one which we weren’t expecting, and I don’t think anyone was expecting that.

“We will see what the wicket looks like when we get there on Sunday. The groundstaff have a lot of games there and they do a great job preparing a wicket for a four-day final at this time of year.

“I think there are 22 league games in the Birmingham League, Staffordshire also play there and they have other matches too but the groundstaff always do a great job.”

While Devon went unbeaten in their Western Division One campaign – three wins and a draw – Buckinghamshire slipped up against Northumberland at Benwell Hill in the second game of their title defence but they won their other three matches, including a crushing win over Cambridgeshire at Peterborough in their last match.

That victory was secured early on the last day which then meant Buckinghamshire then had to follow events at Stafford from afar hoping that Staffordshire could deny Suffolk victory. It was a similar scenario to 12 months ago when Buckinghamshire’s last divisional match against Lincolnshire at High Wycombe was washed out early on the last day and they then needed Cambridgeshire to draw with Staffordshire at Peterborough to stay top.

Cambridgeshire held on with their last pair at the crease on that occasion and this time it was Staffordshire who did Buckinghamshire a favour by batting out for the draw against Suffolk with seven wickets down.

“It was very similar to last year having to watch the Staffordshire game play out,” Haddow said.

“We had done all that we could against Cambridgeshire, we then had to wait to see what happened at Stafford. If it hadn’t gone our way we would have looked back to the game at Northumberland, or bonus points or why we didn’t do this or why didn’t do that.

“But I was pretty confident in the fact that we had played some very, very good cricket this summer. We had a poor couple of sessions at Northumberland which could have cost us. With a short Championship season, with only four matches, that’s the way it goes sometimes.

“I wouldn’t say we were nervous, it was more just waiting to get the Staffordshire result to find out if we had to go back to work or if we were done.

“I didn’t watch the live stream from Stafford. Me and the coaches made the effort not to follow it because you then don’t enjoy the win over Cambridgeshire. We had all celebrated winning that match and for  winning three games in Division One for the first time.”

The sides for the final are likely to be similar to the ones that faced each other 12 months ago with Buckinghamshire having replaced Kervezee with his former Worcestershire team-mate Matt Pardoe who moved from Herefordshire this season. Pardoe, who is Head of Cricket at RGS High Wycombe, and has also joined Haddow at the High Wycombe club having left Halesowen at the end of last season.

“Matt is someone who should be bowling but with myself and Bertie Foreman he hasn’t really had much opportunity,” Haddow said.

“Bertie has been signed by Kent for the rest of the season so the one game Matt had the chance to bowl in against Cambridgeshire he did unbelievably well, taking five for seven.

“I now play club cricket with him as well. He’s a just a great character, he’s very calm. He sets the standard, he’s very professional and hopefully his skills will help us over the four days. He will also know the ground well from his time in the Birmingham League.”

NCCA CLUBERLY CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

September 6-9 (10.30am)

West Bromwich Dartmouth CC: Buckinghamshire v Devon.