DANIEL Arms simply says "it's what dreams are made of".
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The Charlestown captain surrounded by his teammates, family, supporters, club officials and former players, was understandably emotional as the reality of what just transpired began to sink in.
Not only producing a "perfect game" to beat City by 133 runs in Newcastle District Cricket Association's first-grade final at No.1 Sportsground this weekend, but sealing a minor-major premiership double for 2023-2024 and capping off a body of work over multiple summers from a group of almost entirely Magpies juniors.
"It's not just one year," Arms told the Newcastle Herald amid the celebrations.
"Some of us have played 10-plus years for something like this. At the start of the year I knew we had a good team but the belief just built throughout the year. We put together the perfect game [this weekend], but pretty much every week since Christmas."
Charlestown didn't lose a two-day fixture this campaign, unbeaten across those eight rounds (six wins, one draw, one wash out) before following suit in the semi and decider.
The main showdown couldn't have gone any more to script for the Magpies across the last 48 hours.
Having won the toss and elected to bat, Charlestown used all-but one ball of 90 available overs to post 292 on Saturday before dismissing City for 159 in reply on Sunday.
All-rounder Daniel Chillingworth, who was named joint NDCA player of the year on Friday, was key with both bat and ball - scoring 41 before claiming 5-30.
His innings helped take the total from 2-115 to 4-219 and his leg-spinners picked up the back-to-back wickets of Elijah Smith (34) and Mitch Nesbitt (64) to leave City 6-143 after they recovered from 4-32.
"We've won nine out of 10 of those clutch moments all year, but to have your best player stand up with bat and ball is something else," Arms said.
Charlestown's Matthew Bench (75) and Jed Dickson (58) both made half-centuries on day one.
City skipper Callan Fowler (3-81) and fellow spinner Harry Campbell (4-92) shared seven wickets from a combined 59.5 overs.
"We've been working hard for a couple of years and we keep getting better and better," Fowler said during the post-match presentation.
"Semi-final last year, grand final this year, maybe we can go again next year and get the chocolates."