GLAMORGAN ended their otherwise dismal season on a high note at Sophia Gardens yesterday and confirmed their status as champions of the Division Two National League with an emphatic win over lowly Middlesex.

Robert Croft guided the side to a 40-run win with a sparkling maiden one-day century and struck two vital blows with the ball just when Middlesex looked set to spoil the party.

Croft carried his bat and shared a stand of 181 in 29 overs with skipper Steve James, pictured, as the pair rescued Glamorgan from a precarious position of 59-2 after 12 overs.

Keith Newell had departed early for 15 with the score on 22 and when Jimmy Maher was caught by John Maunders off the bowling of Chad Kegan for 28 Glamorgan were wobbling.

Croft and James steadied the ship and Croft's 114 not out - his highest score in any form of one-day cricket - included an array of attacking strokes, icluding three sixes and tenfours.

James scored 93 from 94 balls as the pair raced along at five an over for the majority of their side's innings.

By the time he departed, stumped by Nash off the bowling of Chad Keegan with the score on 240, Glamorgan had already set a healthy target for a young Middlesex side.

Matthew Maynard was in and out quickly, scoring just nine, before Darren Thomas and Croft carried the Dragons to a respectable 272.

In reply, Middlesex got off to a flying start chasing the difficult target of six an over. Maunders and Owais Shah put on 87 and were comfortably up with the run rate when Croft struck with the fourth ball of his first over.

The Glamorgan spinner gave the ball some extra speed and with Shah only poking tenatively forward, he edged it to Maynard behind the stumps.

Thomas then dismissed Maunders for 49, and when Croft bagged the wicket of Joyce at 104, the tide had turned in Glamorgan's favour.

Middlesex rallied briefly through Simon Cook, but when he departed for 50 the game was effectively over.

Wickets fell regularly from then on and by the time the retiring Steve Watkin was asked to bowl an emotional last over, Middlesex were 232-8.

There was to be no fairytale, however, and an appeal for lbw off the last ball of the season, which sounded like it came from the entire ground, was turned down by umpire Barry Dudleston.

By that time it didn't matter and at the end of a disappointing two weeks Glamorgan at last had some thing to smile about.