Of all the lovely grounds we are privileged to play on through the cricket season, Easton and Martyr Worthy CC has a special place. It is the only ground that offers a pitch right in the middle of the ground, giving our youngsters centre stage for the first time in their fledgling careers surrounded by green fields and rolling English hills. And today's glorious sunshine, despite the blustery wind, provided yet another picturesque backdrop for a fine display of teamwork by St Cross.

A late cancellation of the GU11 game and the unexpected availability of two extra Easton players gave us another chance to get the brother-sister combinations out. Led by Ollie Punnett, our team consisted of Will Aikenhead, Atana and Hari Arunan, Helen and Dan Bastin, Ollie Charman, Joshua Hicks, Aditya Shah and Ben Tucker (wk).

As Easton batted first, our bowlers and fielders provided a sustained, economical and disciplined attack restricting the opponents to 269. Helen and Joshua were the pick of the bowlers with two wickets a piece whilst ably assisted by an outstanding display of wicket keeping by Ben who took five catches behind the wicket in addition to shattering the stumps in the last over with his pace bowling. Although we did miss a few catches in the sunshine and strong winds, Will held on to take a beautiful catch off one of the batsmen at mid on and the ground level fielding proved to be sharp.

Once again, Ben (top scoring with 27 runs including 2 boundaries) and Aditya opened our batting with confidence and guile, working the Easton bowlers around the field with great rotation of strike and calling. Hari weighed in with a determined 19 runs in the middle order which included a six and 2 boundaries despite a rather painful hit from the ball in his last over. A special mention goes to Atana and Helen, who faced Easton's fastest bowlers in their 4 overs and yet managed to lose their wicket only once despite taking some scary body blows. The finish was polished off by an inspired display of batting by Joshua, who, with a combination of leg glances and drives, hit 4 boundaries on his way to 22 in the final four overs to bring the total to 306. What an emphatic way to seal yet another St Cross victory!

Thank you for coming along today - our youngsters' success owes a great deal to their parents' commitment, support and encouragement. And a big thank you to Joshua's dad, David, who in is his maiden effort has produced the most detailed scoring sheet in recent history!

Hope to see you again next Sunday for the penultimate fixtures.