St Cross U15 (128-6) Compton and Chandlers Ford (93-9).

On Friday evening, a surprisingly sunny Ropley was the venue for the U15 Millard Cup Final between Compton & Chandlers Ford and St Cross.

Compton won the toss and invited St Cross to bat on a drying wicket. Tom McCormick-Cox was an early victim for Harry Pone with the score on 10 and the dangerous Adam Wilkinson was removed for just 6 with Chris Murkitt's first ball. But at the other end, opener Matt Burrows was keeping the innings together and retired with a splendid 50 to his name. His partnership of 59 with Josh Merluk was ended by a fine direct hit from the outfield by Ravi Mani running out Merluk for an attractive 21. St Cross scored 128-6 at the end of 20 overs, setting a useful target for Compton.

In reply, Compton got off to a bad start losing their first two wickets for just 10 runs, with Alex Townsend taking a super diving catch to dismiss Holdsworth off the bowling of George Sylvester. Wickets fell steadily with Charlie Kickham taking four wickets to reduce Compton to 52-6 from 12 overs, Chris Murkitt following up his useful bowling performance by scoring 27 before becoming Kickham's first victim. There was then a partial recovery by the batsmen, with Harry Pone striking three consecutive fours to give Compton a glimmer of hope, but it was too little too late and St Cross ended up the victors by 35 runs.

Fair Oak (113-7) St Cross (114-3).

On Sunday morning, Bishops Waltham CC played host to the U13 Barfoot Cup Final between Fair Oak and St. Cross.

Fair Oak batted first and immediately put the St Cross fielders under pressure with some excellent running between the wickets as well as some aggressive strokeplay and had scored a useful 93-2 after 14 overs thanks to a fine knock of 30 (retired) by Jake Salmon, an innings that included 3 fours, and 25 from T. Nasir. But with the retirement of Salmon and the loss of Nasir, the run rate slowed down and they were probably disappointed with their final score of 113-7.

St. Cross's innings was largely built on a fine innings of 30 (retired) by Simon McCormick-Cox including 6 fours, and a partnership with R. Adamson (20) that saw St. Cross scoring the winning runs in the 19th over for the loss of just three wickets, Adamson scoring three boundaries in an over to see his team home. T. Nasir took two wickets to add to his runs in a good all-round performance.

So a double for St Cross in two different age groups and these teams now go forward to represent Winchester Warriors Junior Cricket in the U13 and U15 County Cup Competitions to determine the County champions. We wish both of these teams the very best of luck in their games against teams from North Hampshire.