St Cross U11s make it a cup treble.

St Cross Symondians, having already won the Barfoot and the Millard Cups this year, provided the opposition to Andover B in the U11 Oliver Cup Final which was played at a gloriously sunny Tichborne Park CC on Sunday morning. So the pressure was on the U11s to match the achievement of their older team mates and complete the treble for St Cross.

St Cross won the toss and invited Andover to bat on a pitch that played OK but with an outfield that, not surprisingly, was a little damp and meant the batsmen weren't always rewarded with boundaries for good shots. However, Andover built steadily, determined not to lose early wickets, and indeed the opening partnership between Max Romer-Lee and James Richards was worth 58 before Romer-Lee retired with his score on 31, a fine knock that included 5 fours. Later batsmen found it more difficult to score runs and the introduction by St Cross of leg spinner Charlie Ayres slowed down the scoring rate and Andover posted a score of 69-5 at the end of their twenty overs.

Charlie Ayres opened the batting with Jack Stanley and another good opening partnership was built of 47 before Stanley was bowled by Romer-Lee. Ayres went on to score an excellent 33*, with seven fours, before his enforced retirement with the score on 54-1. Weatherley and Middleton saw St Cross safely home in the 12th over and a victory for St. Cross by 9 wickets.

Although the winning margin appears big, there was some fine cricket played by both teams in this match and an excellent spirit and good sportsmanship was displayed throughout. If these two teams are anything to go by, the future of Winchester District cricket is in good hands.

Longparish U13 v Bishops Waltham U13.

Longparish win by 23 runs.

After a two-week lay off due to bad weather, both sides were relieved to take to the field, albeit a damp and squidgy one at Longparish.

Longparish lost the toss and were put into bat. An opening partnership of 58 was terminated with William de Cani's retirement on 32; fellow opener Alex Coetzee, run out for 13 shortly afterwards.

Michael Taplin batted beautifully for the remainder of the innings finishing on 24 not out as Longparish closed their innings on 104 for 4 from 20 overs.

Bishops Waltham's reply was checked in the second over, Bradley Aldridge bowling a superb double-wicket maiden. Excellent fielding by Longparish coupled with wickets for Ben Gardner, Alex Coetzee and Oliver Coetzee, maintained the pressure on Bishops Waltham. Opener Harry Mcghee batted throughout the innings for 23, while Greg Andrews made a quickfire 22 in Bishops Waltham's total of 81 for 7, 23 runs short of Longparish's total.

Twyford win Arlott Trophy.

After two exciting matches against top class teams Portsmouth and Yateley Manor, Twyford reached the final of the John Arlott Under 13 Tournament. Set to be played at Twyford on Monday (July 2) the match against Kings School got underway with only a couple of short breaks for rain.

It had been a good toss to win and Kings battled against some accurate bowling to 55 runs in 25 overs. Twyford came out to bat and were 18 for 0 after six overs when the heavens opened and the only description was that the match was monsooned' off with about an inch of water lying on the square.

It was agreed that both sides would meet again and replay the game at Kings on Friday (July 6). This time the weather was benign, positively sunny and once again Kings batted first and achieved 89 off 30 overs. In reply, Twyford crossed the winning line off after 23 overs for the loss of only 2 wickets - James Sennett finished undefeated on 40.

Twyford had not played in this tournament before but enjoyed the matches and look forward to defending their title next year.