Ravenscroft hammers best of rest

TIM RAVENSCROFT has made history by becoming the first Guernsey boy to play cricket at England regional level. The PriceWaterhouseCoopers school of excellence player represented the West in the ECB and ESCA under-13 festival at Kings School, Taunton, and shone with the bat.

On the first day, England star Darren Gough was on hand to present the players with their regional caps and the Guernsey youngster, 13, celebrated by stroking a scintillating 88 not out against the South.

The innings had Guernsey Cricket Board coach Jason Shambrook in raptures.

'Tim applied himself really well and played the natural game that only he could play,' said Shambrook.

'Mike Kinder and I had our hearts in our mouths when he was dropped over the boundary for six, but he hits the ball so hard that the fielder catching the ball was never really an option.'

The South region consisted of the top players from counties such as Surrey, Kent, Essex and Middlesex, who found out Ravenscroft can bowl, too.

After the West won the toss and elected to field, the South's run rate was approaching five an over when the captain turned to Ravenscroft's off spin in an attempt to slow down the runs and create pressure on the batters.

Ravenscroft bowled well in tandem with Wales' Imran Hassan as he bowled his eight overs for just 24 runs.

The pair was instrumental in restricting the South to just 216 when it looked like that 280 was on the cards.

In reply, the West's Somerset opening batsman, Henry Thomas, got off to a flyer, hitting a quickfire 35 before nicking a slower ball through to the slips. This brought Ravenscroft to the crease and by tea he had scored a run-a-ball 38.

After the interval, the West proceeded to lose two wickets in quick succession but this did not slow Ravenscroft and Devon's James Toland who were in no mood to hang about. The Guernsey star hit two massive straight sixes in one over and five in total as his team surged to victory with over 10 overs to spare.

Day two brought another victory for the West, this time against the supposed might of the North that included the big counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Durham.

Everyone was dumbfounded as the West run out comfortable winners with plenty of overs to spare.

Once again the West won the toss and inserted the opposition with the game following a similar pattern to the first match.

Welsh spinner David Lloyd and Ravenscroft dried up the runs in the middle section, with both bowlers consistently landing the ball in the same place. The Sarnian bowled beautifully finishing with a wicket and conceding just 34 runs from 15 overs that included seven maidens.

With the North scoring only 176 from their 51 overs it was relatively straightforward for the West as openers Lewis Gregory and Thomas put on 90 for the first wicket until Gregory was stumped.