It was a lovely spring evening at Exhall for the U14s to start their 2015 CHL campaign.

Exhall won the toss and put Earls into bat. Openers Dan Dixon and Josh Craven took an over or so to adjust to the slow pitch then got to work. Josh retired on 52 (off 26 balls) in the tenth over by which time the lads had put on 95. Dan was then out caught and bowled off a very poor three bounce delivery for 43 - which shows you do have concentrate son! The highlight of both Josh and Dan's innings were a six apiece off Whitmore's spin bowling. This just left Alex Booker (11no), Tom Blake (13) and Shaun Jenkins (7no) to see us through to post a commanding 137 off 16 overs.

Earls opening bowlers ensured that Exhall were never in the chase, particularly impressive was Jack Wilson with 4-1-3-0. First change Jake McGrory chipped in where he'd left off the night before at Bromsgrove with a nice 4-1-10-2. Good contributions from Sam Shaw, Shaun Jenkins and a wicket-maiden from Josh Craven meant Exhall were never at the races. Nonetheless they battled hard and opener J Clements 25no carrying his bat was an excellent innings.

Man of the match - Josh Craven - 52no; a direct hit run out and one over bowled and a wicket maiden. At least he dropped a catch a point so we could determine he was human after all! A brilliant contribution Josh!

Thanks to Exhall for fantastic hospitality, Phil Jenkins for taking the team and umpiring and also Shaun for a great job as captain. Not to forget Matt Shaw bringing pizza and beer for the scorer - good effort mate!