BARTESTREE & Lugwardine under-15s have closed in on the league title after overcoming Colwall in their last league game.

The youngsters knew that a victory would all but seal the league title.

However, holiday season caused us a challenge – with five players from the side’s usual starting XI missing so under-13s calling on Miles Anderson, Avi Singh, Gauranga Rao and Henry Cobb to step up an age group.

Skipper Ethan Bartlett won the toss and elected to bat, opening alongside Tommy Spence  and they went off like a rocket, both hitting multiple boundaries as we shot to 26-0 inside three overs.

Spence was then run out attempting a tight single, bringing Will Beaumont to the crease.

Beaumont picked up where Spence left off, also hitting multiple boundaries and looking particularly strong through the leg side.

They reached 57-1 part-way through the sixth over, at which point Bartlett was caught in the covers for an excellent 31 off just 20 balls.

Out came Ewan Boyle and the runs continued to flow; Bartestree moved to 105-2 off 14 overs and then 139-2 off 18 overs.

An impressive partnership of 94 finally came to an end as Ewan was run out for a brilliant 31 in the final over.

Beaumont then hit the final two balls to the fence as he finished as top scorer with 48 not out as Bartestree finished on 160-3 off 20 overs, their highest total of the season and setting Colwall a daunting 161 to win.

Colwall started well and reached 35-0 in the fifth over thanks largely to a knock of 16 from Jack Milne.

Spence and Boyle took wickets to leave Colwall at 73-4 off 12 overs and we were well on top.

However, Colwall continued to fight and scored 25 runs off the next two overs to keep them just about in the game, needing 62 off the last six overs.

But a fine spell from Rao put the game to bed, bowling some crafty spin on a turning pitch which the Colwall lower order couldn’t handle. He finished with excellent figures of 3-5 off three overs and Colwall were all out for 127 to give Bartestree victory by 33 runs.

The result leaves Bartestree sitting pretty at the top of the league, 15 points clear of second placed Luctonians and all but guaranteed to be champions.

The following night the Bartestree youngsters were back in action in the HCL Cup quarter-final (100 format) against Burghill.

Burghill won the toss and elected to bat with Rhys Morgan (15), Noah Morgan (26) and Barney Stevenson (26) helping the visitors to 112-5 off their 100 balls.

In response Bartestree capitalised off 60 extras and an unbeaten knock of 29 by Rao to reach the target off 92 balls.