THE Worcestershire Under 13s tour of South Africa came to an end when the team touched down at Heathrow airport recently, following two weeks in the heat of the southern hemisphere.

Thirteen young cricketers took part in a cricket festival to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of St. Stith-ians School in Johannesburg.

The Worcestershire sidecame back with a record of played five, won two, lost two and drew one.

The first match was against South African side Penryn, a school from near the Mozambique border.

Worcestershire won the 35 over match by five wickets with Matt Pardoe from Stourbridge CC the star with 5-20m- including a hat-trick, and 53 runs.

The next day saw a defeat against another South Afri-can side King Edwards Preparatory School.

Worcestershire lost by four wickets, but captain Nitesh Patel from Stourbridge CC scored an impressive 60.

Again Pardoe contributed well with 3-26 and 32 runs.

Day three saw Worcester-shire beat Botswana, with an outstanding display of bowling. Botswana batted first and were all out for 33, James Musk taking 4-3 and Stephen Game 2-3 with his leg breaks.

Worcestershire reached their target for the loss of just one wicket, wicketkeeper Jack Brain from Worcester top scoring with 16 not out.

Day four included a day/night match on St. Stith-ians astro turf pitch, with the second innings under floodlights. It was to prove an anti-climax, with Worcestershire never getting to grips with the surface and some loose bowling was punished.

Worcestershire were 190 all out with Patel again scoring a fluent 66 and Dan Sproul and Tom Gwynne, both from Worcester scoring 18. The home side laid into some wayward bowling and reached 193-2

The last meaningful game was against the best side in the festival, the Lions Devel-opment side from Soweto.

Batting first, Worcester-shire bowled as well as at any time in the tournament with Liam Paddock from Barnards Green CC taking 4-21 and Tom Dempster from Redditch taking 2-15. Worcestershire managed to restrict the Lions to just 159 all out.But optimism for a win was quickly dampened by a spectacular bowling display of tight, quick bowling that the Worcestershire batsmen simply could not get away.

Eventually, the Worcester-shire innings subsided to 110-7 and an honourable losing draw with a fine Sowetan side.

On the last day, Worcester-shire were due to play St. Stithians team, but a tummy bug ripped through the Worcestershire hotel leaving just six fit players at the start of play. The team 'borrowed' players from other sides, but five of the remaining six players succumbed to the 'bug' and had to return to their hotel, leaving captain Patel to see the match through.