THE Worcestershire U16s cricket team played its first competitive match of the season last week, a two day match at Malvern Cricket Club's ground against Warwickshire U16s.

Head coach for Worcestershire U16s is Malvern CC's Dave Hinton.

The county team had two pupils from The Chase, both of whom play for Barnards Green CC, Liam Paddock, a batsman who captains the county and Phil Harris who is something of an all rounder, providing part of the pace attack and weighing in with the bat as well.

In hot weather, the Warwickshire captain chose to bat on a hard, flat wicket. The Worcestershire bowlers stuck well to their task but as the day wore on, the heat began to take its toll and the bowlers and fielders were wilting a little.

However, they kept the Warwickshire batting down to less than four an over which with the fast outfield was something of a success. Warwickshire finished their innings on 370-7, setting a steep target for the following day.

Another warm day saw the county batting get off to a good start, doing exactly what they had to do in the circumstances, playing sensibly, taking ones and twos and occasionally dispatching the bad ball to the boundary.

Opening batsman Jordan Brookes moved smoothly on to 35 before he was out, which brought Stourbridge's Nitesh Patel to the crease with Worcester's Dan Sproul. These two went from strength to strength, amassing the runs throughout the day. Sproul eventually made an excellent century going on to make 122 before he was out, which brought The Chase student Liam Paddock to the crease.

He immediately looked to step up the scoring rate trying to despatch the ball to the boundary whenever he could. Patel perished for 94 in a run-out and this brought Malvern's Phil Harris to the crease. Harris and Paddock have built a good understanding over the last few years at Barnards Green and this was immediately obvious with some excellent running between the wickets and the occasional lusty blow, including a huge 'trade mark' 6 from Harris that disappeared out of the ground.

Any doubts that the target of 370 could be reached seemed to disappear as these two put on quick runs, until Harris was finally run out.

Another wicket fell before Stourbridge's James Musk joined Liam Paddock and they confidently took Worcestershire to victory, Paddock finishing with 38no and Musk on 25no, winning an excellent game with nearly two overs to spare.

Worcestershire U16s next match, again at Malvern Cricket Club, started yesterday (Thursday) and continues today (Friday) against Shropshire.