A few weeks ago 14-year-old Mathew Cowling was in a defensive mood as he helped Bishop Auckland CC 1st XI salvage a draw against Saltburn CC in Division A of the NYSD League.

On Monday evening at Shildon Mathew was in an entirely different mood when he opened the innings for the Bishop Auckland Under 15 team and went on to hit an unbeaten 102 out of a total of 178 in 20 overs.

Mathew said: "I was a bit nervous at first because I haven't scored as many runs this season for the Under 15s as I did last season. However, the ball wasn't moving very much and the wicket was perfect. It took me 14 overs to reach my 50 but by then I had my eye in and managed to hit a 6 on my way to the century.

I only gave one chance when I went for a pull shot and the ball hit the top edge and flew down to fine leg but it dropped short of the fielder."

The Bishops Under 15s team went on to win by 80 runs with John Barker claiming two wickets, Alistair Wild and Robert Nevison a wicket apiece.

The day before at Stokesley the Bishop Auckland junior players were in fine form with the ball for the Third XI against Stokesley II. All ten Stokesley wickets fell to the clubs' junior bowlers. Robert Nevison led the way with 5 wickets , "I was quite pleased and surprised" said 14-year-old Robert. The other wickets fell to 14-year-old Mathew Atkinson (3), 17-year-old David Turgoose (1) and 15-year-old John Barker (1).