A TEENAGE cricket enthusiast stricken with the debilitating illness ME has found a way to keep active in his favourite sport.

John Holland was a promising junior cricketer with both the Durham City and Chester-le-Street clubs before diagnosis of the disease, three years ago, curtailed his on-field activities.

He hopes his medication will lead to a full recovery, but in the meantime has retained a match-day involvement in cricket, albeit confined to the score box.

John is the son of Durham University Cricket Club president and geology academic Dr Grenville Holland, who taught him the skills of score-keeping at a young age.

He has scored for university teams on overseas tours in Sri Lanka and Austria, while he was this season taken on as official scorer for North-East Premier League club Gateshead Fell.

John, 19, is one of the youngest fully-qualified scorers with the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers.

He won his greatest accolade last week when he was appointed official scorer with the West Indies touring under-19 team for its international match with England's under-18 side.

He took to the score box at Durham University's Racecourse ground on Friday for the first time in his new role, at the start of the three-day match.

"It's nice to get recognition like this. It was good fun, but I found the West Indies bowled their overs very quickly compared to what I'm used to, so it gave less time between balls," he said.

John has adapted the traditional score book, providing more precise information at a glance, particularly on the progress of batting partnerships.

Although the school-leaver, who has six A-levels to his credit, would like to make a career out of teaching, he may well be able to fall back on scoring in later years.

"The English Cricket Board is bringing in a lot of new computer systems and phasing out some of the older scorers who are resistant to change, so there may be openings in the future," he said.

In the meantime, he is preparing to take up a place on a three-year sociology course at Durham University in October, while also looking forward to a return to the playing field, providing he maintains his recovery