Birthday boy John Young celebrated his 54th in style with a pulsating knock of 63 for Longparish against Sparsholt, writes Ken Ball.

John is a print manager, working at Whitchurch and living a stone's throw from Longparish CC. His other interests include marathons, hill-climbing and canoeing; he is also a church warden.

Paul White scored a quickfire 33 which helped the home side to 131-5. Sparsholt's reply was far from convincing, and they finished on 70-6, leaving Longparish holding on to second in the evening league.

Paul Blackmore's Longparish travelled to the pretty village of Farley on Saturday. The home side won the toss and batted first, rattling up 205-7. Ross Stewart took 2-24 and Clive Clarke 2-47, but the icing on the cake for Longparish was Steve Berco's 3-37 from five overs.

Brothers Paul (16) and Darren White (53) added 72 runs for the first wicket, 44 of Darren's runs coming in boundries. Skipper Paul Blackmore made 17 when he was out at 114-3.

Justin Jackman's 52 off 40 deliveries and Ross Stewart's 41* virtually won the match for the visitors in a partnership of 68 for the fourth wicket. Despite a slight wobble, losing two more wickets, the coup de grace came in the 40th over, to seal a confidence-boosting win for the 'parish.