SHANE Warne bowled Hampshire to a pre-season thrashing of Cardiff UCCE at a sun-drenched Rose Bowl yesterday.

Before the only three-day friendly of Hampshire's preparations for the start of the new season, Warne had not bowled a ball since Australia completed their 5-0 Ashes whitewash three months ago.

But he showed he had lost no appetite for the game he loves by recording match figures of 8-27 as Hampshire won by the huge margin of 610 runs.

To put the result in some context Hampshire's biggest first-class victory is a 361-run win against Cambridge University, under the captaincy of Nick Pocock, at the beginning of the 1984 season.

Unlike the UCCEs at Cambridge, Oxford, Durham and Loughborough, Cardiff is yet to be granted first-class status.

This result will not help them achieve it but the students from the Principality will always remember the day they played against a cricketing legend.

See today's Daily Echo for full match report.