England enjoy their Stratford experience

ENGLAND’S over 60s side stormed to a seven-wicket victory over their Welsh counterparts in a game played at Stratford CC.

The visitors won the toss, elected to bat and made reasonable progress with skipper Mike Hayden hitting a resolute 20 off 56 balls while opener Neal Williams made a more rapid 18 off 25 balls.

But England’s Nigel Moore then swept through the batsmen on his way to 4-26 and it needed a late rally from Stuart Carpenter (17) to haul Wales to 101 all out in the 39th over with the last three wickets falling for just two runs as John Butterworth (2-2) and Mel Hussain (1-7) mopped up the tail.

The response from England was to the point with captain Richard Merriman scoring 25 off 36 balls as part of a 72-run partnership with Tony Birbeck after Nick Gaywood fell for five.

Ian Horton also lost his wicket cheaply, but Hussain (10no) partnered Birbeck over the line with the latter scoring an unbeaten 53 off 52 balls as the target was reached inside 20 overs.

The Welsh wicket-takers were Gareth Edwards, Chris Hudson and Daniel Pigott.

Ahead of the game, Merriman said: “Our progress since the World Cup has been encouraging despite the vagaries of the English summer. We are looking forward to seeing several new players take the opportunity and force their way into the summer series with Pakistan.”