Minor Counties

Elliot Wilson and Andy Carter, of Lincolnshire, not only set a Minor Counties Trophy record with an unbroken last-wicket partnership of 67 against Cambridgeshire at Woodhall Spa, but also won an enthralling match off the final ball to launch the 26th year of the competition (Michael Austin writes).

They came together at 129 for nine in reply to 192 for eight and needed 14 off the last over, a target they achieved when Wilson hit a boundary to reach 44. Wilson said: “We just needed to bat for the final 15 overs, I did not think about winning until there were two overs left.” Carter, 19, an opening bowler, scored 16.

The previous record of 63 was between Simon Dutton and Richard Elwood, of Cumberland, against Lincolnshire in 1988 and was equalled by Roger Sillence and Douglas Small, of Wiltshire, against Devon in 1998.

Women

The Asia Cup - hosted this year by Sri Lanka and including India, Pakistan and Bangladesh - begins this week and is further evidence of the increasingly hectic international calendar (Sarah Potter writes). There is, though, little or no room for Test cricket as the leading nations sharpen their skills in readiness for the World Cup in Australia next March.

England, fresh from their successful winter tour to Australia and New Zealand, have adjusted their summer itinerary to match the mood. Out goes the four-day Test against South Africa in August and in come two extra one-day internationals. With India also visiting this summer, England will play ten one-day matches and four Twenty20 games.

The logic for the latter is that a women’s tournament will run alongside the ICC World Twenty20 in England in June 2009.

Schools

In what is probably a record for schools 50-over cricket in Britain, Jos Buttler, the captain of King’s College, Taunton, shared an opening stand of 340 with Alex Barrow against King’s School, Bruton (Douglas Henderson writes). Buttler’s 227 came off 176 balls, while Barrow scored 95. King’s School, shaken by the target of 342, were bowled out for 65.

Jonathan Bairstow, the son of the late David, was the first winner of the new Young Wisden Schools’ Cricketer of the Year trophy, presented by Mike Brearley, the president of MCC, at the recent dinner to launch Wisden 2008. He has started this season in style, scoring 139 not out for St Peter’s, York, in the defeat of The Yorkshire Gentlemen, who had set a target of 265.

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