THREE Berkshire Cricket Board senior players are among those selected to represent England Over-50s in an international tournament taking place in South Africa.

They are Finchampstead batsman Gary Loveday, former Reading CC skipper David Hartley and Bagshot wicketkeeper Andrew Davies.

Gordon Morgan (Wraysbury) was also selected, but it is understood he is unable to make the trip.

The England party leave for Cape Town on March 17.

Loveday said: “I don’t know a lot of details, to be honest, but I think there are two squads going for a tournament.

“I am looking forward to going, it should be good fun.”

The 52-year-old, who played regularly for Finchampstead 2nds last season, finished 14th in the overall ECB Over-50s Championships in 2016, scoring 300 runs in five innings, being not out in one.

That unbeaten knock came against Surrey when he and Wokingham’s Simon Myles (111) put on 176 for the third wicket.

Morgan made 64 in that game as Berkshire amassed an impressive 313-3 off 45 overs.

Loveday has his name etched – probably permanently – in Berkshire CC’s record books.

He has scored the most runs in a county career, making 8,397 between 1985 and 2000, and also the most centuries – 15 plus two in one-day games.

Loveday (119) and Martin Lickley (107) hold the Berkshire record for the highest opening partnership, scoring 226 in the second innings against Oxfordshire at the Morris Motors Ground, Cowley, in 1991.

The Berkshire side also included David Hartley. Now living and playing in north Devon, he went on a similar England Over-50s trip two years ago.

  • EIGHT Berkshire CCC members completed the Wokingham half marathon dressed as super heroes on Sunday, raising more than £1,900 for Build Africa.

Captain James Morris and fellow Datchet men Tom Lambert and Chris Peploe were joined by Henley quartet Richard Morris, Stewart Davison, Euan Brock, and Michael Roberts, and Slough’s Ali Raja, in completing the race in around two hours.