HAMISH Scott hailed Reading Under 19s’ dream start after they made it two Berkshire Eastern Division T20 Blast wins from two with an entertaining 10-run success at Peppard Stoke Row on Friday night, writes Richard Ashton.

Tom Holmes – fresh from signing a full-time scholarship with Reading FC the previous week – showed his all-round sporting credentials by hammering a rapid 52 before retiring as per the competition rules as Reading racked up a seemingly par score of 166-6 on a good batting track with a fast outfield.

Fergus Nutt (2-30) was the pick of the PSR attack, while there were also wickets for Alfie Clifton and U15 pair Will Atkinson and Sol Robinson, along with a run out.

The hosts made a fast start to their reply, with captain Will Legg smashing 50 off 28 balls as PSR reached 82-0 off 10 overs.

Fellow opener Max Baker-Smith (41 off 38 balls) kept the momentum going, but Scott produced his first piece of magic when taking a stunning catch at long on to remove Nutt.

With 21 runs needed from the last three overs, Scott brought himself back into the attack and bowled a superb over which only went for three, and with PSR unable to rotate the strike, they required 14 from the final over.

And Shreyas Narayanasamy held his nerve to begin it with three dot balls as Reading eventually prevailed, with Peppard Stoke Row finishing on 156-5 in their reply.

Scott told the Chronicle: “We’re delighted to start so well and it has been a real team effort.

“Tom batted brilliantly up the top but we’re all enjoying the competition and we hope we can keep the momentum going.”

Disappointed PSR manager Gary Legg admitted his young side – which featured five Under 15s – had been naive in the run chase.

He confessed: “With the start we had we should have gone on to win it, but there were 51 dot balls in our innings to their 36 so that is definitely something for us to work on.

“For our first ever game, though, it was an encouraging start.

“We will look forward to the rest of the competition and try and pick up a few wins.”

  • READING began their campaign with an emphatic 78-run destruction of Cookham Dean the previous evening.

Although Holmes fell for a duck, bowled by the impressive Faizaan Shamsi (2-24), Waqas Ahmed was in excellent form to record a half century.

Skipper Scott added 34 as the hosts closed on a solid 147-7 at Sonning Lane, Sohil Mangat (2-23) the other standout bowler for Cookham.

Their reply never got going after off spinner Sam Gemmill ripped through the top order, returning quite brilliant figures of 4-12 from three overs.

There was no let-up for the away side and they eventually crumbled to a meagre 69 all out in just 12.3 overs.