MORE than 180 Andover youngsters were stumped at the thought that some of their friends might opt to play football instead of cricket in the summer season.

The 10th Andover Kwik Cricket Festival consisted of 14 town and rural schools enjoying the genteel English game in some top matches.

At the start of the knockout tournament Whitchurch Primary School proved unbeatable in group A and Anton 'A' team made a glut of runs to get it through to the next round.

Group B was dominated by St John the Baptist A team which was also unbeaten, while Balksbury 'A' just pipped Anton B on the number of runs scored.

The semi-finals were fiercely contested, with Whitchurch Primary edging out Balksbury 'A' by 29 runs and Anton 'A' beating St John the Baptist 'A' by 26 runs.

In one of the closest ever finals Anton 'A' beat Whitchurch by eight runs with a final dominated by accurate bowling and excellent fielding. The high standard continued into the rural competition with Longparish Primary unbeaten in Group A and Hurstbourne Tarrant Primary dominating Group B.

Longparish Primary edged out Shipton Bellinger Primary 'A' team by 13 runs and Hurstbourne Tarrant Primary won by 27 runs.

Fortune fluctuated for both teams in the rural final, but Longparish Primary emerged victorious after beating Hurstbourne Tarrant by just five runs.

Andover cricket club president, Andy Hooper, said: "I felt that the standard of fielding and catching this year was the best for many years. I wish both teams going forward to the county finals the very best of luck."