Nathan Birks hits an unbeaten century as Amport beat Porchester by six wickets

The 15-year-old batted superbly, hitting two sixes on the way to a score of 100 not out.

Amport fielded first and got off to a good start with 2016 captain Lee Ayers cleverly rotating his bowling options to make the most of the conditions.

Ade Holewell and Leighton Bone were the pick of the bowlers as they each returned excellent figures, reducing the away side to a scoring rate of less than two per over.

Nathan Birks, Dan Holewell, Lee Ayers and Ian Gilmour also bowled well on a very flat wicket, as they restricted Portchester to a score of 194 for 8.

In reply, the home team lost a couple of early wickets but the introduction of Birks soon steadied the ship.

Assisted to begin with by opener Alex Ayers (13) and then by Martyn Cook (25 n.o.) Birks raced to a quick hundred, bringing his side home with six wickets to spare.

The village side face Hythe and Dibden this weekend.

Meanwhile Amport II survived a late innings wobble to record an opening game victory against Winterslow.

Captain Darren Goacher won the toss and elected to field.

The Winterslow opening pair started well against some challenging new ball bowling from Ben Black and Hampshire starlet Tally O’Farrell.

The batsmen should have been dismissed early on but were spared by five dropped catches.

However skipper Goacher produced a strong 10-over stint, taking the wickets of the top three Winterslow batsmen.

O’Farrell claimed two wickets while tight bowling by Ben Black and Jack Kent kept Winterslow down to a score of 166-6.

Amport II openers Martyn Startup and Paul Bruen got their reply off to a strong start before Startup was caught at mid-off for 33.

Brandon Smith (64) replaced Bruen and after being joined by Martin Randall (20), the pair moved Amport within 25 runs of a win.

However Amport wobbled, being reduced to 166 for 6.

Randall then went with six runs required but Ben Black (13*) held out to see Amport over the line with a score of 167 for 7.