IT WAS a case of youth versus experience in the Farnham Royal Knock-Out Final as the more experienced Fiddlers took on the youngest-ever Farnham team to battle for the cup.

Having won the toss, Fiddlers elected to put the Royals (aged between 15 and 26) into bat, hoping that their bowling experience would outdo the youngsters’ determination.

It seemed to be the right decision as Farnham lost openers Cam Bruce (1), Brad Quelch (7) and Ben Howard (2) to leave the score at 39-3.

However, captain Chris Shave (41) and his elder brother and oldest member of the team Matt Shave (50*) stepped up the pace and the kept the scoreboard ticking over.

With the loss of Chris Shave the Royals found themselves 86-4, but Brad Rylance (20) came to the crease to support Matt Shave.

It was left to Harry Barton (5*) to team up with Chris Shave as Farnham finished their innings at 144-5.

The Royals bowlers carried on where the batsmen left off with 16-year-old Eshwar Dutta (2-14) striking on the third ball of the innings to remove opener Jessup.

The momentum was up and, with a hat-trick from Chris Shave (3-20), suddenly Fiddlers found themselves 27-4 after four overs.

There was no let up from Farnham as Barton (2-8) and Rylance (1-3) peppered the Fiddlers batsmen, despite Raul Mohindru (32*) trying to steady the ship.

It was left to 16-year-old second team keeper David Morgans (1-1) to pair up with first team keeper Bruce to cleanly stump Fiddlers captain Mike Salmon, leaving them 88 all out, so the youngsters claimed the cup.