LEIGH CC junior Tommy Gunshorn is in his third year with Lancashire, having made his County debut a couple of years ago as a bright-eyed U10 in the first season of Lancashire U10s cricket.

In their traditional opening game against Cumbria, Tommy struck with a devastating hat-trick of wickets.

Known as primarily a leg-spinner initially, he has honed his batting skills (he also scored 33* down the order in the Cumbrian game) to such a degree that he now also opens the batting at County and other representative teams.

He is currently in the middle of a purple patch as he also took 5-fer (four catches by his Leigh teammate Zac Donohue) and scored 75 in Wigan District’s game against Tameside last week, together with a 47 for Wigan league representative side on Sunday.

He is just the latest success story along with Amelia McKeown who was featured in the Leigh Journal for taking seven wickets.

Both youngsters thoroughly deserve their respective successes as both have great training ethics, barely missing any opportunity to work on their game … no coincidence there then when they put in such good returns.

In addition to these two, the club is proud to have another seven girls and boys in County squads under the age of 13, most being home-grown, and whilst there is a long way to go, initial signs look like yet another crop of quality young cricketers are in place to roll off the production line to join the many others who have treaded the boards of County and Premier League success whilst plying their trade at Beech Walk.