WOKINGHAM Cricket Club's young batting star Archie Carter helped set up a resounding 220-run victory for Berkshire in their Minor Counties Championship game against Wales at Falkland CC this week, writes Dave Wright.

The 18-year-old blasted a magnificent 126 in his side's second innings of 345-5 declared.

This set Wales an improbable target of 355 to win, but they were shot out for just 134 with red-hot spin ace Chris Peploe taking 7-14 to finish with remarkable match figures of 13-80.

Former Forest Schoolboy Carter can look back on this game with great pride. He made 44 in the first innings off 67 balls, but team-wise it was not the most impressive of Berkshire's batting performances and they were dismissed for 209, Richard Morris top scoring with 64, while teenage paceman Tomos Jones took 6-46 for Wales.

Wales reached 148-3 in their first innings and looked set for a good score. However, Peploe changed all that and they slumped to 200 all out, the left-arm spinner claiming 6-66 after another long stint of 36 overs.

Berkshire performed far better with the bat when they returned to the middle. Carter and Michael Williams, also 18, are the youngest opening pair in the club's long history, and this time they put on 97 to lay a solid foundation for the innings.

Henley's Williams, making his Championship debut, hit 57 before falling to an lbw decision.

Club colleague Euan Woods continued to push the score along and took the total to 175 before the last-named was caught for 43. He was soon followed by Morris (4) to leave Berkshire 180-3.

Carter, who has just left Wellington College after scoring more than 1,000 runs for them this season, continued to bat superbly, showing great composure and producing a long succession of excellent drives.

He brought up his first Championship century off 208 balls and went on to make 126 off 246 balls in an impressive innings which lasted for 293 minutes, hitting 14 fours in the process.

Carter and skipper James Morris added 134 in a boundary-saturated partnership for the fourth wicket.

When Morris was dismissed for 86 (off 93 balls), he declared with the total on 345-5.

Wales made a promising start with a first-wicket stand of 45 in 6.1 overs, but once Peploe started to weave his magic the visitors collapsed alarmingly with four wickets going down with the total stuck on 90. There was a bit of resistance from the tailenders, but they were dismissed for 134 in the 50th over.