The cricket touring season recommenced last week with Marsa taking on the Stockport Grammar School team, now on their eighth visit to Malta.

On Wednesday, Stockport batted first. Tom Isherwood and Oliver Hemlin scored 109 and 100 not out respectively for two remarkable batting displays which took the visitors to an outstanding score of 270 from their 40 overs.

The home team's reply was rather poor. Only Steve Johnson (36 runs) and Malcolm Crab (23) left a good impression as the home team was bowled out for 139 runs.

The pick of the Stockport bowlers was Azeem Shahid with four wickets.

On Thursday, Marsa won the toss and chose to field. Again, the tourists found a centurion in Dan Bailey. He played a very patient innings. Hemlin added 69 which helped Stockport score 252 runs from their overs.

In reply, the Marsa batsmen put in a better effort with Mike Caruana scoring 39 runs, John Grima 37, Alan Kyle 34 and Nowell Khosla 28. The home side managed to bat the full 40 overs.

Marilyn Camilleri also scored her first run against a touring team.

For Stockport, Matt Spencer, Rory Bell and Shahid all took two wickets each as Stockport went 2-0 up in the series.

On Saturday, Stockport won the toss and batted first. This time the Marsa bowlers had the visitors in trouble, having them five wickets down for 49 runs at one stage.

Stockport kept their nerve though and with steady batting from the lower order, they took the team tally to 221.

Marsa started batting on a bad note, however, losing three wickets for 28 runs. Then, Javed Shah went in and blasted a quick 30. Tim Edwards added 20 runs. For Marsa, Ronnie Sacco played one of the best innings this year. He scored 76 runs in a gallant effort to win the game.

Unfortunately, he was run out and the home team lost by eight runs.

This was Stockport's fourth series win in a row. Marsa's last series win over Stockport was in 2004.

Marsa play newcomers Skegness Grammar School tomorrow and on Saturday. Both games have 10.30 a.m. starts.