TODMORDEN skipper Andrew Sutcliffe has hailed 19-year-old opening batsman Ben Pearson after the teenager’s fine start to the Lancashire League season.

Pearson has made scores of 73 and 95 so far in the Centre Vale side’s wins over Great Harwood and Burnley and Sutcliffe is delighted with his contribution.

“It’s been a great start for Ben, he’s only 19 and he’s established himself as our main opening batsman, which is fair play at that age,” the captain said.

“Both of his knocks this season have been very, very good, especially at Burnley. They’ve got a very well respected attack, on paper it’s as good a bowling attack as you get in league cricket, so to get a score of that nature against them without giving a chance is impressive.”

Pearson’s efforts have helped Todmorden to two wins from two so far after the opening day washout.

His contribution against Burnley was backed up by professional Chris Schofield, with the 39-year-old adding valuable experience after a first-class career that included two Test matches.

“Chris is very experienced in first-class cricket and in club cricket. He’s dominated club cricket locally for the last five years since he retired from first-class cricket,” Sutcliffe added.

“He knows it inside and out and we’re expecting more performances like that from him.”

Todmorden face another side with a perfect record this weekend in Ramsbottom and the skipper is hoping to maintain the momentum.

“We saw that (it can be valuable) last year, we had a very tough first six games last year but we managed to win four or five of them and we were well on our way,” he said.

“In our first three games we’re playing teams such as Burnley and Ramsbottom and if you can get wins against those teams then you’re off to a flyer.”