Toby takes on the greatest bowlers

Toby Marriott (Pennell 2008-13) and his colleague Jack Meacher recently took on the challenge of facing England bowlers Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad at the indoor nets at Lord's.

Toby and Jack run the Cricket District website whose mission is to grow the game they love through the power of social media. From videos of village cricket heroes to features with the biggest names in cricket, they want to celebrate the culture that surrounds the sport and keep the community entertained with the latest news, views and stories from around the world.

They have a YouTube channel which includes the popular feature Village vs Pro, in which they go head-to-head with professional cricketers. Being amateur cricketers themselves, they are used to facing bowlers with deliveries at about 50-60mph, but the two pros, even when they were holding back, were delivering higher speeds than that.

Toby said: 'It was an incredible day. Anderson and Broad are both absolute heroes of ours, so to get the opportunity to make a video with them, let alone have the chance to face them, is a dream come true.'

You can watch the video at YouTube, where you can also subscribe to the Cricket District channel.