AS the saying goes, ‘if you’re good enough, you’re old enough’ and James Coles has more than proved that to be the case.

Anyone who called in at Aston Rowant’s ground last Saturday would have witnessed, first, a batting masterclass and, then, a bowling lesson from the 13-year-old.

Coles opened with Jonathan Atkins in the fourth team’s Cherwell League Division 7 encounter against Horspath 4th and went on to carry his bat for an impressive 129.

If that was not outstanding enough, the Magdalen College School pupil then bowled 8.2 overs of left-arm spin, taking 6-23, including a hat-trick.

Coles was the talk of the pavilion after the match, especially as his well-crafted knock, which included only a handful of fours, reflected that of an experienced cricketer.

“Just the thought of getting that many runs and the way I did it without scoring many boundaries, it’s not really expected,” said the teenager from Tetsworth.

“It’s a bit mind-blowing.

“Mostly I do try hitting it a bit harder and score more boundaries, so that was the toughest part of the innings, keeping it together and holding my posture.”

After dominating Rowant’s 252, the Oxfordshire Under 14s all-rounder was then called upon to dismiss the visitors – and he duly obliged.

He said: “It was not the best of bowling performances, but it did come together – I will happily take it.

“I was just mainly trying to float it up there, get them to drive, but I dragged a couple short.

“I then got it together, put them under pressure, and just kept going from there.

“I was a bit nervous when I was on my hat-trick.

“I was trying to bowl straight to make them play.

“But I bowled it quite wide and he hit it and it snuck off to the keeper – it was lovely.”

Coles, who is a member of Sussex’s emerging players scheme, made the headlines earlier this year when he and Freddie Smith rewrote the record books with a double-century stand for Oxfordshire Under 14s against Cornwall at Faringdon.

Rowant’s chairman Paul Humphreys was also in the side on Saturday and could not believe what he was seeing.

He said: “I think he only hit four fours. The rest of it, for any cricketer watching, was a lesson in how to build an innings.

“He timed it to perfection, and when he needed to push on he did.

“It was an outstanding innings for anyone to have played, let alone a 13-year-old.

“The captain, James Reynoldson, then said ‘today might be your day come and turn your arm over’.

“He bowls left-arm spin, a proper all-rounder, but you would not have thought he would have gone on to get six wickets and a hat-trick.

“It was basically James Coles v Horspath – an astonishingly mature innings.”