Oxfordshire batsman Robbie Eason is set to miss the start of the season after breaking a leg playing football.

The gritty 23-year-old opener suffered a fracture to the lower fibula of his right leg while playing for Risborough Rangers in their 1-0 home defeat by Totternhoe in the Spartan South Midlands League Division 2 on Saturday.

Specialists at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, near Aylesbury, have told him that he faces four to six weeks on the sidelines.

Eason, who established himself in the county side with a batting average of 33.3 last season, said: "I just went up for a header and I came down and went over on it.

"It is not a really bad one. The bone didn't come out of the skin. It should be all right, but I will miss the pre-season friendlies, which is a bit of a blow."

Eason, who is in plaster, has committed himself to playing for the re-formed Horspath club this season and he was hoping to get the chance to shine in Oxfordshire's warm-up games against the local Home Counties Premier League clubs.

"With playing in Cherwell League Division 5 this season, I could have done with playing the warm-up games and doing well," he admitted.

"It is really disappointing, because I wanted to go out for the first game with Horspath.

"It would have been quite an emotional thing, because the clubs has had quite a few knock-backs, so this has topped it all off."

OXFORDSHIRE duo Rob Williams and Richard Lynch helped Northants side Madisons regain the National Indoor Six-a-Side Club Championship.

Williams won the player of player-of-the-day award after starring in the semi-finals and the final at the new ECB Cricket Academy Centre in Loughborough.

He hit an unbeaten 27 as Madisons rattled up 110-2 against Sudbrook, from Caldicott in South Wales, in the final.

Lynch then chipped in with 3-20 to restrict Sudbrook to 88 all out and give Madisons their third national crown in five years.

In the semi-finals, Williams made 30 not out as Madisons crushed Staffordshire side Sandyford by 45 runs.

COCKSPUR Rum have agreed a three-year deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to sponsor the National Club Championship. Cockspur were associated with the competition from 1987-1990.

COCKSPUR CUP DRAW

1st round (April 25): Hertford v Thame Tn, Kidlington v Hungerford. Byes: Banbury, Henley, Oxford.

2nd round (May 9): Kenilworth Wardens or Stratford-upon-Avon v Banbury, Henley v Brondesbury, Kidlington or Hungerford v Corsham, Ardleigh Green v Hertford or Thame Tn, Finchampstead v Oxford.