When the office at Somerset County Cricket Club in Taunton closed it's doors for the Christmas break on Friday afternoon, young opening batsman Neil Edwards headed west down the A30 to his Cornish home where he will be spending the festive period with his family.

By the time the seasonal holiday is over Neil will be far away, along with the rest of the England Under 19 party who depart for their six week trip to Australia on New Year's Eve.

Neil, who hails from Penzance completed two years at the Academy in Taunton, before making quite an impression on his first team debut in July against a strong West Indies `A' team.

On the strength of his two first team innings and a number of appearances for the Somerset second string, Neil was called up to play for a representative Under 19 XI later in the summer, and was then selected to make the trip `down under' with the full England age group squad.

The tall left-hander suffered a bit of a setback earlier in the autumn when he was diagnosed with glandular fever, but thankfully he has made a full recovery and is now fully fit.

Before he cleared his desk in the office at the ground where he has been working for the last few weeks he told me: "I spent last week at Lilleshall with the rest of the tour party, where we worked on all aspects of our game. We had input from a number of top class players like Graham Gooch. There is a lot of interest on our tour now after what has happened in the Ashes series, so we will be under the spotlight."

Looking forward to the trip I asked how he was feeling. He told me: "To be honest I'm feeling just a little bit nervous because it's just starting to dawn on me what I am actually going to be doing after Christmas."

He continued: "I'm feeling really good and I am pleased to say that I have made a full recovery. This is a big opportunity for me to make a name for myself. I know I can score runs but I want to do it against the best in the world which the Aussies are."

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