Valentin Guiraud came agonisingly close to the perfect over – only for a no ball to ruin a landmark moment, writes Mark Edwards.

The Burford School pupil had taken an incredible five wickets with his first five balls of an over against Kingham Hill School.

But he over-stepped when releasing his next delivery.

That meant although he shattered the batsman’s stumps for a sixth successive time, a no ball call cut short his celebrations.

“At the time I didn’t think too much of it, I was just delighted to get five successive wickets,” he said.

“But in hindsight, it is a bit gutting.”

He added: “The first five were all exactly the same, bowled middle stump.

“The sixth was too, but it doesn’t matter. I’m just so happy with five in a row.”

Guiraud, who plays for Shipton-under-Wychwood in Cherwell League Division 2, only took up cricket five years ago.

“I was born in France, lived there for about six years until I moved to Dubai with my mother,”

he explained.

“While there, we met my stepdad, and he got me into cricket when I was 14.

“After we moved to Thailand, I carried on playing and took a hat-trick when I was 16, playing the equivalent of county level in Phuket.

“When my family moved to Saudi Arabia, I didn’t want to go.

“And so I was given the option of going to school elsewhere, and so moved over here to Burford School, where I board.”

Head of sport at Burford, Bill Williams, was impressed with Guiraud’s heroics.

He said: “In all my time involved in cricket, I have never seen anything like it.

“In fairness, the no ball call came very early, but it’s still an incredible achievement.”

Kingham Hill headmaster Nick Seward, added: “Congratulations to the bowler, but our boys clearly need to spend more time in the nets.”

Guiraud finished with 6-9 as Burford won by 74 runs.

He follows quickly in the footsteps of Witney Swifts 2nd veteran seamer Mark Horne, who earlier this month took five wickets in five balls of the same over against Swinbrook 2nd in OCA League Division 8 .