AN international cricket team was bowled over when a Droitwich Spa bakery cooked up a birthday feast for players.

Quality Crust, in Salters Shopping Centre, baked cakes for four members of the South African Cricket team, which has been playing England at Edgbaston.

Shaun Pollock, Makhaya Ntini, Boerta Dippenar and Monde Zodeki all celebrated their birthdays on Friday and their coach contacted Quality Crust to ask if staff could whip up some special treats.

The bakery has a catering contract with Edgbaston Cricket Ground, plus a number of top Midlands soccer teams, including Birmingham City Football Club.

General manager Ian Terry said: "We were delighted to be given the privilege of baking for the cricketers and we had lengthy talks with their coach to ensure the recipe wouldn't include too many unhealthy ingredients.

Confectioner

"Our confectioner Colin Guntrip created a banana sponge and we sourced some extremely low fat cream for the decoration.

"I've had very positive feedback and apparently the players loved our cakes."

Quality Crust, which is a small family concern with another shop in Bromsgrove, also made a farewell cake for England wicket keeper Alec Stewart OBE. "He plans to retire after this test match so we thought we would take the opportunity to mark his retirement," added Ian, who is a Warwickshire Cricket Club fan.

Birmingham has hosted the first Npower test match of a five match series this summer against South Africa.