MCC opener Chris Thompson stamped his authority on the visiting side’s opening series win over Bermuda, stroking a boundary laden 85 not out to guide his team a 55-run victory at the National Sports Centre (NSC).Thompson, who carried his bat through the innings, hit nine fours to lead from the front and help his team to posting 146 in their allotted overs.Admitting that there was an unknown factor to both the wicket and the opposition, Thompson was pleased to be amongst the runs early on in the tour.“It was fantastic to get some runs today,” said Thompson. “At the top of the order the key thing is to be positive and know your game and areas in which you can be helpful and this is what I did today and the runs came.“The facilities here are good, the side we played today also have some good players in there as well so it was set to be a nice thrilling match today.”In a match that saw the hosts bring out a more youthful team, with the likes of Lateef Trott and Tre Manders among the 11 selected, it was the MCC who took the game by the scruff of the neck early on.Thompson’s opening partner, Steve Hobson (10) and Chris Benham (11) provided the perfect foil for Thompson’s innings, holding down their end while he blasted the ball to all parts of the ground.Although the pair fell at 21 and 57 respectively, Will Jones (3) and Josh Knappett (15) were able deputies at holding down their end as the side posted 146.Damale Bell claimed two wickets while Joshua Gilbert and Sammy Robinson grabbed one each.In reply, Bermuda fell well shorty of their required target, although they did bat out their overs with skipper David Hemp the only batsman to look comfortable at the crease. Fiqre Crockwell was the second highest scorer, making 14.Although the loss wasn’t what the Bermuda skipper has wanted in the opening match of the tour, Hemp was pleased with the experience gained by some of the younger players.“Obviously you want to win games, but more importantly it was good to see the younger players go out there and perform, and now that the jitters are out for them in terms of getting their first game out of the way, we can focus on getting results, he said.“Right now it is a difficult scenario as we are trying to accommodate as many players a possible and obviously today we are disappointed in some aspects of our game but there were positives as well so we have to look at both sides of the coin.”“It is tough knowing that you have to hit boundaries in order to stay competitive and get 10 runs an over at the minimum risk, which is quite difficult on a wicket that is taking spin, it was tough work.“We wanted to start on a good note and get some runs on the board in the fist six overs but were on the back foot with the loss of wickets early on and it is always hard to get back into a game when you have batsmen at the crease every so often.“The difference in the game was that we didn’t have any reasonable partnerships to mention or someon who hit the ball around, while they had one batsman who scored the bulk of their runs and everyone else chipped in with runs.“In the end there are positives that will come out of this, we have the youngsters in the mix now and have played against good opposition.”The next match is scheduled for tonight at the Somerset Cricket Club between the MCC and the 2007 World Cup side.