What a day of cricket! Despite the overcast and windy conditions, 4 games of cricket took place.

First of all, the 2 final group stage games.

LMTCC vs Bridgewater

Royal Challengers Belfast vs The Royal Engineers.

LMTCC and The Royal Engineers competing with Old Hill for a spot in the final.

LMTCC won the toss on their game and elected to field first.

A strong start from the Bridgewater batters with the first wicket coming in the 8th over.

Another wicket few shortly after as some fine work on the boundary by A. Hussain, was followed up with a good through to get a run out. The innings was then dominated by the Bridgewater batters with a partnership of 60 in 5 overs was broken when C. Wood came back onto bowl and forced the opener to stretch and top edge for a catch for keeper, K. Wood.

Bridgewater continued to bat hard, even with the loss of another wicket in the 18th over from A. Hussain but the score kept climbing.

After the 20 overs, Bridgewater mustered a grand score of 176/4 with Opener Max O´Farrell scoring 46, Accompanied by Tom Fursland with 36, but no.4 batter Ryan Thorpe was the pick of the batters with 61*.

Here is how your LMTCC bowlers lined up:

C. Wood - 25/1 off 4

A. Alger - 38/0 off 4

W. Abdul - 21/1 off 4

P. Singh - 18/0 off 3

G. Singh - 19/0 off 1

A. Hussain - 46/1 off 4

Catches from K. Wood and a run out from A. Hussain on the field.

Big chase needed for LMTCC to reach the final. With Royal Challengers Belfast scoring 186 vs the Royal Engineers. Everything was to play for here.

D. Mcclements and C.Hunt went out to bat with D. Mcclements attacking from the get go but falling in the first over after a big 6. K. Wood was in at 3 and also continued the attack for LMTCC before seeing a flurry of wickets fall on the other end. C. Hunt, W. Abdul and A. Alger falling in quick succession. K. Wood fell for a quick 29 in the 9th over with the score at 80/5. G. Singh and T. Knowles were the new batters at the crease still needing to keep up with the run rate but T. Knowles was bowled allowing A. Hussain to have a go. The 2 LMTCC batters continued to tackle the score with it creeping up to 135 off 15 overs.

A good ball saw the partnership worth 54 fall as A. Hussain was bowled bringing P. Singh out to bat. G. Singh nearing his half century fell in the 17th over with 147 on the board but still to much for P. Singh, C. Wood and D. Scott to conjure up with LMTCC being bowled out for 148.

9 bowlers used by the Bridgewater squad and all taking a wicket or 2 each. Here is how the LMTCC line up went:

D. Mcclements 8

C. Hunt 2

K. Wood 29

W. Abdul 7

A. Alger 3

G. Singh 40

T. Knowles 0

A. Hussain 14

P. Singh 4

C. Wood 1*

D. Scott 0

A defeat by 29 runs means that LMTCC could not qualify for the final. Down on the bottom pitch, The Royal Engineers chased the score of 187 in 18 overs.

The table was complete, Old Hill were to face the Royal Engineers in the final which was brought forward to 14:30.

In the meantime, The Royal Challengers Belfast had a quick 15 over game vs Swansea to pass the time. RCB batted first and score 90 off their 15 overs to which the Swansea batting line up took no prisoners and chased the score in 5 overs.

Some time later, it was final. Old Hill batted first and cricket balls flew around the park with a first innings score of 231/4.

In reply, The Royal Engineers batted hard and deep but could only get to 208/6. A fine effort but nonetheless, meant that Old Hill CC were the La Manga Classic T20 Champions for 2024!

Congratulations to Old Hill on winning but also a thank you to Dussledorf, Swansea, Royal Challengers Belfast, Royal Engineers and Bridgewater for a very high standard tournament played in the spirit of the game.

Many thanks to all the Umpires, scorers and helpers over the weekend to make everyone feel welcome and making the tournament as good as it was.

LMTCC will be taking a week off next weekend for Easter to allow those a rest from the weekend and continue Ramadan. We shall return for training on Sunday 7th April fresh and ready to start preparations for the league season ahead.

VAMOS LMTCC!

- Kieran Wood - LMTCC