A great weekend of cricket was watched over four days at the Woodbridge Oval, LÁlbir. Starting on Thursday with a friendly 35 over game Birmingham bulls the visitors and the home team consisting of 7 SACC players and 4 from Norbury who came over to participate in the tournament.

Winning the toss SACC asked The Birmingham Bulls to set a score. As often happens the Bulls altered their line up slightly, At the 10 over mark SACC were well placed with 4 wickets in the cabin with only 24 runs scored after Pankaj (1-12) and Braithewaite (2-9) had bowled exceptionally well. 1st change bowlers Martis (2-22) and Sumer( 0-27) kept up the pressure, after 20 the score was 7 wickets for 77 runs. The following 10 over spell saw the score nearly doubled, Dawson (1-41) and Sunni (1-35) finding the ´lower´ order batsmen slightly harder to bowl at. 148 for 9 from 30. Anil Rao showing some real class against the home sides bowlers and reached 92 runs whilst also shepherding last man Wakeem. In the final over and needing 8 for the century Aneel Roa popped one back to SACC newbie Fin Allen (1-28-2.2).

Fin Allen led the charge for SACC in the chase and reached a hard hit 77 Runs D Dawson was triggered when team mate Martis gave him out LBW for a duck. With Pankaj (26) and Sunil (50) it was left to Andrews (11) and Dahiya (26) to finish of a very entertaining win in the 30th over.

Friday, SACC now ready to take on Green Sox CC in the opening match at 09;00, Winning the toss SACC decided to bowl first on the dew covered ground, Green Sox never really got going but set a respectable 124 from the 20 allotted overs. Defending low scores is a very difficult task and playing good attacking cricket Green Sox took the game deep but could not stop G Crompton (54) and T Maylon (24) and the pair got SACC close to the total but it was left to Iqbal and Walker to get the team off with a win. SACC played again at 17:15 against Phoenix CC again asking the opposition to set a score. Phoenix set about the task with relish and reached a total of 164 with only 5 wickets lost. Only newcomer to our club F Allen keeping the batters under a run a ball.

The chase got off to a dreadful start with Allen caught for 3. This allowing J Perman the chance to bat alongside G Crompton. Both players being former Spanish internationals found the going quite easy and Perman took the lead in the chase reaching 84 with Crompton on 46 when the required 165 was reached from 17 overs. 2 from 2 a perfect start from SACC.

Saturday and SACC players got a lie in as they did not need to be ready until 14;15 to play the tournament favourites Norbury CC. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first against the home team in what turned out to be the match of the tournament, The impressive NCC line up was bolstered by a man called Tom, obviously a local campanologist, but a great lad. Tom held together the NCC batters, after the loss of Ravi (15) and Pankaj (6) early on then Sharma (11) and Madhusudan (5) the game was well in control with SACC on top NCC skipper Sunil Mour (34) joined the man known only as Tom (55) in the middle and the pair scored a quick fire 75 runs to take the score up to 146 before both making a mistake in the final 2 overs. Vijay (3) the not out batter, Helped by the 25 wides bowled by the home team this gave NCC 154 to defend.

Openers Crompton and Ashraf buzzed along at the asking rate and with 110 on the board and 10 wickets in hand SACC set about the final closure to take the match. Ashraf faltered on 44, Crompton kept up the chase and with his new partner Raza looked to have the game won but alas was caught leaving a very achievable target of 154 only 2 shots away. Walker strode out needing to strike to maximums, First ball 6 from the bowling of that man called Tom, Second and last ball of the innings went whistling past the batter and safely into the wicket keepers mittens. 149 for 2 but a great game. Did I mention Tom who bowled the last 3 overs for a miserly 15 runs taking both the wickets to fall.

SACC had to beat the very powerful batting line up of Birmingham Bulls to qualify for Sundays finals, could SACC rise to the challenge after such a disappointing loss to NCC. Well basically yes they could. Batting first the team without any superman innings put on 168 runs with all the batters getting starts but not reaching more than the 30 accumulated by Ashraf. 168 for 6 from the 20 overs supplied by BBCC. The home teams bowling attack needed to be on good form to stop the Bulls chasing down this target and they were. Although wickets did not fall mainly due to the lack of fingers on the hands of the home team, the overs were ticking by at a miserly 5 to 7 runs per over which forced the batters to try to win by hitting huge which when happens is spectacular, but often causes the batsmen to lose shape and swing to hard, which is what happened on this occasion. Birmingham Bulls ending  24 runs short of the target. SACC through to the final vs Norbury CC.

Sunday 16:00 and both teams were ready to play SACC winning the toss and choosing to bat first. The Norbury bowling attack had eaten their share of a certain breakfast cereal and set about the home side with pace. Raza, Perman and Ashraf all back in the shed without reaching double figures. The NCC bowlers enjoying the day. Pankaj´s going at 4.75, Roheel at 4.75, Anuraj at 8,

Sunil at 6.25 and Tom 5.25 meant SACC total was an extremely low 124, well bowled NCC. Ravi Dahiya spanked the balls he could reach to all parts of the Woodbridge Oval, whilst poor old Pankaj tried to emulate him and over reached, chipping it calmly into Walkers hands at point with 44 on the board and only 5 overs gone, In the 11th over Ravi who had not put in a false stroke did so and was caught by Raza at mid wicket. The story then enjoyed the finish it deserved and Tom (21) carried his team over the line in the 13 over. Although Mr Extra again made the second highest score for the opposition with SACC bowlers not finding the right areas in this tournament NCC only hitting 87 of the required target the other 41 gifted by SACC.

The match finished earlier than expected so the players from all 5 teams settled down to listen and watch tournament organiser Mr Woodward give out the awards and present the winners of the raffle with the many prizes given to this charitable event. Raising money and cricket gifts to take to refugee camps.

KEVIN LAUNDON - SPORTING ALFAS CRICKET CLUB

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