A very youthful Cricket Espana Academy finished runners up in the La Manga Classic Event at the Murcia resort last weekend.
During the round robin event they beat two teams from the UK (Westcroft and Stanstead) and a last ball victory over the hosts La Manga to set up a contest with Pinatar Pirates.
The Academy, that comprised of a selection of youngsters from the ECCL League lost out in the final to a very strong Pinatar Pirates team.
The Pirates had many players with work commitments so had also invited two Spanish internationals (Faran Afzal and Kuldeep Karan of Sporting Alfas) to bolster their team and the strength and depth of their squad proved a stretch too far on this occaision for the talented Spanish youngsters.
The weekend ended on a positive note for the Academy with 12 year old Charlie Rumistrzewicz winning the tournament bowling award.
With the oldest player in the squad only 24 the future looks bright for Spanish cricket. Many thanks to the CE staff behind the scenes, the officials and La Manga Resort for another successful tournament.
Charlie Rumistrzewicz with his bowling award.
Report from the winners – Pinatar Pirates on the event ..
La Manga resort T20 Tournament
Last Friday the Pirates from Pinatar stormed onto the shores of the Mar Menor, well, to be more precise the Pinatar Pirates Cricket team arrived at La Manga resort to take part in a T20 tournament. The team are flying high at the moment with a string of victories behind them and are just one win away from winning the ECCL division two title.
Their current form did not elude them in this tournament featuring 4 other teams Westcroft CC, Stanstead CC from the UK and two other teams from Spain being La Manga CC themselves and a select team from the Spanish Academy featuring a mixture of promising experienced and young players.
Being undefeated in all their games, the Pirates progressed to the final where they met the Academy side also in good form. However the Pirates proved to be too strong setting 218 for 2 in their 20 overs, the Spanish Academy team did their best to stay in touch with this high score but were always behind the run rate.
So the pirates from Pinatar came, battled and went home with the treasure, La Manga Trophy.
Well done to all the teams who took part in a thoroughly enjoyable and exciting tournament played in a very friendly and sporting manner.
The Pirates will next set sail for Malaga hoping to impress in another T20 tournament to be held at the splendid ground in Cartama.
Reported by the Twelfth man.
