GCC TAKE WIGGINS SHIELD


	Cricket Gibraltar Official site of the Gibraltar Cricket Association

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TJF

Cricket – Wiggins Shield.

GCC TAKE WIGGINS SHIELD.

GCC clinched their fourth Wiggins Shield success over the week-end, and their first since winning this trophy for three years in succession in 1995, 1996 and 1997. They thus equal the achievements of Combined Services (long since gone from the local cricket scene) and UKCCC, both of whom can claim four successes in this competition. Highlights of the week-end’s action, in which bat totally dominated ball, were another century for Mark Bacarese of Grammarians on Sunday, fine knocks of 68 and 50 not out by Kieron Ferrary and Rudi Phillips respectively for GCC on Saturday, a spirited if unorthodox half century from PGCC’s Nitin Jain, a splendid innings of 85 from Paul Buttigieg, now with Calpe, 66 not out from Steven Gonzalez and 41 by David Young of that same Club, and an undefeated 47 from Dheeraj Punjabi of Grammarians. Bowlers generally had a lean time over this week-end, but Bob Brooks managed to take 3/27, and Adam Orfila 2/39 for GCC.

GCC coast home against PGCC.

PGCC batted first on Saturday and made a good start to their innings, Hetal Shah and Manish Grover putting on 49 runs for the first wicket in the opening eight overs. Bob Brooks struck the first blow for GCC, getting Grover caught by Christian Rocca when the batsman had reached 32, after which Shah and Nitin Jain took the total along to 72 at the fifteen overs drinks break. The resumption of play brought disaster to the batting side as three wickets tumbled for the addition of just one run, but Jain continued to strike the ball effectively, reaching his half century in the process. A bright 20 from Rohan Sahu and an undefeated 15 from Phil Langley enabled PGCC to reach the respectable total of 171/7 at the end of their allotted thirty overs. For GCC, Brooks returned figures of 3/27 and Adam Orfila took 2/39.

GCC opened with the unusual pair of Kieron Ferrary and Rudi Phillips, but this appeared to make little difference and these two piled on the runs, the total reaching 99 in the 13th. over before young Ferrary was caught for a fine 68. Andrew Chipolina and Phillips kept up the onslaught, the latter reaching his half century before having to retire hurt with just three runs required for victory. This brought Scott Chipolina to the crease to join his Dad and he had the privilege of scoring the winning run with 7.4 overs to spare; Chipolina Senior remained undefeated on 33, as GCC took fourteen points from the game to PGCC’s solitary batting bonus point.

Plenty of runs on Sunday.

The match between Grammarians CC and Calpe CC on Sunday saw bat totally dominant over ball. Calpe won the toss, put Grammarians in to bat and managed to restrict them to just 55 runs in the opening fifteen overs. However, the whole complexion of the game changed after the drinks interval as Bacarese and Punjabi took advantage of some very loose bowling to add 189 runs for the second wicket, in the process of which the former reached three figures. Punjabi fell in the final over for 47, whilst Bacarese remained undefeated on 114 in a final total of 225/2.

Young and Buttigieg opened with a stand of 83 for Calpe CC before Sebastian Suarez had Young caught behind for 41 in the fifteenth over. Gonzalez and Buttigieg then put on 109 for the second wicket when the latter’s long vigil at the crease came to an end in the search for quick runs and in the end Calpe fell twelve runs short of their target. Grammarians thus clinched second spot with sixteen points to Calpe’s four points.

Next Week.

With the Wiggins Shield over and dusted, attention now turns to the Caleta Hotel League which gets under way on Saturday at the Europa Oval with a fixture between UKCCC and Calpe CC, starting at 11.00am.

Mid-week league under way.

The ever popular mid-week twenty overs league got under way this week with the following results:

Calpe CC 124 (Harrison 26, Aswani 25, Suarez 24, Cook 3/7)
Stan James 122/7 (Cook 30, Urien 33).
Calpe CC won by two runs.

Barbary CC 98 (Hewitt 29, Martin 4/2)
Commanders CC 99/6 (Primmer 30, Eatwell 3/6.
Commanders CC won by four wickets.

Victor Chandler 126/6 (Alpesh Patel 32)
GCC ‘Valverde 129/6 (Rudi Phillips 31, Junior Valverde 23.
GCC ‘Valverde’ won by four wickets.

The Annual General Meeting.

The Annual General Meeting of the Gibraltar Cricket Association will be held on Wednesday, 1st. June at the Charles Hunt Room, John Mackintosh Hall, starting at 6.30pm.

-TJF.