Calpe CC clinch Senior League title


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CALPE CC CLINCH SENIOR LEAGUE TITLE.

Calpe CC won a closely fought contest with Grammarians/UKCCC at Europa on Saturday to clinch their third Senior League title in six years; their previous two successes came in 2000 and 2004. Highlight of this game was an unbeaten century by Iain Latin of Calpe who followed this up with two fine boundary catches. The Sunday fixture saw GCC cement their second spot in the League with a fairly comfortable victory against Combined Colleges.

Latin dominates proceedings.

Calpe CC batted first on Saturday, Chris Phillips and Kabir Mirpuri giving them a steady start with a stand of 45 runs in the opening ten overs. Much improved Shaun Ainsworth then shattered Phillips’ stumps which brought Iain Latin to the crease. He and Mirpuri then added a further 52 runs for the second wicket before Richard Buzaglo pulled off a smart piece of stumping to account for the latter who had just reached his half century. However, there was to be no respite for the fielding side as Karan Aswani joined Latin and a further seventy runs accrued before Aswani was caught off the bowling of Charlie Harrison for 41 with seven overs of the innings remaining. The main interest then centred on whether Latin could reach his ton before the allotted overs run out. With one ball remaining and his personal score on 98 he hit the ball high in the direction of wide mid-on only for the catch to go down, which enabled him to run the two runs required. Calpe’s final total stood at 231/4.

Chris Watkins and Ross Harkins got off to a bright start, 33 runs coming in the opening six overs before Aswani bowled the latter. Buzaglo then joined Watkins and 47 runs were added for the second wicket, at which stage Grammarians/UKCCC were well up with the asking rate. Latin then returned to the action holding on to a skier from Watkins off the bowling of Adam Orfila and when the same bowler disposed of Steve Martin and Latin took another fine catch to dispose of Buzaglo (41) the pendulum had once again swung Calpe’s way. Mark Bacarese did his best to retrieve the situation but, although he finally reached 85, the rest of the batting order failed to reach double figures and Grammarians/UKCCC eventually fell seventeen runs short of their target. For Calpe Orfila returned figures of 3/30 and Robbie Skinner 2/39. Calpe took nineteen points from the game to Grammarians/UKCCC’s five points.

GCC get home comfortably.

On Sunday, Combined Colleges won the toss, opted to bat first and experienced an early shock. The second over of the innings was bowled by Paul Grant who has played little cricket in recent seasons. His first two deliveries were wides but with his third he accounted for Mark Ward as Christian Rocca held on to a blistering catch at short mid wicket. Nushan Alwis (35) and Chris Harris (35) then put bat to ball with good effect, 56 runs coming in the next ten overs, before the former hit Rudi Phillips into the safe hands of Steven Gonzalez. Previn Menon then helped Harris add a further 38 runs at which stage Keith Campbell trapped the dangerous Harris leg before. When Phillips struck twice in successive balls and Campbell claimed his second victim the Combined Colleges total had slumped to 114/6 and an early finish to the afternoon’s proceedings seemed likely. However, Menon then found a worthy partner in Adam Winter and these two added forty runs for the seventh wicket before Menon’s long vigil at the crease came to an end, run out for 42. At the end of the allotted forty overs, the Combined Colleges total had progressed to 179/8, a total which had seemed highly unlikely at one stage. For GCC., Phillips took 3/34 and Grant 2/38 and Campbell 2/17.

Ian Farrell and Kieron Ferrary opened for GCC, the latter being fortunate to be dropped at gully when on two. Combined Colleges were made to pay for this miss as the opening partnership blossomed after this early scare. Ferrary eventually went for 35 but by then the total had progressed to 64 with only fifteen overs gone. Christian Rocca came to the crease a little low on runs and confidence but he still managed to stay with Farrell whilst a further 58 runs were added to the total, his contribution to the partnership being 32. His departure was to be the fielding side’s last success as Steven Gonzalez kept Farrell company until the required runs had been achieved with 8.4 overs to spare. Farrell remained undefeated on 67 and Gonzalez on 21 in GCC’s final total of 180/2. GCC took sixteen points from the game to Combined Colleges’ three.