The league has drawn to a close with WSBA crowned the champions.

It has been a long summer with a cricket league that may have drawn on for too long. In the first half of the season we played 18 of the scheduled 21 games. In the second half we managed to play only 8. The August vacation, the exodus of players to take up seasonal summer jobs, and the competition from lucrative softball tournaments all took their toll on teams. Those organisers who struggled on regardless, Robert Buckley for  WSBA, Dias for Lions, Amit and Kapil for the Himalayans, Martin Frangleton for ESBA, Gary for Springbok, me for Fellows and earlier Sampath for SriLankan CC deserve thanks from everybody.

But nevertheless 26 competitive cricket games played when three years ago there were none is a fairly marked improvement. And there were some very good games indeed. The clash betwen SriLankan CC and Lions played at Potamia produced 434 runs with the the only centurian of the league Manju scoring 102 not out.

And there have been some nailbiters going down to the last over, sometimes even the last ball, WSBA  against SriLankan CC, Fellows v Srilankan CC, WSBA v Lions and WSBA v Springbok, Fellows v Himalayans, and this weekends game WSBA v Lions.

There was no runaway favourite for the title. WSBA would beat the Himalayans, Himalayans would defeat Fellows and then Fellows came out victorious against WSBA. But as the season developed WSBA showed the consistency of form to keep racking up results. Contending teams, Springbok, 20/20 winners, and SriLankan CC fell by the wayside. Lions managed to keep up, but fell at the last hurdle. In the end the best organised and most committed team deservedly won the league.

The 20/20 competition played over three weekends in July caught everyones imagination.

Two new teams SriLankan B and Corfu Tavern CC took part, and some remarkable games were played along the way.  Zahid from Springbok scored two centuries in consecutive games which took Springbok to the finals. A very strong Springbok team overwhelmed SriLankan B to emerge champions.

Finally a messsage for Bazeegh, who now finds himself back in Pakistan. Co founder of the Fellows, coach to many young aspirants in the Happy Valley cricket courses, talented cricketer, lets hope he will be back for next years cricket season.