Two cricket teams from the UK visited Cyprus at the end of October, Loughton CC from Essex who field five teams in the Essex Leagues, and Washington CC from North London, a team formed in 1973 at the Washington pub by like minded cricket enthusiasts. Both teams take regular Autumn cricket tours to sunny countries. Washington have  visited Cyprus before. As two games were played simultaneously on both Saturday and Sunday, the Tochni ground was brought into play for the first time as host to a visiting team from outside Cyprus.

For the UK teams, Tochni may be a bit of a learning curve. A concrete astroturf pitch surrounded by a 30 metre circle of grass surrounded by a hard clay outfield. And this the result of so much hard work, growing grass under the baking and relentless Cyprus sun with watering limited by strict conservation laws.  Nevertheless, the standard of cricket was high, with 350 runs scored on the Saturday; Washington losing to Amdocs, and over 450 runs on the Sunday with Mustangs beating Loughton, in two closely fought exciting games.

When the teams return to the UK, to play cricket on their lush green outfields, requiring no more effort than to watch the rainfall, they may reflect on the challenges that have to be taken on before cricket can be played at all in Cyprus. And return to play in more tight high scoring games.