Over the weekend, the Marsa C.C entertained two teams from the United Kingdom, Abbots Langley C.C who are on their first tour and The Forty Club who are on their second tour.
The first game, against Abbots, was played on Saturday. The planned 40-over game had to be reduced to a 35-over game. The visitors batted first.
After losing their first wicket early, D. Solanki (28 runs) and Jack Reed (85 runs), set up a solid base for their final score. Reed hit four fours and six sixes along the way. P. Metcalfe did not bother the scorers at all. M. Parkins scored 14 runs, D. Carlisle nine runs, A. Woodard four and K. Parkins six.
The Abbots totalled 172 which included 23 extras.
For the Marsa team Kevin Krishna and Ronnie Sacco both took two wickets each while Derek Ali took one.
The Marsa reply did not get off on the right foot and kept that way. An innings by Andy Naudi of 36 runs and 12 from Joy Ghoseroy were the only highlights of the batting innings. The others did not make it into double figures.
The local side only managed 99 runs. There was highlight in the bowling department of Abbots - M. Parkins took four wickets while George Agius took two, D. Smith,W. Graves, D. Carlisle and A. Woodard all took one. Abbots Langley went one up in the two-game series.
On Sunday three games of 20 overs were played. The first between, Marsa and Abbots Langley, the second between the two touring teams and the third between Marsa and The Forty Club (report next week).
Again the Abbots batted first. This time they were rattled by Mike Caruana (three wickets) and Mike Grima (one wicket).
That put them on the back foot early and had to work hard to get back into the game.
Will Graves top scored with 28 runs, Craig Smith 13, Matt Parkins 17, Dave Carlisle 13 and Andy Woodard 10. In all the visitors totalled 97 runs from their overs.
For Marsa, other bowlers who took wickets were Ronnie Sacco with two and Sarfraz Ali one.
The Marsa batting prevailed with Steve Britto leading the way with 38 runs, Bikram Arora 34, Frank Spiteri and Andy Naudi nine runs apiece.
For the Abbots, D. Solanki and D. Carlisle were the only wicket takers.
Next weekend the Marsa team play the Forty Club in two more games.
On Saturday the Sunoco Cricket academy/nursery will be from 9am till 10.30am.