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lily farrant
Saturday, 19 March 2022, 06:00
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The stakes were high and the atmosphere exciting as cricket fans enjoyed the penultimate day of the European Cricket Club Championships on Friday 18 March. Among them were 35 SUR in English readers, who took the newspaper's complimentary bus to the Cártama Oval, where the top five group stage teams faced off against each other in a total of 10 games of five overs each.
The tournament has been played in a T10 format, but due to the bad weather conditions earlier this week which prevented play, the games in this Championship Week have consisted of five overs, ensuring that there is enough time for all the teams to play against each other in the double round-robin.
Tunbridge Wells CC from England, Brigade CC from Ireland, Pak I Care Badalona CC from Spain and Brescia CC from Italy have made it through to the final day of the tournament this Saturday, 19 March. Albi Zalmy CC from Sweden were eliminated on Friday.
Brescia Cricket Club will play Brigade at 9am for the qualifier and Pak I Care will play Tunbridge Wells at 11am for the eliminator. The final will be at 5pm.
Mohammed, a team member from Pak I Care, Spain's current national champions, told SUR in English that the team are “feeling excited” for the final.
Tunbridge Wells captain Chris expressed his pride at representing England in the European Championship, and praised this tournament which “creates a professional environment for amateur sport”. Speaking about the final, he said, “It all comes down to the last day.”
Friday's event was televised and broadcast to 30 to 40 million cricket fans worldwide while, at the Cártama Oval, SUR in English readers enjoyed a complimentary drink and the live action.
One reader, Alan, reminisced about his time playing friendly cricket games all over the world while working in the Merchant Navy, as Chris explained that he used to play in local leagues in England.
Jay Wild, the president of the Costa del Sol Cricket Club, explained that it was an honour to host the European Championship, saying that he had high hopes for the future of this sports venue. He told SUR in English that with consistently good weather conditions year round, Andalucía seems a good place to host the future of European cricket.
As well as hosting the international tournament, the Costa del Sol Cricket Club have also founded the Cricketscool initiative. Each week, students from local schools have been invited to the Cártama Oval to learn and practise cricket.
“I'd like to develop the game from the ground up,” said Jay, adding that over the past six weeks about 450 children have come and experienced what is, for most of them, their first experience with cricket.
On the day of the final, five children from each school will return to the Oval to take part in a live inter-school event on the pitch.
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