Last weekend, Marsa CC entertained two teams from the United Kingdom, Abbots Langley, here on their first tour, and the Forty Club now in their second visit.

On Saturday, a reduced 35-over match against the Abbots saw the visitors batting first. After losing an early first wicket, D. Solanki (28 runs) and Jack Reed (85) set up a solid base for their team-mates. Reed hit four 4s and six 6s along the way.

Matt Parkins added 14, Dave Carlisle nine, Andy Woodard four and K. Parkins six as the Abbots totalled 172 which included 23 extras. For Marsa, Kevin Krishna and Ronnie Sacco both took two wickets each.

The locals’ reply was somewhat subdued and an innings by Andy Naudi of 36 runs and a 12 from Joy Ghoseroy were the only highlights of the batting. The others did not even make it into double figures as Marsa only managed 99 runs.

Parkins took four wickets and the Abbots went 1-0 up in the two-game series.

Marsa played Abbots Langley in a 20-over match on Sunday.

Again the Abbots batted first. This time they were rattled by Mike Caruana (three wickets) and Mike Grima (one). That put the visitors on the back foot early in the game and they were made to work hard to get back into it.

Will Graves top-scored with 28 runs, Craig Smith 13, Matt Parkins 17, Carlisle 13 and Woodard ten. In all, they totalled 97 runs from their overs.

The Marsa batting prevailed, however. Their main scorers were Steve Britto with 38 runs, Bikram Arora 34 and Frank Spiteri and Andy Naudi nine runs apiece.