Marsa Cricket Club hosted the first touring side of the year at their oval last weekend. Chelsea Arts Cricket Club were visiting the islands for the first time and looking to leave a good impression. However, it was the locals who won the series 2-0.

The Saturday game began in unusual fashion, the toss won by Marsa captain J. Callus in a best-of-three throw. He elected to bat first in the allotted 40-over game.

Callus's team amassed a total of 226 runs for the loss of eight wickets. He led the way with 84 runs with F. Spiteri, R. Krishna and A. Spiteri contributing over 20 runs each.

The Chelsea bowling was steady right through the innings but could not penetrate. Lush was the only bowler to worry the hosts after taking three wickets for 20 runs.

The Chelsea batting was dominated by the Marsa bowlers however. Early wickets fell and the Chelsea team could not recover. They were bowled out for a mere 55 runs.

Seven Marsa bowlers took wickets as the locals won by 171 runs and went one up in the series.

Chelsea were all out to level the series on Sunday. They batted first after winning the toss. Marsa had seven changes from the previous day but still made the task difficult for Chelsea to make runs.

In the end, they only managed 87.

That figure was easily matched by the Marsa batsmen with J. Grima leading the way with 35 runs not out and S. Ali 24. The two wickets which fell were both taken by D. Maddocks. Marsa won by eight wickets.

Next weekend Marsa CC will be hosting Dutch team - "Holland Touring Friends".