Butt Hussain claims six wickets and Rahul Sharma hits a ton in holiday action

As many locals paid homage to their ancestors during the Chung Yeung Festival by offering prayers and burning offerings (or simply burning the countryside), round seven of the 2005-06 HKCA Saturday League was played out across the HKSAR in fine and warm conditions on Tuesday, 11th October 2005.

Two of Hong Kong's best performed players in recent seasons are already stamping their mark on the 2005-06 season - Rahul Sharma showed that he is enjoying a rich vein of form as he hit his second century of the season while Butt Hussain showed his all-round credentials as he followed up his recent Sunday League century by claiming six wickets in the Saturday League.

At the Sandy Bay ground, HKU's Butt Hussain decimated the Tartars batting line-up as he claimed 6-47 as the previously undefeated KCC team was dismissed for a modest total of 152. In reply, another fine knock by the evergreen Martin Sabine (63*) saw the HKU side through to victory for the loss of five wickets. The victory sent HKU to the top of the Saturday League Points Table and also meant that all teams have now suffered at least one defeat in what is proving to be an evenly contested competition.

It was a bad day all round for Tartars who were later stripped of their victory over Hong Kong Under-19's in the previous round. The Match Committee ruled that the rules determining the result were not properly followed and that the match be declared a 'no result' with both Tartars and Hong Kong Under-19s being awarded six points each.

Rahul Sharma made sure that it wasn't all bad news for KCC teams as he scored 142 as Saracens racked up an impressive score of 299 runs against CCC at PKVR1. For CCC, Adrian Lee claimed 4-44 from his 5 overs. Undaunted, the CCC batsmen made a pretty good fist of their run chase, finishing on 228-4 with Ashley Bond hitting 82 and Ahmed Mukhtar 62 not out.

There was another fine bowling display by Simon Rajan of MCC St George's who claimed 5-13 against Mainlanders in a match played at the Po Kong Village Road Number 2 ground. The Mainlanders once again struggled to post a competitive total as they were dismissed for only 62 runs and MCC St George's ran out the winners by 7 wickets.

Nomads were the benefactors of another low scoring match played at Hong Kong Cricket Club. SubCont were dismissed for only 106 with Toby Brown and Goodman claiming three wickets apiece. Brown followed up with an undefeated 38 to round off a good day (not) at the office.

Defending champions LSW Warriors made sure they stayed close to the top of the table by defeating Hong Kong Under-19s by 25 runs at Mission Road. Fresh from the FTCT match against Singapore, Nadeem Ahmed claimed 4-17 as the Warriors stumbled to 144 all out. In reply, the Warriors spin twins Munir Dar and Jawaid Iqbal cast a spell over the Hong Kong Under-19s as they were dismissed for 119.

In the final match of the day, Crusaders returned to winning ways with a 62 run vicotry over Lamma. Batting first, Crusaders scored 274 from their 35 overs with Manoj Cheruparambil scoring 56 and Ray Brewster 72 not out. In reply, Lamma were dismissed for 212 with Toby White scoring 47 and Mark Burns 60.