End of Nigeria's Lagos League results in strong Foundation(s)

The Lagos League ended recently with defending champions Foundation (1) retaining the cup. After the initial round-robin matches, four teams - Foundation (1), Cosmopolitan, GCI Old Boys and Foundation (2), qualified for the Super Four stage of the competition.

During this stage Foundation (1) won all its matches while arch rivals Cosmopolitan surprisingly lost to Foundation (2) who also beat GCI Old Boys to qualify to meet sister team Foundation (1) in the final match of the league.

Previous to this, the two teams had met twice in the league with Foundation (1) winning both times and it was in trend this time around as Foundation (1) amassed 265 runs in their 50 overs while Foundation (2) could only muster 165 runs.

In all, the two teams that got to the final stage had played a total of twelve matches.

Shortly after the Lagos League series ended, cricket in Lagos received a boost with the visit of an amateur club made up of Nigerians living in London. They had come together since 1991 to form a club aptly called the London Nigerians Cricket Club (LNCC). The visit which was at the instance of the Nigeria Cricket Association (NCA), lasted ten days and five matches were played by the tourist team which included two former Nigerian internationals.

In the first match the LNCC played against Shell Club (an amalgamation of both Shell Port Harcourt and Shell Warri) and narrowly won by 10 runs after scoring 172 runs in the 40-over match.

Maurice Asielue(LNCC) an ex-international was adjudicated Man-of-the-Match for his 46 runs.

Against Cosmopolitan CC the next day, the visitors suffered their first defeat losing also narrowly by a wicket; their 169-run total not proving enough and young Ovie Osuaso (Cosmopolitan) got the Man-of-the-Match award for his gutsy 53-run contribution.

In the next match against a young Howzat Pioneers club the tourists won by 100 runs after scoring 175 runs in their 40 overs. Mike Harte (LNCC) won the Man-of-the-Match award for ripping through the top order of the youthful Howzat side and claiming four wickets for 12 runs which assisted in restricting the total of the Howzat side to a mere 75 runs.

Against Lagos League champions, Foundation CC the visitors suffered their second defeat losing by two wickets after setting a target of 179 runs in 40 overs. Foundation achieved the target with two wickets in hand and about 6 overs to go. Young Dolapo Gaffar won the Man-of-the-Match award with 52 runs.

In their final match of the tour against an NCA Chairman's XI, the tourists fielded first for the only time during the series and allowed the NCA side amass a total of 222 runs for 8 wickets in 40 overs. Oboh Omoigui got 45 runs while the captain of the side Okey Ahuchogu top-scored with 56 runs; both being current Nigerian internationals.

The visitors chase collapsed at 120 runs thereby losing by 102 runs NCA XI. Okey Ahuchogu did enough to bag the Man-of-the-Match award.

Other events expected to be staged before the end of the cricket season are as follows:

We'll keep you posted as these events unfold.