Lions Lod secure league title

The Israel Cricket Association wishes to congratulate Lions Lod Cricket Club for winning the 2003 league title with two matches still to play. This is the sixth time in seven seasons that they have won the league. However this year was different in that they won the title so early in the season. Credit must go to the captain Yefet Nagavkar who rallied his team well throughout the season.

Lions Lod have undoubtedly the best all round side in the league with the three Massil brothers making up the backbone of the side. Along with captain Nagavkar, the side has stalwart Mahendra Jaiswar holding the team steady as his opening partner. Throughout the season they have won convincingly even though they can consider themselves slightly fortunate to have beaten Tel Aviv in bizarre circumstances and on Saturday, when at 127/8 against Ashdod A, needed a good rearguard performance to post a winning score.

Well done and congratulations to Lions Lod!

At the bottom end of the table things look bleak for Tel Aviv who remain with just one victory all year, losing again on Friday to Ra'anana. A heroic performance by Paul Thomas who carried his bat for 68 was not enough to prevent Ra'anana winning by 41 runs. The Tel Aviv batting this season has been putrid, relying solely on Stanley Perlman to score runs (His son Gal played with his father on Friday, batting at number 11). Unfortunately an injudicious shot off "paceman" Adrian Vard proved his downfall on Friday, and leaves his team in a tough battle with Be'er Sheva A to avoid relegation.