Mijas Cricket Club, Spanish Cup winners (19 Oct 1998)

19 Oct 1998

Mijas Cricket Club, Spanish Cup winners

a report from Tony the Body

Last Saturday, Mijas Cricket Club travelled to Alfas del Pi on the Costa Blanca to play in the final of the Spanish Cricket Cup against Javea CC 1st team. The match was played at the Columbus Cricket Oval and was sponsored by Royal & Sun Alliance.

With a 12 noon start, Mijas won the toss and chose to bat first. Greg Collins and Phil Flaxman were the first to take the crease and knocked up a valuable partnership of 45 runs before Flaxman was caught in the 11th over. He was replaced by ' Bully ' Scott who partnered Collins for 6 overs until Greg was caught with the score on 72. Bully and Steve White then tore into Javea's bowling and added a further 50 runs to the Mijas total before White was caught at the end of the 26th over. Steve Shephard then joined Scott and the pair took the score on to 172 before Scott was clean-bowled by Mathews in the 34th over but not before he had added a fast 70 runs to the Mijas total. Tony Reddin, the Malaga Cricket Association President, then joined Shephard and the pair took the score to 209 before Shephard was bowled by a full-toss in the 39th over. He was replaced by Neil Smith and Mijas completed their 40 overs with a total of 216 runs and a loss of just 5 wickets, with Reddin and Smith not out.

After lunch Javea went out knowing that they had to score 5.4 runs an over to retain the Cup. Andrew Copeland, the owner of the Columbus Insurance Group (sponsors of Junior Cricket in Spain), was the first to go, being caught in the slips by Dave Shufflebotham, with the score on just 24 in the 5th over. Wickets fell steadily and the Javea total grew but it wasn't until the 30th over until things changed in favour of Mijas. With 176 runs on the board, 41 runs required to win off 10 overs and 5 wickets in hand, Mathews was bowled by Collins. Then in the 34th over Braithwaite and Myers were both caught behind by Flaxman, the Mijas wicket-keeper, with the score on 201. With the score on 206 and 3 overs left to get the 11 runs needed to win Ulhaq, the Javea quick-bowler, was bowled by White, giving Mijas the chance they were looking for. Jaime Morris, the youngest member of Mijas, came back on to bowl in the 37th over and with his first ball, managed to get the ball to outswing which Vaughan went for, got a ' nick' and was caught behind, giving Mijas the title of Spanish Cup Champions and allowing the Cup to be brought back to the Costa del Sol.

The Chief Umpire was Don Oslear, who for many years was a Test Match Umpire for the ECB and the presentation of the Cup was made later in the evening by the Mayor of Alfas del Pi at a presentation dinner.