On a lovely sunny day we faced our old friends from Milan CC in our first match. Winning the toss we sent them in and after a rocky start finished our 10 overs in the field having restricted Milan to 83 for 3. Losing only 'Slogger' Bishop for a duck, Dan Ryan and Rob Crawford easily knocked off the runs in the first ball of the 9th over. Some fine shots were played by both batsmen and Dan (42) and Rob (19) saw us to our 1st victory. Our next match was against Carinthia and after bowling first again were feeling quite confident after seeing only 46 for 4 scored in the allotted 10 overs. After a minor hiccup, losing 'Slogger', who was swearing retribution for the next day, Brad Eve and Damir saw off the runs with little fuss.

The third match of the competition took place the next day, with us having to face the only other undefeated side, Lazio. Again we bowled first and performed effectively in the field and with the ball, dismissing them in the final over for only 72. Rob and Damir batted brilliantly with one eye always on the scoreboard and until Rob was dismissed with the score on 62, we had always looked like comfortable victors. Dan's arrival confirmed this and for the third time so far the win was ours having only lost the one wicket. Special mention to some brilliant catching from Rob Crawford who surprised all and sundry with a long running and diving catch with the gloves to take his 3rd for the match and finish one run out. After checking run-rates it was revealed that the final would be a replay of the previous match. This time, however we were sent into bat as Lazio possessed a good bowling attack and we had not been forced to score a big score in the tournament so far. Dan opened the batting with Damir and things went smoothly until Damir was dismissed for 8. Enter the 'Slogger' , who by this time was frothing at the mouth at the thought of spanking some pie chuckers for 6. However, Dan Ryan was to be the bane of the bowler's lives today as he hit an almost flawless 72 (caught on the very last ball of the match). His innings was so packed with enormous 4's and 6's, that Slogger was reduced to the role of 'anchorman' with his brisk and unorthodox 31. We came off the pitch with a very good score of 2 for 124. The highest score for a team and an individual with Dan's innings. Surely nothing could beat us from here.

Their opening batsmen had other ideas and we were looking a bit shaky around the 6th over with Lazio already on 74. Only 3 overs from the end, Lazio only needed 40 to win and 2 of those overs had to come from 'part-timer' Slogger. At the end of his over it was still in the balance with 24 needed. Brad Eve came back and bowled a miserly over conceding only 6, including a thinly edged 4 past the keeper but it crucially included a fine run out after some brilliant fielding and throwing from Damir. 6 balls left, 18 to win. The 1st ball was the break we had been looking for when Damir repeated the feat in the field and their star opening batsmen was gone with only the tail enders left. Needless to say, they failed to score the runs by 7 and the 1st piece of silverware since Lodi 2001 was ours. A great team performance by all and some players especially looking to have played themselves right into form. The only downside to the weekend was a broken left thumb to Rob Crawford, but the pain was certainly numbed by the sweet taste of victory.

Should you wish to read all about our marvellous victory in German, click here.