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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 9 APRIL 2014 Sport 22 MOTORSPORTS WATER POLO CRICKET Grech wins his First AX Race THE 12th Round of the ASMK – Pasta Poiatti National Autocross Championship was organised at the ASMK Ta Qali motorsport complex on Sunday 6th April. The Motocross also raced their 5th Championship event. As the Championship is near- ing the end Autocross racing is much more technical and highly competitive. No one competitor won all the three Heats on the day. Yet, Vince Farrugia on a Volkswa- gen Polo, Philip Joe Vella on his Vuaxhall Nova, Malcom Borg on his Opel Corsa, Melo Zammit on a Ford Escort MK3, Josef Grech on a Ford Fiesta and Guzi Pace on his RWD Ford Escort all qualified for the Class 'A' Finals. Right from the start Grech, Zammit, Farrugia and Vella raced in this formation ahead of Pace and Borg who were battling to bet- ter their placing when at one point Borg accidentally hit the tyre safety barrier and retired from the race. Soon the spectators attention turned on Grech, Zammit and Farrugia as leaders on track with Farrugia adding pressure on Zam- mit lap after lap with the latter de- fending his placing. In one of the tightest corners Zammit broke a drive shaft and Farrugia took the opportunity and raced his pace to catch on Grech which in fact he manage to close the gap by the 4th lap. Grech held his position right to the finish f lag and winning his 1st Class A Finals during this Cham- pionship. Farrugia crossed the finish in 2nd place and very close to Grech. Vella, Pace and Zammit finished in 3rd, 4th and 5th place respectively. The Class B finalists were Ja- son Martin on a Volkswagen Polo, Josef Abela on a Vauxhall Nova, Kurt Sammut on a Ford Ka, Karl Micallef on a Ford Fiesta, Andrew Pisani on a Vauxhall Nova and Ry- an Scerri on an Opel Corsa. From the start Pisani on the in- side lane with Abela and Sammut on the outer lane made a good start ahead of the rest. Unfortunately Sammut had contact with Grech's car right which caused them to continue racing from the last plac- es. Right then, Pisani took the lead ahead of Scerri and Micallef while Abela and Martin were battling in 4th and 5th places as Sammut de- cided to retire from the race. At the end of the 9th Lap Pisani registered his 4th Class B win ahead of Scerri and new to Autocross Micallef. Martin crossed the finish ahead of Abela in 5th place. Domenic Zammit on his Alfa Sud won another race in the Gozo Autocross Championship. Marvin Grima placed 2nd on his Opel Cor- sa ahead of 3rd placed Joseph Agius on a Ford Fiesta. Camilleri brothers seem to be unbeatable so far. Though Clayton won two from the three race heats he won the highest points on the day and thus, is first Overall. Pul Mus- cat won 2nd place on another KTM 250cc and Edward Ciantar won 3rd overall on a Kawasaki 250cc. These riders race for 3 Heats lasting about 17 minutes each Heat. Class B Kyle Camilleri rides the smallest engine capacity bike in Class. He rides his 85cc Suzuki RM in a professional way and seems to make his best on the Angelo Cin- quemani modified motocross track so much so that he managed to win his class race after race. ASMK is also busy organising another moto Trials event on Sun- day 13th April. This competition is being held in a new location. The site chosen is the hard rock cutting quarry at Targiet Ghomor limits of t'Alla w'Ommu in Naxxar. This competition starts at 9.00am and non-ASMK members are welcome. ASMK would like to thank Ballut Ltd the owners of the site and also Thomas Smith Insurance for sup- porting this event. Malta defeat South Africa to book historical place in Commonwealth Water Polo Championships final Malta ................ 9 South Africa ....... 8 MALTA overcame the very stiff challenge offered by South Africa in today's 4th game of the 2014 Water Polo Championships being held in Aberdeen. It was a gruel- some affair with neither team conceding an inch. The game was also charaterised by some questionable decisions taken by the referees, many of which didn't go down well with the Malta clan. The entire team played their heart out and at the final whistle their jubilation was well deserved. Captain Niki Lanzon skilfully di- rected operations designed by national coach Karl Izzo. Michele Stellini was on song with some powerful and accurate shooting from the distance while Matthew Zammit in the hole was his usual mencing self. Brownrigg and Gabarretta fought hard too. In defence, Jor- dan Camilleri, Mark Meli and Clint Mercieca marked well and effected timely steals. Timmy Sullivan, Alex Attard and Dino Zammit were valid when called to dut y. However, special mention must go to keeper Alan Borg Cole who pulled off some superb saves often at crucial moments in the game. One such save came in the last minute of the game when our opponents presented with a one alone situation and our keeper brilliantly parried the shot com- ing from South Africa's best play- er N.Molyneaux to retain our one goal advantage. The boys then retained pos- session until the final whistle at which point their exhiliration was justifiably overwhelming. They had made history and once again did Malta proud! Next match is today at 4.30pm (5.30pm Malta time) against Wales. Marsa continue losing streak WHAT a busy and unsuccessful weekend of Cricket for the Marsa C.C. On Saturday playing against Harrow School, who were on their tenth tour, batted first in the fifty over encounter. Unfortunately for the homes side it was not the best batting performance and were bowled out in the thirtieth over. Ex- tras were the highest score with thir- ty six. Frank Spiteri made thirty four runs and Niraj Khanna thirty two. For Harrow F.Copestick and A.Rath took three wickets each , Lloyd Wil- liams two and A.Nazir one. Harrow made their required target in the twenty seventh over. G.Ried made forty runs, J.Jordache thirty nine, R.Wijeratne thirty , A.Ferreira nine- teen and eighteen extras. Bikram Arora was the only wicket taker for Marsa. On Sunday a mini tournament was held including new touring team Worcester Royal Grammar School who are on their first tour. First game was between Marsa and Harrow. The Harrow team bat- ted first and made 121 runs from their twenty overs with G.Ried top scoring with twenty three runs. Su- mair Khan took three wickets, while Kevin Krishna and Justin Farrin Thorne both took two wickets each for the home side. Surprisingly the Marsa team were bowled out for 104 runs with only Nowell Khosla mak- ing any impact on the scoreboard with fifty six runs. For Harrow the wickets were shared between Lloyd Williams, Faber, J.Jordache,R.Wijer- atne, Shah and Abdullah. The Har- row team win the two game series against Marsa two nil. In the sec- ond game Harrow went on to beat W.R.G.S and therefore also won the mini tournament. Well done Harrow School. The third game was being played for second position. W.R.G.S batted first and totalled 128 runs from their overs. Shah and Taylor both made forty five runs, Goodyear twenty seven and eleven extras. Gareth Merryman was the only wicket taker for Marsa. The Marsa team fell short by eleven runs, with Zubair Raja top scoring with forty two runs and Bikram Aro- ra made twent nine. For the visitors M.Jones, A.Jawanda, S.Shah, B.Allen and J.Taylor were the wicket takers. Another busy week for cricket with the two touring teams playing on the first two days of the week against each other. On Wednesday Marsa take on W.R.G.S and then on Fri- day and Sunday take on new touring team Romiley C.C.