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maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 4 JUNE 2014 Sport CRICKET TRIATHLON Marsa win series OVER the Weekend the Marsa C.C hosted new touring team Hammer Bottoms Butsers C.C in a three game series. Two twenty over games and a time game of 75 overs. In the first game on Saturday the visitors batted first and made 97 runs from their overs which in- cluded twenty four extras. Jeremey Scolfield top scored with thirty runs which included four bounda- ries. Richard O 'Hare made twenty runs. For the home team Paul Bra- dley took two wickets while Chris Evans, Matthew Gillard and Brett smith took a wicket each. With the home side fielding one of their stronger eleven the game was over in the eleventh over. Ha- roon Majeed made thirty runs, John Grima twenty six, Malcolm Crabbe three, Brett Smith thirteen , fourteen extras and Bikram Arora who made sixteen runs from three balls. Scholfield was the only wick- et taker with two for HBBCC. An easy win for Marsa. Game two was very similar too game one the visitors made 96 runs with Pertwee top scoring with nineteen, Casper Weston seven- teen and David Stoop fifteen runs. The wickets were shared between five bowlers. This time it took the home side till the seventeenth over to win the game with Amal Sebas- tion making forty two runs. Marsa win the game and lead the series two to nil. On Sunday a 75 over time game was played, not many of the home team knew what this meant and were bewildered about the wides which would normally be given in overs cricket and were not given. The home side batted first and with a fantastic innings from Jack Shanks who made seventy two runs which included six fours, took the team to a good total of 182 when the captain declared after thirty seven overs. For HBBCC Jeremy Scholfield took two wickets, Wil- liam Hill, Richard O'Hare, James Blake, Daviv Stoop and Casper We- ston all took a wicket each. The home side needed early wick- ets if they were to have any impact on the game. Hardie (twenty one runs) and Dick White (twenty seven runs) kept the bowlers at bay. A f lurry of wickets then had the visitors shaken up, Scholfield was there again holding up the Marsa bowlers making a patient twenty eight runs. A couple more wickets fell, overs had passed and the last over was up with the home team needing two wickets to win, the visitors had been in defence mood for the past ten overs not wanting to lose. Fifth ball of the over and Blake is out for nine runs. One ball to go , David Graham arrives at the wicket and gracefully defend the last ball. A draw is made and the home players are still baff led at how close they were to winning and yet so far away. Junior Suhrid Roy led the way with the ball taking four wickets, Mike Caruana took three wickets while Amal Sebastion and Joy GHoseroy took one each. Last weekend the Malta Cricket Association held a coaching course which was instructed by Graeme Rickman in its endeavour to create more coaches. This coming week the National team will be playing in the Pan-Eu- ropean Cricket tournament which will be held in Hungary from 5th – 8th June. Hungary will have two teams, Hungary, Hungary A, Austria, Poland and UCT (Dubai). Malta will be in group A with Hun- gary and UCT. Next Weekend the Marsa team take on new touring team Whalers C.C in a two game series. Success for Maltese triathletes in international races THE Malta Triathlon Federa- tion (MTF) has been nurturing its topmost triathletes in the first months of 2014, especially in view of the next important interna- tional Triathlon competitions, such as the European Triathlon Championships in Austria this June and more notably the Com- monwealth Games in Glasgow in July. The MTF, in cooperation with the Maltese Olympic Com- mittee and through its funding, has been seeing its top triathletes in international races with some very remarkable results. Graham Borg, establishing him- self as one of the Malta most in- form triathletes at the moment triumphed by placing himself at First Place in the First Edition of the Aeolian Olympic Triathlon on the island of Vulcano, Sicily. Borg was followed by other Malta Triathlon National Team mem- ber, David Galea in third place as well as first in his Age Category. The other members of the Malta Team in this race, Jude Zammit and Gejtu Catania had very good performances too. Borg has already f lirted with success in Sicily some week ago when he placed 8th overall in the Trapani Half-Iron Distance. Borg was also Triathlon Malta's representative in the Invitational Commonwealth Games Triathlon Test-Race last week when he raced in the 'Elite' category against some of the world 's strongest tria- thletes. Sicily has been bringing luck to the Maltese Triathetes as Keith Galea, Malta's national Triathlon and Duathlon Champion, placed 5th overall in the International Triathlon at Avola organised by the Federazione Italiana Triath- lon and the Mediterranean Tria- thlon Federation. On the female side, the whole Female National Team competed in the National Spanish Sprint- Distance Triathlon Champion- ships which were held in Altafulla on the 24 of May. Danica Bonel- lo-Spiteri was home first from the Maltese, with Hannah Pace, Michelle Vella-Wood and Marga- ret Seguna all having very good performaces. The Triathlon National Team members are fine-tuning their rigorous training regime in view of the upcoming International races and aiming to be part of the Maltese contingent at the Glas- gow Commonwealth Games. The Malta Triathlon Federation would like to express its grati- tude to all the cooperation of its sponsors and most importantly the support from the European Triathlon Union and the Maltese Olympic Committee. PHOTOGRAPHY BY CAPTUREME PHOTOGRAPHY

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