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25 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 JUNE 2014 Sport OVER the weekend the Marsa C.C took on new rivals from England, Whalers C.C. On Saturday the visitors won the toss and elected to bat first. A great innings from P.Nicholls of sixt y three runs provided some delight to Whalers. He thoroughly enjoyed playing the sweep shot where he achieved 95 % of his runs. R.Giles with twent y seven runs and D.Osgood twent y five where the main scorers from the total of 159 runs. For the home side Mike Carua- na and Andrew Naudi took two wickets each while Niraj Khanna u Gordon Hewitt took a wicket each. The Marsa reply came from two different innings, One from Frank Spiteri who blasted fift y two runs from thirt y five balls which in- cluded four fours and three sixes and one from a patient John Gri- ma who opened the innings and almost carried his bat just falling short of a half century by a run. Andrew Naudi chipped in with twent y nine runs and the home team were easy victors. For the Whalers P.English and P.Luchett took a wicket each. Marsa win the first game. The Whalers with their backs to the wall won the toss on Sunday and this time elected to bowl first. They managed to keep the home side to 133 runs of the thirt y five overs. Derek Ali played a good in- nings making fift y four runs and Sid Anand made twent y three. For the visitors R.Eberstein and M.Lucas took two wickets each while Kamal, Osgood, Luchett and Bhogal took a wicket each. Thw Whalers did not want to go home without a win and C.Karunaratne had plent y to say making fift y runs, Bhogal made thirt y one, Eberstein twent y one and Lucas seventeen in a convinc- ing win For Marsa Anand was the only wicket taker with two. The Whalers won the game and man- aged to square the series. Pan-European T20 Tournament The Malta cricket team played in the Pan European T20 Tournament in Hungary. This was their first games since October when they won the Malta international Cricket Tourna- ment on home soil against the Czech Republic, Hungary and Russia. The tournament commenced on Thursday and concluded on Sunday. The Malta team topped their group in the first round and earned a semi final plac- ing against Poland on the Saturday. Managing to chase down 138 runs the Malta team made it to the final, still unbeaten, They met UCT (Dubai) in the final. UCT posted a formidable to- tal of 161 runs. The Malta team batted steadily and a fine innings from Chris Chellew (seventy one runs), kept the team within reach of a victory. The tides turned in favour of Malta with an outstanding innings from Bikram Arora who took the game away from UCT in one over where he hit three sixes and a four and the rest as one may say is history. Malta win. Well done to all the players and the coach. MOTORSPORTS CRICKET TENNIS Last ASMK Enduro Race on Saturday at Attard THE "Assocjazzjoni Sport Muturi u Karozzi" (ASMK) Enduro 2013- 14 Championship will come to an end next Saturday 14th June from 4.00pm at Attard. The Enduro sec- tion together with a number of AS- MK Officers will be organising the 5th and Final Enduro event at the Wied Incita quarry l/o Attard. This ASMK Pasta Poiatti End of Sea- son event is supported by Dunlop Tyres (Malta), KTM and Thomas Smith Insurance. Such race in this location is made possible by kind permission of the quarry own- ers 'Rainbow Mix Construction' (Ta'Venven). Race starts at 4.00pm and all permits are granted. A look into the points classifica- tion shows that James Zahra on a Yamaha MX 250cc bike won four races from five and heads the points scale ahead of Runner-up Matthew Gauci on a 300cc KTM bike. Za- hra so far totalled 97 points while Gauci who won one event and two runner-up placing among others has gained 84 points. These places are way ahead of the 3rd place won with 57 points so far. The lead of Zahra and Gauci will surely draw the attention of all present with regards to the final results. If Zahra does not win next final race but places in the four top places he also wins the Enduro 2013-14 Championship title. Gauci still has little hope that he might be the championship winner but all depends on Zahra's placing in this final race. The race for 3rd place is still on between Class A rider (under 250cc) Joseph Scicluna with 57 points on his Honda 125cc and Class B rider Alex Sant Fornier on his 450cc KTM with 51 points. The margin between the two is so small yet all will be decided in next Saturday's race results. Andrew Cassar follows in 5th place with 37 points. ASMK would like to bring to the attention of its race followers that the Motocross and Trials Cham- pionships will be concluded in the final events to be held in the com- ing days. During the summer days ASMK will be organizing an 'Autocross One Hour Endurance' race. This will be held on a Saturday evening during summer. Date will be noti- fied later. Yet ASMK is also planning to hold another Autocross event in Gozo with the participation of Gozo competitors too. More details with regards to this special event later. More information can be obtained through the official website www. asmk.org.mt/ Elvin Debono Malta win Pan European T20 Tournament Record-collector Nadal closes in on Federer's hoard WHEN Roger Federer won his 17th grand slam title in 2012, it seemed his record haul would last forever as it took more than a century of try- ing for a super-human male athlete to come along and win that many major trophies. Yet only two years later, a younger, fitter, hungrier rival by the name of Rafael Nadal is now threatening to topple the Swiss from his perch after hoisting his 14th major silverware at Roland Garros on Sunday. As the Spaniard has now contest- ed the last three slam finals it is not inconceivable that by the time he returns to Paris next year to target a 10th Musketeers' Cup, his name could be alongside Federer's on the list of all-time leading title hoard- ers. As the first man to win nine times at the same grand slam tournament and with time still on his side, Nadal has shown no signs of relinquishing his hold at the French Open, where he owns an eye-popping 66-1 win- loss record. The tennis world may be obsessed with finding out just how many more trophies Nadal is capable of winning but the 28-year-old did not seem to care a hoot about where he ended up in the pecking order. "Federer, well, he's had 17 and I have had 14 grand slams... but I'm not really worried. It's not a source of motivation for me," said the French Open champion, who has also won two Wimbledons, two US Open and an Australian Open trophy. "I don't really care that much about the records. I'll still play with a lot of intensity. I'll still be motivated. "I'll follow my own path. Then when my career is over, we'll count." That path will initially lead him to Wimbledon, where he desperately wants to make amends for his shock first-round defeat last year to 135th- ranked Belgian Steve Darcis. The switch from clay to grass in just two weeks proved to be a chal- lenge too for Nadal and his over- worked knees in 2013, especially as he was on the way back from a seven-month injury break. Twelve months on an he is more optimistic about his return to the home of lawn tennis. "I want to try to play well again in Wimbledon," said the Spaniard, who preserved his status as world number one by beating Novak Djok- ovic in the French Open final. "I'm healthy. That's the most im- portant thing." "I hope my knee will have the posi- tive feeling on grass, because I feel my knee is better than last year on the rest of the surfaces. "Grass always was a little bit hard- er for me after the injury. Last year I tried, but I was not ready to compete at Wimbledon. "Let's see how my feelings are there this year, but it's a very impor- tant tournament. It's a tournament I really love so much." Record-collector Nadal closes in on Federer's hoard