This year the tournament grew to 4 teams, an absolutely amazing feat and massive credit to all those involved in making this happen. It was a welcome to West London Limers and a welcome back to returning champions Priory Park Cricket Club, Old Scrubbadonians CC and BBC Mishits CC (Glaxo rebels!).

We managed to raise £1361 in the end. Unfortunately, the person at Barclays didn't come through and so they didn't match our total. Nonetheless, a brilliant effort for all involved, including donations from those that didn't play! A massive thank you to you all too for your support! Rob, Bob, Vasa, John Blake to name a few.

One of things that gave me the most joy playing cricket was playing with a mix of people from different walks of life, nationalities, ages, etc. so seeing pretty much most of the continents across the world represented was amazing! Even how far some had travelled to play in the competition, from the south (albeit south London!) to the north (Yorkshire) was remarkable.

Before I go on to the cricket, a massive thanks to my mum, mother in law (how many can say that!) and my wife for producing a tea fit for royalty. A huge thank you to Burnham Cricket Club for providing their top class facilities free of charge, again and my Dad for arranging this. It's a fantastic venue and an interesting drive to get there. Also to the 4 captains for getting full squads together, including remarkably having 2 spares! To John Blake for umpiring and Steve for proving scoring is an art!

Just a reminder as to why this competition took place. I injured my neck and spine a year ago playing cricket, I won't bore anyone with the story again! I received amazing treatment at Stoke Mandeville so wanted to raise money for the spinal injuries association, hence this competition.

What a contrast to a year ago! The sun was out and I no longer had a walking aid. Happy days. It was blisteringly hot. Stokes and Raminder headed for the shade!

The first game saw last years winners, PPCC take on WLL CC. Limers won the toss and elected to bowl. An awesome opening bowling spell saw early wickets fall. However, a crucial middle order stand between the master blaster Sukul and cultured Jameel steadied the ship. Ritesh's fine spell of 3 overs 4 for 13 was a high point. Also, the wiley change of pace from Anish was impressive. The fielding was also top notch, as was the catching in general. What wasn't so impressive was the number of wides bowled. Given they counted for 3 runs per wide and the majority saw the batsmen gain more runs by running too. Unfortunately the scoring didn't capture it, but I'm assuming wides top scored! I should say Hitesh also took 2 wickets. Limers reached a respectable total of 136 for 7 in their 15 overs. The standard of cricket was good.

A quick turnaround saw hambo and Robert croft, sorry, Ritesh open the batting. Another great spell of bowling, this time from Usman (3-11), saw the openers go cheaply. Gaurav in at 4 also went cheaply to Limers 'captain', roop. Enter PPCCs captain, Sandeep and the wall, vijay. I was interested to see what veeej would do to adapt his game. Amazingly, he scored more boundaries then Sandeep! They both rebuilt the innings and got PPCC back into the match. However, a well thought out spell of slow, turning bowling from M Jameel, stemmed the runs and saw 2 more wickets fall. Once Vj and Sandeep departed only Hitesh kept the score going and finished on 20 whilst everyone else came and went quickly. Anish showed a cameo with the bat hitting 2 fours! Ppcc finished on 92-8 in their 15 overs. Limers had won by 44 runs, to see them progress to the finals, a very good win over the reigning champs. MOM has to go to M Jameel for his 30 plus runs and 2 wickets at an average of 7.5! Honourable mention to Hitesh of PPCC for 20 runs and 2 wickets.

The second semi final saw old scrubbadonians play bbc Mishits. Bbc won the toss and elected to bat. Bbc had a strong batting line up. CvR, a batsman who truly makes the game look easy and The tenacious black padded, most improved player (by a distance) opened proceedings. An opening stand of 26, with CvR taking a liking to Micheal 'Mitchell' Johnson, dispatching a big 6. Some interesting captaincy of giving each bowler an over and then pulling them out of the attack ensued from Middle Persaud. He brought himself on to bowl some 2 pace cutters and instantly saw him remove Joe for an interesting 2! Next in was Ram and I couldn't wait to see this pair bat. CvR hasn't added much to his score before a missed time pull off Louis saw him caught at mid wicket. Mikey came to the creases to join Ram and it brought back great memories of playing alongside them for Glaxo and wondering if they were this good now, how good must they have been 20 years ago! They put on almost 80 in the next 10 overs with some ease, ram only getting run out in the final over. It was an awesome display of running between the wicket prior to this. Rather disappointingly for me I didn't get to see the other Glaxo old boys of Ronnie, Danny, prince and Persaud senior bat. However, just them being there reminded me of the Glaxo dynasty of 3 league titles in 3 years. Bbc ended on 119 for 3. An excellent fielding display and general bowling all round. To limit a side with that batting line up on a hard track with a lightening fast outfield was impressive. Special mention to Lee who brought his unique version of fielding to sub field.

Will and Nishant started the innings for OSCC. They were to face the serious pace of prince Wilson, the man who's been next in line for the throne for some time. Although time has passed and his dreads have grown, his pace hasn't dropped nor his run up shortened! In his first over he removed Will caught by Fisal, yes Fisal. It seems all the more odd seeing it in print. Either way it gave his support group reason to cheer! Nish and Aaron kept the score moving, predominantly through hard run 1s and 2s from Nish and some lusty blows from Arron. Aaron was soon stumped off Mikey by ram. Amazing, considering he'd caught everything but the ball up to that point. Someone shouted out bring back Rexy, it might've been me. Raminder skipinder then scored a good 16 before Faisal had him caught by joe. Scott and Jonny then saw OSCC at a canter in 12 overs. Whilst the bowling was fairly economical, there were not enough wickets taken. MOM shared between Mikey and Nishanti.

This meant bbc would taken on PPCC in the third place playoff and OSCC would play Limers to the trophy.

In the third place playoff, bbc were desperate to bat first having just fielded. However, Sandeep had other ideas, winning the toss, turning down bbcs requests and batting first. This game you could see the intensity of PPCC. This time Rits opened with gaurav. G went for 1, bowled by prince. Sandeep then came to the crease and he and rits accelerated the score to 90 before they both retired. There was a good mix of hitting, but in equal measure there was some impressive running between the wickets - key in this format. A huge 6 from Sandeep onto the next pitch was the highlight. Some good stroke play from rits was equally impressive, belying his usual number 10 spot. The wall then came to the crease looking like a man possessed, he'd obviously had a burst of energy, as he looked on the brink of collapse running between the wickets in the first innings. Some destructive hitting, now known as the COWER drive through cow corner saw Vj hit three 4s! However, what can only be seen as a low point of his career saw him bowled for 22 by a seaming, slow death of a ball. Sabs kept the rate going before getting out late in the innings to Steve, another good stumping by Ram. Forhad came in and I was praying for the reverse sweep, but he kept it hidden, possibly for next year?!? A great total of 148 for 5 in the alloyed 15 overs. Steve was the pick of the bowlers returning figures of 2-15 in only 2 overs. A mention to an interesting bowling cameo from Matthew Loades, rivalling roop for the most runs in a spell, more of that later.

Bbc went out to bat, looking somewhat tired and stiff. I think the batting order was based on who had enough energy to pad up. The skipper and his prince started things off. At this point I went inside to have a well deserved tea. By time I came back out, 3 overs had passed and 4 wickets gone! There were 2 wickets apiece for the competitions most destructive new ball partnership of rits and h. Another brilliant display of fast bowling. I'm pretty sure a bail was broken in there somewhere! Mikey and Ronnie then rebuilt the innings, the former reaching 30 and the retiring, bring the only batsman not out over 2 games and the highest run scorer on 66 runs. Anish again bowled brilliantly, only going for 12. Perhaps f15 is his preferred format. The slow death, aka Parm then bowled 3 overs of top class twirl that MP3 would've been on the phone to his bookies about. For had too had bowled well only conceding 9 runs in 2 overs. This was the complete performance and a shame it didn't happen in the semi final. MOM went to rits for his 30 runs and 2 wickets. Honourable mention to H and Saneep for their contributions and Mikey and Ronnie too.

As PPCC and bbc tucked into some food and light refreshments the final started. Whilst unfortunate they missed out on the final thru both had good food and company and a great vantage point from the balcony.

Roops Limers won the toss and opted to bowl. Will and Arron marched to the crease. A breezy 9 from the first over then saw a wicket lost in the second. Aaron bowled by a slower delivery from Limers most impressive bowler, Shakib. Jon joined his brother at the crease but didn't last long either falling victim to Shakib. Scott and Will the played beautifully to make 30 a piece before retiring. Again, crucially the running between the wickets was high quality. It couldn't have been easy in that heat. Raminder then came in and showed his class, before being "bowled" by Maurice (even though he was keeping), with the bail falling in front of the wicket and bizarrely off the stump the ball didn't hit. Quite unlucky from Raminder, but earlier in the day he mentioned a betting ring in India keeping tabs on this tournament and he'd asked me to place a bet? Perhaps Raminder had placed a bet on himself?!? Nishant and Mikey Johnson then ran with intent, once too often as Mike was run out. Louis came in and hit an amazing 30 in no time, taking a liking to roop who was dispatched for 36 in his 2 overs! An unwelcome record, especially for the final. The skipper then came in and score 5 in a few balls. The highest total on the tournament was scored seeing OSCC finish on 152 for 4. Shakib and Jameel senior bowled well.

An injury to Will saw Anish hand picked as a sub fielder, now sporting an all black attire. Andy was the one change to the team for Limers. He opened up with Saqib, looked good for a man who just had a knee replacement! However, he was bowled by a quick delivery from Scott for 4. Usman came to the crease, a highly talented all rounder. They both score a wonderful 30 each and really swung the balance of the match. However, when they had to retire the middle order failed to build on their start. In truth the bowling was spot on and the fielding excellent, particularly sticks who usually dons the gloves. All the bowlers bowled well, particularly Scott and Aaron. What had looked like a tight match petered out to see Limers close on 129 for 5. Wild-ish scenes ensued, kind of. Old Scrubbadonians were the deserved winners.

Amazingly we had played 4 full games in 8 hours! Everyone had fun and seemed to really enjoy the day. We had close to 60 people there, an amazing achievement.

Again, a massive thank you to every single one of you who came or donated. I am truly touched by everyone who took time out of their lives to play and assist and for everyone's kind words. I hope we can keep this competition going, at least so I can make a comeback one day! I'm sorry this report has taken so long. It's been somewhat a labour of love these past 2 weeks. I hope to see you all again next year!!!