This season is important for Portuguese cricket with its debut in the European Championships less than two months away. Peter Eckersley reports on a wet start and the national team's skirmishes on home turf next month:

"What promised to be a tightly packed cricketing schedule in Portugal started off somewhat like the proverbial 'damp squib' - literally so, with the unseasonable weather wreaking havoc with the pre-planned league fixtures.

As was perhaps expected, A.C.C. flexed their muscles early in those competitive matches which were completed. Camlesh Ramchande was rightly named "Man of the Match" in A.C.C.'s encounter with Cavaliers when he recorded career best bowling figures of 7-3-15-8. His team mate Nadeem Butt has produced a couple of fine innings; 57 against Cavaliers and an amazing 96 off 31 balls against CHP "B".

Other high scores of note in the league have been an excellent 130 not out by Carcavelos' John Riddell. From the same side, David Baverstock recorded his first three figure total for a couple of years when he made 127 not out against Cavaliers. Hussein Cheema has had four innings to date and has an average of 73.33 from an aggregate of 220.

For the Cavaliers, Dave Bevan has already shown highly promising form with scores of 53 & 108 - the latter being his contribution to an opening stand of 199 shared with Toby McKinnon (82) against Carcavelos.

Newcomers CHP ("A" & "B") have put in some solid performances - perhaps most notably being the "A" side's defeat of Carcavelos and then a comprehensive destruction of Oporto. Individually, the evergreen Jayesh Popat shone with 67 against Oporto whilst their wicket-keeper batsman Vijay produced what proved to be a match-winning knock worth 54 against Carcavelos. Spin bowler Harish Ramgi has already picked up a hat-trick in the May Day match between CHPs "A" & "B" whilst seamer Krish Manoj ripped the heart out of the Oporto innings with 5 wickets for 8 runs in 8 devastating overs.

Lispak, another new team to Portugal's cricketing scene have enjoyed mixed fortunes - losing heavily to both A.C.C. & Carcavelos but winning convincingly against CHP "B". Mohd. Kaleem has been the mainstay of their bowling as he continues to bamboozle batsmen with flight & spin.

The main disappointments - excluding the weather - have been twofold. Firstly, the below par performances by Oporto in their three National League matches. The Portuguese league has a bonus point system which awards batting sides 1 point for every 25 runs scored from 75 upwards. In three matches, Oporto have gained but a solitary batting point an their low point was being dismissed for a paltry 36 by CHP "A". Secondly, the failure by the newly formed Oeiras team to fulfill only one of it's scheduled fixtures. A heady mixture of torrential rain, school exams, NATO exercises, broken limbs, overseas business trips, childbirth and, in one instance, a painful abscess in the nether regions have all contributed to Oeiras' attempts at involvement being sadly thwarted.

Over the holiday weekend of 9th, 10th, 11th & 12th June (Portugal's national day falls on Saturday 10th so the nation takes Friday & Monday off to compensate!) there will be a Triangular Cricket Tournament at the prestigious Oporto Cricket & Lawn Tennis Club involving the National XI's of Switzerland, Portugal and Swedish club side, Svea, which will double as Sweden 'A'.

On Friday 9th Sweden play Switzerland
On Saturday 10th Portugal play Sweden
On Sunday 11th Portugal play Switzerland
On Monday 12th the two top teams play each other to establish the champions.
Matches will consist of 50 overs per side.

At the time of submitting this report, the Swiss are still keeping the names of their squad close to their chests. Portugal and 'Sweden A', however, have named their squads as:

Portugal - Torben Rankine (Captain), Nadeem Butt, Carlo Buccimazza, Paulo Buccimazza, Jay Da Costa, Nelson Ferreira, Brian Goodfellow, Dinesh Maughi, Intesab Mehdi, Camlesh Ramchande, Harish Ramgi, Akbar Saiyad, Humayun Shazhad, Martin Wade; 1st res.: Hussein Cheema.

Sweden A - Shakil Ahmed, Adnan Reza, Rauf Muhammad, Aru Sandenam, Nihal ?, Sajjad Butt, Omer Bajwa, Shahid Mohammad, Kleem Uddin, Hassan Ahmad, Imran Khan, Aziz Ahmad."