Last weekend those at Nomad Sports Club witnessed a splendid two days of international cricket.

Nomads played host to the Manila Sixes cricket tournament on Saturday (10 March) which featured the best of the local talent and the boys from Bahrain - the Gulf Air Cricket Club.

A memorable day saw some huge hitting & plenty of wickets tumble as the Sixes teams fought out for the coveted title of the Manila Sixes 2001 Champions.

Nomads own Cavaliers were the eventual winners after edging out Gulf Air in the final.

Gulf Air had the first dig in the final and managed a respectable 52 from their 5 overs whilst losing just the one wicket. Safique (27 no) & Ravi (17) shone with the bat for the visitors.

Cavaliers began the run chase steadily with the ever young Small (23no) and Egerton (16 no) guiding Nomads team to victory.

Final standings for the 2001 Manila Sixes (in order):
1. Cavaliers
2. Gulf Air
3. ANZACs
4. Rest-of-the-World
5. Gulf Air 2
6. Yorkshire

You can find abbreviated results from the Sixes following Bill Bailey's report on the Nomads v Gulf Air match played last Sunday.

The most notable performances on the day:
Highest team total - ROW 121 against Yorkshire.
Highest individual score - Michael Jones 63no (Cavaliers vs. ROW).

Thanks to all attendees (players & spectators) who made the Sixes tournament & Cup such a success. Special thanks to Gulf Air for making the effort to tour, 'The Craic' for treating us well on Saturday night & Blue Cross Insurance for providing the shirts.

Now it's over to Bill Bailey for his report on the annual Nomads CC vs Gulf Air CC Challenge match, played last Sunday, 11 March.

"For the ninth successive year, the Manila Nomads cricketers hosted the touring Gulf Air XI in the traditional Sunday 35 over "Test" match for the magnificent marble Cup Challenge Trophy. In what many observers felt to be an upset, the Gulf Air XI scored an impressive 92 run victory over the home side.

The day had started well for Nomads, with skipper Bailey extending his toss winning streak to an unprecedented three and visiting captain, Terry Dews, was asked to bat first.

The mere fact that most Gulf Air players seemed to own their own kit - including some rather weighty looking blades - induced some concern into the home players. When the bearded Ravi and veteran Khalid strode to the middle a number of bowlers were speculating to the captain (including himself) that it might be as well to hold them back for a while. However, the ever reliable (and now slightly older) Nathan Wadds was up to the task and took the new ball with Faisal.

It took little time for Ravi to get into his stride as he punished the Nomads with an array of flourishing drives. With apparent ease he moved to the retirement score of 50 from 36 balls inside 9 overs. Khalid had been relatively quiet at the other end, but a number of angled drives through the fine third man region kept his own score ticking over. Ravi was replaced with Sandeep (46) who started to construct a thoughtful and patient innings.

Whilst Wadds bowled through for his 7 overs, the recently married Faisal was soon replaced with the off-spin of Barker. Once again, the captain's ploy was to be rewarded as he took a top-edged catch from Khalid (35) as he attempted to strike Barker out of the ground. Just two balls earlier Bailey had been unlucky not to hold onto a stinging blow from the same batsman at short midwicket.

The Gulf Air batsmen scored at a consistently good rate - notably Bilal (22) Shafique (30) and Tyrone (20)) and were helped by a sub-standard performance in the field by the Nomads. Numerous catches were floored - including two that were beautifully tipped over the boundary ropes in goalkeeper fashion for 6 runs. Whilst this reporter does not wish to dwell on this aspect of the contest, Jerry and Faisal - you know who you are.

After Barker had finished his excellent spell of 7 overs for a relatively miserly 41 runs, Hartley (2 wickets), Paling (none), Echter (2) and Bailey (3) shared the bowling duties. It was the last pair that brought some semblance of order to proceedings by taking 3 wickets in two overs following the 25 over drinks break - at this stage it seemed as if the visitors may run riot in the last ten overs. Echter found himself on a hat-trick with no lesser batsman than Andy Dove marching, be-helmeted, to the crease - sadly, for all concerned (except Dove), Echter reverted to his "leg-theory" attack and the batsman gratefully dispatched his first ball to the fence.

Dove (15) made quick runs, but was to be thwarted by Bailey's craftily flighted off-break that slipped between bat and pad before striking the off stick. However, Mohammed (16) and Learmonth (22*) put bat to ball effectively and saw out the remaining overs. This was clearly to the relief of the Nomads, who had seen Ravi re-pad with some excitement at the anticipation of a second tilt at Faisal.

After a hearty lunch, the Gulf Air team took the field in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. Sadly, for the opening batsmen, this did not dampen the bowlers' enthusiasm to take the speed-gun past the 100mph mark. Tyrone, without even the hint of a dodgy action, ripped in from his long run and soon accounted for the downcast Faisal (0) aided by a very sharp slip catch from Ravi - although, as many noted, there is no excuse for dropping anything at first slip when you give yourself more than 25 yards notice.

Barker (13) was joined by Hartley (32) and the Nomads' two most consistent batsmen (in terms of high scores) forged a solid partnership. Barker eventually fell to another sharp catch at first slip, but Hartley fought hard against the brunt of the non-relenting pace of Tyrone, Khalid and Shafique. Nathan Wadds (16) valiantly supported Hartley and both played some fine shots. Canny field placements and straight bowling prevented the batsmen reaching the boundary, although the canniest of field placings - back stop - was strangely overlooked by the captain/wicketkeeper.

With the exception of the byes, the scoring rate remained very slow until some variety was injected into the attack late in the game. A number of batsmen fell valiantly trying to accelerate (including the unfortunate Bailey, who was rather taken in by Dove's "shorter" ball). However, Paling (25*) and the prolific Kevin Wadds (32*) took the score to a more than respectable 199-8. Wadds, in particular, took the bowling to task - his brief innings being particularly memorable for the six over the clubhouse that allowed him to double his son's score.

The Nomads XI was: Bill Bailey (C), Michael Barker, Faisal Durrani Khan, Chris Hartley, Gary Powell, Nathan Wadds, Damon Paling, Jerry Echter, Rod Hall, Kevin Wadds, Kevin Manley, Leo Learmonth (graciously made up the numbers for Gulf Air).

Results of the Manila Sixes:
9.00am	ROW  	  v  Yorkshire	ROW       by 93 runs
9.45am	Cavaliers v  Gulf (2) 	Cavaliers by 6 wkts
10.30am	Yorkshire v  Gulf (1)	Gulf (1)  by 65 runs
11.15am	ANZACS    v  Gulf (2) 	ANZACs    by 5 wkts
12.00pm	Gulf (1)  v  ROW	Gulf (1)  by 24 runs
12.45pm	Cavaliers v  ANZACs	Cavaliers by 3 wkts

Semi-finals		
1.30pm	Gulf (1)  v  ANZACs	Gulf (1)  by 18 runs
2.15pm	Cavaliers v  ROW	Cavaliers by 35 runs

Wooden Spoon Decider 		
3.00pm	Gulf (2)  v Yorkshire	Gulf (2)  by 6 wkts

3rd/4th Place play off 		
3.45pm	ANZACs    v ROW		ANZACs    by 6 wkts

Final		
4.30pm	Gulf 1    v Cavaliers	Cavaliers by 5 wkts

League A	League B	
Cavaliers  4    Gulf (1)     4
ANZACs     2	ROW          2           	
Gulf (2)   0	Yorkshire    0 	

The next game in Manila will be on Sunday 01 April, 2001, 10.30 at Nomads. Due to football/rugby tournaments there will be no games on Sunday, March 18 & 25.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd