Any hopes that Young Ashdod might have entertained of avoiding the drop to Division 2 next year were dashed by Tel Aviv. The visitors gave the home team a lesson in how to play cricket in adverse conditions, in a match played on Saturday.

Playing on the Ashdod oval which is in the process of undergoing a top soil dressing, the ground was half covered in sea sand and at times the batsmen thought they were on the 17th at St Andrews trying a 9 iron to get out of the sand.

Only true cricket lovers could have played under such conditions aside from the heat of 35 and humidity of 75%. In past years the Ashdod oval has been the premier ground in Israel, and it can only be hoped that all the assurances of the Ashdod municipality will come to fruition in the next month.

After winning the toss and taking 14 off the second over the home side were soon in trouble at 31/4 as Alan Moss, making his long awaited reappearance in Israeli cricket, took a wicket with his first ball as he knocked out all the stumps of the opening bat. In his next over the old firm of caught Perlman bowled Moss flashed on the scoreboard. In addition the former Israel captain brought off one of his vintage diving acts to have Young Ashdod reeling. Israeli international Raymond Aston road his luck (he was dropped 3 times in one over from Moss) to score 34, as wickets tumbled regularly to 102 for 9. A stubborn 32 runs for the 10th wicket brought Young Ashdod to 132 all out in 38 overs. Herschel Gutman bowled well in picking up 1/15, whilst Moss with 2/24 and Avner Greenberg (3/30) both impressed.

After losing Danny Malyenkar for 14, with the score on 23 in the 7th over, Stanley Perlman and Frank Auger put on 110 undefeated runs for the second wicket in 21 overs, as the defending champions secured a comprehensive 9-wicket win.

Playing the sheet anchor role Frank Auger was undefeated for 39 whilst Perlman, using his array of shots to his advantage, flayed the attack to all parts of the ground. At the point of victory Perlman was undefeated with 60 including 2 sixes and 5 fours. His aggressive innings knocked the nails into Young Asdods coffin

© Israel Cricket Association