As tournament season comes to an end ABDUL KHERATKER of Blackburn CC describes how his side broke their duck in a national cricket tournament in Luton.

We have been travelling and entering tournaments on and off for the past nine years.

This year we took a blend of experience and Youth and it worked an absolute treat.

Having started the long Journey to Luton at around 6.45 a.m. from Blackburn, we arrived safely in Luton at 10.00 a.m. The Manager of the Team Munir Khan travelled the night before and was there for the start of the Draw. Blackburn were the first team to be drawn out, could this be an omen for the rest of the day? However when we found out the other Opponents namely Birmingham A, Birmingham B, Luton C and a Mixed team from (Blackburn, Leicester and London) we felt fate had dealt us a cruel blow.

In effect this was the group of Death, and to make things worse there would be no semi-final so it was case of win all your games or prepare to go home. We had not travelled all the way from Blackburn just to make up the numbers.

I told all my players to go out and enjoy themselves and boy did they do that.

We won our opening two games with consummate ease but came unstuck against the defending Champions Birmingham B. We now to beat Birmingham A to qualify and did so after I hit the winning runs off the last bowl of the game.

We met London in the final and having won the toss our Openers Asif Mahmood and Pervaiz Kazi immediately went on the offensive and splattered the ball to all parts of the ground amassing a brisk 50 of only 5 overs, we lost our first wicket (Pervaiz Kazi) at 55 but in stepped Irfan Kazi to help us reach 74.

London started off badly losing their star player in the first over. From then it seemed destiny was on our side. London fell 25 runs short.

We won comfortably in the end much to the relief Manager Munir Khan who have been through thick and thin and never gave up hope of winning the Tournament. To add the icing on the cake, Asif Mahmood who batted brilliantly won the Batting award and Pervaiz Kazi with his off spin bowled Superbly to scoop the bowlers Prize. The long Journey back home seemed short and sweet, as the Dream had been realized. We arrived safely home at 3.00 a.m. Sunday Morning.