Rodgau CC, perhaps spurred on by the novelty of the occasion, recently clinched the German National Club Championship with a five wicket win over the experienced DSSC Berlin in the final at Monchengladbach.

Displaying determination and discipline, Rodgau CC, the Western Region divisional winner, overcame the early shock of being 1-0 in the first over, chasing down DSSC Berlin's 114 in 29.3 overs.

DSSC Berlin began well with Imran leading the way. However, opening partner, Tariq's demise sparked a minor collapse, two wickets going in quick succession.

Although Amir steadied things with valuable runs, Rodgau maintained the pressure with tight bowling and skilful and enthusiastic fielding. Crucially, they held their catches. This provided the basis for another DSSC Berlin collapse, and the Eastern Regional champions looked finished at 61-6.

A late order rally, however, at least pushed DSSC Berlin's total over the 100 mark, with Masood, batting at number 8, top scoring for the innings with 35, aided by Altaf (18) and Azeem (8). The Berlin innings ended at 114 all-out after 31.2 overs. The pick of the Rodgau bowlers were Badar (7-0-21-2) and Kareem (6-0-25-3).

Rodgau responded to its first over loss of a wicket with cautious batting combined with the odd risk, prompted by deteriorating weather and light. Javed's innings reflected this, with a swashbuckling 19.

Two breaks for light then reduced Rodgau's target to 108. With Mubashser played a captain's innings and Badar matching him run for run, Rodgau reached the target. Badar, thanks to his contributions with both bat and ball, won the Man-of-the-Final award.

It was a brave effort for Rodgau as DSSC Berlin had played in the German national club final every season of its six year existence, winning the title three times.

Rodgau was given an easy entry to the final thanks to a last minute withdrawal from the national club titles by Southern Region champion, Bavaria CC (Munich).

DSSC Berlin, meanwhile, clinched its spot with a 79 run win over Northern Regional champion, Hamburg's Pak Alemi. Rain the previous day and fog that morning conspired to make it a 25-over-per-side affair.

DSSC Berlin batted first and made 146-7 in its 25 overs, Tariq top-scoring with 43, and Z.Ahmed Pak Alemi's best bowler with 2-21 off 6 overs.

Pak Alemi always managed to keep up with the run-rate, but lost wickets with similar frequency, being skittled for 67 all-out in 16 overs.

The withdrawal of Rodgau's semi-final opponent was perhaps a just outcome, after it defeated North Rhine-Westphalia champion, SV Weiden (Cologne) in the only play-off to decide the four semi-finalists, the draw having been made before Bavaria CC's withdrawal.

The Deutscher Cricket Bund is thankful to British Army authorities for granting permission to use their JHQ grounds in Monchengladbach.

So how did Pak Alemi snare the North German title? Now it's over to Keith Thompson in Hamburg, for a game by game account of the North German season:

This year the North German cricket league kicked off in mid-May, and the first game was contested between last year's champions, Pak Alemi, and Alster C.C. Playing on their home ground, Alster won the toss and elected to bat. A couple of early wickets fell before Dilip Nair joined John Kirby at the crease. They took the score past 80 and with Dilip hitting with great power, a big score looked on the cards. However, quick wickets then fell and despite an impressive 51 from Dilip, Alster were all out for 122 with Abid Ali claiming 5 for 24 off his 10 overs.

Opening for Pak Alemi, Farooq Ahmed put the match beyond doubt with a quick-fire 46. Left-arm quick, Dilip Nair, struck with two wickets in two balls but it was too little too late for the Alstermen, and Abid Ali saw the visitors home with an unbeaten 43 to round off a fine personal performance.

Two weeks later HCV, making their return to the league after a year of self-imposed exile, squared up to Bremen at the Fallingbostel ground. HCV won the toss and batted, and any suspicion of ring-rustiness was soon banished when their opening pair of Keith Semple and Javed Mahmood put on a century partnership for the first wicket. When Semple fell for 42, captain Jamal Mirza provided able support for Javed who eventually fell for a fine 67. With their tail wagging profitably, HCV finally ended up on 257 for 6 off their full complement of 50 overs.

This seemed like a daunting total but Bremen approached their task with commendable discipline and restraint. A.D. Butt scored 40 from No. 1 to give the innings a solid foundation and with Hanif Butt contributing a fast 62, Bremen began to believe they could win. Wickets continued to fall but in the end Kamran Mahmood and Imran Bashir steered them to a fine 3-wicket victory off a mere 41 overs. On the day, HCV had paid the price for a bowling attack which seemed to lack any real penetration and for very poor fielding which saw far too many catches put down.

Meanwhile back in Hamburg on the same day, extraordinary events were unfolding in a match which saw Alster CC up against another team returning after a year's leave of absence, the formerly invincible Hamburg Youth. There was much speculation as to how the now not quite so youthful Hamburg Youth team would fare after little or no competitive practice in the best part of 18 months, and the answer was not long in coming.

Batting first, Alster made steady progress until Dilip Nair strode to the wicket on the fall of the second wicket. Fresh from his fine 50 in their first league match of the season, Dilip proceeded to play the biggest innings which the North German League has seen since its inception in 1995.

Swatting away the bowling with disdainful power, he struck countless sixes in amassing an amazing total of 168. The innings was not chanceless and the Hamburg Youth team will have rued the many chances which they let slip in the field, admittedly in wet conditions which made catching no easy task. Alster finally closed on 277 for 9 off 50 overs, far and away their highest score since the club was set up in 1997.

Hamburg Youth seemed shell-shocked by this unexpected onslaught, and when danger man Zaheer Malik was out for a duck, their resistance was soon at an end. They finished on 145, leaving Alster to celebrate an historic victory and to ponder on what they might yet achieve in this millennium season.

One week later, the Hamburg Youth team had to re-group and face the long journey down to Göttingen to try to restore their battered pride. This was to be Göttingen's first outing of the season, but word had already spread that they were struggling to find replacements to fill the gaps created by the departure of last year's captain, Ed Cargill, and Kiwi paceman, Glen Reid.

Hamburg Youth elected to bat first and made cautious if not slow progress for the first 20 overs. However the fall of the second wicket saw the arrival of Zaheer Malik whose innings turned the course of the match decisively. Profiting from two early lives which Göttingen would have cause to regret giving him, he smashed the Göttingen bowling to all corners of the small University campus ground. With support from his captain, Abrar Hussain, he finished unbeaten on 110, thus recording the season's second century. Hamburg Youth finished on 239 and in reply, the Göttingen innings never got going. Only captain, Alistor Premnath, managed to reach double figures and their innings closed on 85 after 32 overs.

Meanwhile on the same Sunday in Hamburg, Alster clashed with HCV and it proved a real cliff-hanger. Batting first, HCV once again belied the apparent fragility of their team by running up 210 in 49.5 overs. Opening batsman Keith Semple once again contributed a solid start with 39 and fast bowler Usman Ali, promoted up the order, struck 68 to keep the innings together. For Alster, the deceptive inswing of tall Mark Richardson once again proved hard to handle, and he finished with fine figures of 5 for 42 off 8.5 overs.

The Alster reply got off to a fine start with Captain Bob Whitelaw scoring 55, ably backed up by his middle order. Just when it seemed that victory was in their grasp, a collapse set in and Alster fell agonisingly short, all out for 204. It had been a fine game of cricket marred only by the unfortunate dismissal of Alster's last man, who was 'Mankaded'. This is a disease which the North German League is trying hard to eradicate but in tense situations it tends to re-surface.

On June 18th Pak Alemi came up against the side which had run them so close in the previous season, Bremen. Both sides were unbeaten coming into the game and the excitement was running high. Batting first, Pak Alemi lost three early wickets before Farooq Ahmed joined Zaheer Ahmed at the wicket. Both batted with commendable discipline in putting on a century partnership. Zaheer fell for 49 but Farooq maintained his progress, becoming ever more aggressive. He reached his century in a memorable over, striking 4 straight sixes in the process before falling to the fifth ball of the over. His innings of 107 was enough to see Pak Alemi to a total of 242 all out off 39.5 overs.

The Bremen innings got off to a bad start with Abid Ali once again in fine form with the ball. Only captain Irfan Ali put up much resistance, striking a fine 69, but with little help from his team-mates. Bremen were finally all out for 167 falling 75 short of their target. Abid Ali recorded his second 5 wicket haul of the season.

The following week saw Pak Alemi in action again, this time making the long journey down the motorway to Göttingen. Winning the toss and batting, Pak Alemi feasted on an already weakened Göttingen attack. They ran up 374 in their 50 overs which your correspondent thinks may well be a record for the league. Opener Danisch Kumar hit 50 and then Abid Ali and Zaheer Ahmed both struck centuries to take Pak Alemi to their record total. In reply Göttingen had little chance of making a match of it and fell for 68 runs. It is to their great credit that in this season of rebuilding their team, their heads never dropped in the field and they fought hard to the end. Their time will undoubtedly come again.

By this stage of the season, only Pak Alemi were unbeaten, but there was still everything to play for as 4 teams, Alster, Hamburg Youth, HCV and Bremen, were lying in wait, each with only one defeat to their name.

It was against this backdrop that Alster made their way down the A1 motorway to Bremen on July 7th. Bremen had to be the favourites but Alster's early form had surpassed their performances of previous years, and there may even have been a little smart money riding on the boys from the lake.

With their new-found confidence Alster elected to bat, and once again Captain Bob Whitelaw led from the front. Opening the innings he smashed the Bremen attack for a brisk 65, and with able support from Gary Edwards down the order who chipped in with 39, Alster once again sailed past the 200 mark which had proved so elusive to them in the past. Finishing on 229 all out off 48 overs, they had well and truly laid down the gauntlet to the Bremen batsmen.

None of them seemed keen to pick it up however, as opening bowlers Dilip Nair and Jim Blake ripped into the upper order. Only when the burly Zafar Iqbal was joined by Asif Malik did Bremen begin to make a fight of it. Zafar was finding the boundary easy to reach on the full and the tension was beginning to mount, but then he fell for a fine 63 and the Bremen innings ended on 192, leaving Alster to celebrate what was fast becoming a sensational season.

Down the motorway in Fallingbostel on the same day, high drama was being played out as the long-awaited, much talked about, nay even much bet on re-match of Hamburg's two past champions, Hamburg Youth and Pak Alemi, finally took place. They talk of the Ali-Frazier re-match but one suspects it had nothing on this encounter, as passions rose high and much talk was wasted on the possible outcome.

Hamburg Youth won the toss and batted, but their batting line-up failed to fire and they were all out in 39 overs for a mere 125 runs. Left-arm spinner, Farooq Ahmed, had proved the destroyer, turning in figures of 4 for 10 off 7 overs. However Hamburg Youth showed the fighting spirit of the true champions they are, making the Pak Alemi team fight every inch of the way. They finally reached their target after 40 overs for the loss of 6 wickets. It had indeed been a memorable encounter, all the better for the fact that it was played in a spirit of competitive but friendly rivalry.

And so the stage was set for the only team who could still challenge Pak Alemi's supremacy to come face to face with the champions from 1999. Captain Jamal Mirza had guided his young HCV team to a position of unexpected strength in the league table and as ever his unquenchable thirst for battle could be expected to inspire his troops. Electing to bat first, the young HCV team never came to terms with the venomous bowling of Ajmal Rafiq who exploited the bouncy surface at Fallingbostel to strike fear in the batsmen's hearts. In the end they could find no answer to him and fell for a mere 49 runs leaving Ajmal with figures of 8 for 3 off 9 overs. Pak Alemi knocked off the runs with little trouble, thus clinching their third straight North German league title.

The same day saw Göttingen take on Bremen at the Bremen ground. Göttingen played like men inspired reducing the early Bremen line-up to 40 for 6. Rescued not for the first time by Captain Arfan Ali, Bremen made it up to 150 all out off 36 overs. The Göttingen batting line-up once again was unable to rise to the challenge and they fell for 82 leaving them still chasing their first victory of the season.

One week later on July 23rd, Göttingen had another chance to make amends and they showed their true fighting spirit in contributing to a memorable match against HCV. Batting first, HCV struggled to a mere 121 thanks to tight bowling by Dhushan Ekenayake and Phil Palma who took 3 wickets apiece. Once again Göttingen had victory in their sights and this time hard-hitting Shabir almost saw them home, striking a fine 44 off the HCV attack. A collapse set in, however, and they fell 7 runs short of their target.

The same Sunday saw Bremen take on Hamburg Youth. Batting first, Bremen made little headway against Hamburg Youth's very accurate pace attack. Maqsood picked up 3 for 16 off 7.4 overs and he was ably supported by Zaheer Malik with 2 for 22 off 10. Khalid Bashir played with great patience in compiling 39 runs but he found little support and the Bremen innings closed on 125. Hamburg Youth wasted little time in knocking off the runs, with Barkatullah contributing a hard-hitting, unbeaten 43.

Göttingen travelled to Hamburg on July 30th in the hope of salvaging something from what had been a tough season for them. They won the toss and batted, and Dhushan Ekenayake showed glimpses of his true form in making 39. However there was no support for him and Mark Richardson picked up another 5 wicket haul, taking 5 for 21 off his 10 overs. Göttingen were all out for 97, and such is the confidence in the Alster team this year that nobody seriously doubted that they would knock off the runs with little difficulty. And so it proved, with Bob Whitelaw continuing his irresistible form with another fine knock of 41, leading Alster to a 6 wicket victory off 23 overs.

The final match of the season saw Hamburg Youth take on HCV. Suffice to say that Hamburg Youth recorded a comfortable victory but unfortunately your correspondent has still not received the scoresheet and is thus unable to give readers a flavour of what actually happened.

And so the North German league season drew to a close leaving Pak Alemi worthy winners, having won every one of their matches. They finished on 42 points with their closest pursuers Alster with 29 points. This represented Alster's most successful season since their foundation. Third place went to Hamburg Youth with 24 points.

Pak Alemi were thus qualified for the Club Championship finals played in Moenchengladbach and Krefeld on September 16/17.

Thanks: Brian Fell and Keith Thompson

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