Phoenix wins its first friendly game against Spartans. The weather had much to offer for cricket ardent fans to have a nail-biting clincher to start with. Phoenix lost the toss and was asked to field. The cold breeze in the Godollo grounds was quite refreshing to get on to the fielding and the opening bowlers were good enough to grab couple of early wickets which exposed the middle order. Spartans managed to make 157 and were bundled before the end of the 30^th over.

The Phoenix team opened with the dashing young new comers Blank and Sid who started to cruise along with easy runs in the first few overs before Abby was bowled which led Syed to come to the crease. All around, the fielders started taking the name of Sachin Tendulkar, as he is often known in the HCA league. He was calm and composed at the crease, as Sid and Syed managed to cruise along well with easy runs. Just as things were looking good, Phoenix started loosing wickets consequently and ended up at 6 wickets down around 100 runs. Ranjit and Fiaz were saviours as they put on a nice little partnership and finished the game for phoenix successfully. Not to mention, the extras played a very important role in the win as well.

Phoenix Team had the opening meeting for the season with a grand celebration. The gathering was crucial to layout the strategy for 2011 including the team strengthening. There were several inputs from Benjamin. The most exciting part is that soon Budapest cricket will be taken to an entirely new level in the world of cricket - Outdoor practicing with Nets facilities will be soon opened (Probable date: March 15th).

Eventually, there are players opting out of Phoenix and new players joining Phoenix. This is an usual aspect of the various clubs in Budapest. More details regarding the new composition of the team to be soon updated on the website

We are also planning to organise a few International trips to either Slovakia or Romania, based on the availability of the inviting team as well as our own team.

To wind up the meeting, the team was invited to dinner by Benjamin (one of the reason was also, to celebrate the birth of Lilly, Ben's daughter). The dinner was at none other than Ranjit's Restaurant - Punjab Tandoori.

More a Social gathering on Nov 18th, was the HCL awards evening.  Phoenix Team had something to cheer in the Awards section. Syed Ibrahim won the best batsman award for the season.  With all the smile, he went on the stage to collect his award. He scored 345 runs in 10 matches (9 Innings) with an average of 43.12. This includes 18 Sixes and 40 Fours.

For more information on the awards visit: www.hungary4cricket.com