The third edition of the sprawling European Cricket League kicked off at the Cartama Oval in Spain this week with the first two of six five team groups.

The group winners will qualify for championship week from 20th-24th March along with defending champions Pak I Care Badalona of Spain.

Group A featured Hornchurch (England), Independents (Guernsey), Darmstadt (Germany), Tallinn Stallions (Estonia) and Byron (Greece).

The German representatives topped the table after the round-robin stage but Hornchurch won three elimination games in the play-offs on the final day to come from fourth place to qualify. They topped their comeback by chasing 100 without loss in the Group A final against Byron.

Group B featured VOC Rotterdam (Netherlands), Farmers (Jersey), Svanholm (Denmark), Indo-Bulgarian and the American University of Malta.

Svanholm were unbeaten in the group stage but lost their first play-off game against Farmers on the final day. They then beat Dutch champions VOC to reach the final where they again came up against the Jersey representatives in the final. Farmers captain James Perchard, one of three members of the Perchard Clan in the line-up, won the toss and asked VOC to bat first. Saud Munir scored an unbeaten 53 from 30 balls as Svanholm scored 85-4 from their ten overs, but Farmers chased down their target with a ball to spare to win by 7 wickets and qualify for championship week.