This tournament a week prior to the National Cricket competition was great practise for us and in Cardiff despite some late withdrawals we still managed to enter a reasonable team. In our opening game we played the Midlands who had given hot favourites Baitul Fatuh a scare in the first game, with their leg spinner taking 4 wickets for four runs in 4 overs.

The Ansar in the heat managed to contain the Midlands team to 72 runs in their allocated 8 overs. The pick of the bowlers was Rizwan Malik, Ikram Bhatti and Anwar Zahid. The same leg spinner from the Midlands Khuddam opened the bowling to Mahmud Mirza and was dispatched for one bounce over the boundary line the very first ball. Mahmud scored 48 runs and supported by some big hitting from Sarfraz Ahmed won the game in 6 overs.

Having bearly walked off the pitch the openers were asked to bat again by Baitul Fatuh. This was a bad mistake as Mahmud was run out third ball and the Ansar only scored 36 runs. Baitul Fatuh won easily with some big hitting by Khaliq Mirza who was dropped when in single figures only at Mid Off.

Despite this we progressed to the quarter final knock out stages. We came up against Fazal from Muqami Khuddam who played a fantastic knock of 60 in the huge target of 120 in 10 overs and the bowling all round was very poor.

Again the skipper was run out the very first ball of the Ansar batting response. However Amjad Raja produced an amazing rally smashing four sixes in his knock of 40 and we managed 80 runs in reply. This is the first time the Ansar have played in a cricket competition against the Khuddam and will inshallah improve. The full team was: Mahmud Mirza (captain), Ikram Bhatti, Anwar Zahid, Muzafar Zahid, Rana Irfan, Khaleemullah, Aurang Zeb, Sarfraz Ahmed, Nadeem Chowdhry, Mubashir Dogar, Amjad Raja, Rizwan Malik, Mahmud Baig Mirza.

We were then invited to enter a team in the National Khuddam Football Tournament. The venue for this tournament was Manchester City’s training ground and one of the best sports venues I have had the pleasure of playing in the jamaats history in the UK.

After numerous phone calls and emails we finally assembled a team of 8 which included: Bashir Khawaja (tippu), Gohar Maqsood, Nisar Orchard, Ahmer Ahmadiy, Arshad Khan, Luqman Lone and Basharat Kaifi.

Half the team arrived the evening before and the remainder travelled in the morning. After an introductory session, the champions league music was played in the Mission House and the draw took place. There were 22 teams in total. We were placed in a very tough draw against Baitul Noor B, Muqami A and North East B.

The biggest signing of the day was for me to approach Sadr Khudamul Ahmadiyya Tommy Khaloon and persuade him to play with the Ansar team. It was fortunate that with Manchester City as the venue and the Arab owners he kindly agreed to the transfer and graciously played for us. The transfer fee was not disclosed.

Our first game was a tough draw with Baitul Noor. In the second game we raised our game and with Sadr sahib now in full flow, Nisar Orchard opened the game with a fantastic goal. With only 1 minute remaining North East B managed to equalize with a drive right into the bottom left hand post. Our final game was with the group leaders Muqami and we played really well, only to be outdone by a brilliant header from the khuddam Muzamber Dogar very late into the game. Arshad Khan from Oxford our goal keeper rolled back the years and made two fantastic saves. Despite this narrow loss we for the first time since participating in these tournaments since 2003 proceeded to the knockout stages. Each game was reduced to 6 minutes per half.

In the quarter finals we were drawn against South A and despite some brilliant work we were outdone by some pace on the right and bad defensive errors. Bashir Khawaja had a good save from the opposition keeper, when we was put clear through and Sadr sahib had two fantastic opportunities which were saved late in the game. The game lasted 9 minutes each way and we lost 4-0.

We had all played really well and most importantly enjoyed a fantastic tournament. I am sure all my Ansar brothers would echo these comments. The tournament was won by Midlands who defeated the Nortb by 3-2 in the final. The sensation was a young African Ahmadiy Khuddam player called Ahmed who at 20 years of age has got tremendous pace skill and an appetite for goal. In the semi final he scored the winner against Baitul Fatuh and we will not have witnessed a better goal in a long time.

In his concluding session we were also honoured to see Ahmer Ahmadiy pick up a life time achievement award, graciously and well deserved presented by Sadr sahib. Similarly Arshad Khan was given an award for being the eldest player in the tournament. The work of the North region and Shiraz Sethi needs to be also mentioned, as well as all the organisers.

Thank you for allowing Majlis Ansaraullah to be part of this great event. I would like to also thank Amir Anees who fully cooperated in all aspects and most importantly Sadr Khuddamul Ahmidiyya Tommy Khallon for graciously playing with us and Farooq Mirza as the sports secretary KAA UK. Finally to all my Ansar brothers for making the long trip and being part of a great tournament I hope you will have all enjoyed the time and share the memories.