Bad weather hampered the tournament throughout, with many games called off early or abandoned entirely because of rain; West Africa suffered the most, seeing a result in only two of their seven group matches.
Sri Lanka, who won the first tournament in 1979, had by now been promoted to Full Test and ODI status, and so did not take part, and automatically qualified for the World Cup.
In a match reduced to 45 overs a side, Hong Kong's 207/7 (Andy Lorimer 53) was good enough, though Nissam Reuben's 6-2-7-3 was noteworthy, and the Israelis collapsed to 84 all out.
In an all-African affair reduced to a 25-over game, Zimbabwe posted a highly competitive 192/4 (Houghton 71, Jack Heron 50) which Kenya never got anywhere near, making just 72/4 to lose by 120 runs.
Israel were in dire straits at 74/6 against Kenya when the weather intervened, but that was the only action on this day, with Canada v Gibraltar and Papua New Guinea v the USA seeing not a ball bowled between them.
In a 55-over game, Papua New Guinea won against the odds by 30 runs against Canada, an unbeaten 101 from Vavine Pala guiding them to 231/7 from 83/6 while K Kalo took 4-26 as the Canadians could manage only 211 despite 50 from Tariq Javed.
Gibraltar's 129/8 off 40 overs (Gordon Bacon 4-37) proved well short of what was required, as Des Greenwood and Reeve both made unbeaten scores of 56 to guide Hong Kong to an eight-wicket triumph.
The North American derby produced a comprehensive 138-run win for Canada, who compiled 233 (Tariq Javed 68) before captain RJ Stevens took 4-26 as the USA could manage just 95 all out.
An innings of 107 by IF Kirmani enabled Canada to make 242/8 against Kenya, and despite 53 from GA Musa 4-26 from Clement Neblett meant that the Africans fell 45 runs short.
Rain stopped play when Fiji were 79/2 in reply to the Netherlands' imposing 251/6, RJ Elferink hitting a fine 154 not out, but the Dutch had done enough to win on faster scoring rate.
An opening stand of 94 between KW Arnold (54) and DC Patel (52) laid the foundations for East Africa's 220/7 against Fiji, and 4-21 from Desai made sure of an 88-run victory.
Finally, there was no result in the game between Malaysia and West Africa, the Malaysians having made 219/9 from 58 overs (S Elliott 75, J Onyechi 57; K Kamalanathan 4-45) when the players were forced from the field.
In the other match, a massive opening partnership of 257 between centurions Rene Schoonheim (117) and RE Lifmann (155 not out, the tournament's highest score) propelled the Netherlands to 301/3 and gave Malaysia no chance of victory, and the Asians were dismissed for 176 to give the Dutch a 125-run win.
David Houghton fell for 1 in the Zimbabwean reply, but once Heron (63 not out) and Curran (44) had added 103 for the second wicket there was only one winner, and they reached their target with more than 30 overs to spare to record an easy eight-wicket victory.
The Papuans were inspired by this to reach their target with three wickets and three overs remaining, W Maha hitting 60 in a three-wicket victory despite Bangladeshi captain and wicket-keeper Shafiq-ul-Haq making three stumpings in the innings.
Zimbabwe looked in a spot of bother at 30/2 with both openers gone, but the match and the Trophy were decided by half-centuries from Andy Pycroft, who made 82, and Craig Hodgson (57 not out); the Africans won with more than five overs to spare.