Prem takes gold at CMAC cross country meet

Prem International student Hasun won a gold medal for his age group of age 12 -13 years old at the annual CMAC cross country meet at the American Pacific International School in Chiang Mai recently. He is seen here on the podium with the silver and bronze winners.

Prem Junior Cricket goes to Mae On

The Prem Junior cricket team traveled to Mae On and performed well, giving coaches hope that the team will surprise the opposition at the National tournaments next month.

Last week the Prem Junior Cricket team journeyed out to Mae On District to play in the Northern Thailand cricket softball tournament. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for Coach David Buck as the Mae On school was one of the first schools introduced to cricket by David back in 2004. It was also fitting that he was present with the team for the opening of the new cricket nets eleven years later by the Governor and other signatories.

A very hot day welcomed the schools from Mae On: Sahagon 1 and 2, Sankampeng, the eventual winners Buacrognon, and the youngest team by far from Prem. It was a special day for the boys as this was their first trip away from the facilities of Prem to the very different surfaces at Mae On. This was illustrated with the difficulty of lack of pace and plenty of bounce that caused the downfall in the narrowly contested games against Sahagon 1 and Sankampeng. When it came down to the last game, the boys had got to grips with the surface and comprehensively beat Sahagon in the play off.

Splendid performances from all the team, with special mentions going to Cal and Andy for their powerful batting, and James and young Tom (on debut) for the bowling. Coach Mark was confident the team may surprise a few in the National tournaments to be held at Prem on 7 March.

Juniors outclass Lanna B to lead the Chiang Mai Senior League

Bunchuai and Chanchai prove their mettle as Bunchuai made the only second century ever for the League.

Richard Lockwood
Bunchuai and Chanchai ensured that the record books for the Chiang Mai Senior League had to be torn up and thrown away by sharing an opening partnership of 194 as Bunchuai made only the second century ever made in the league and Chanchai again improved his career best score with 76. The two boys gave the Lanna B fielders the run around at Prem and the only surprise was that Lanna B managed to take a wicket at all. Taran Persaud finally induced Chanchai to hit the ball straight to cover and somehow Martin Papworth held the catch.

Lanna Juniors' final total was a mighty 234 for one from 30 overs but there was little else their opponents could have done given how well the two openers played. Eddie Joyner found it hard to run into the wind and some grass at one end of the pitch proved something of an illusion. Martin Papworth and Hamish Weir also bowled tidily but after the three main bowlers had finished their spells the runs began to flow at more than 10 an over.

Lanna B's batting wasn't quite as fluent even though they did well to reach 59 for two before the wickets started falling more rapidly as nine young bowlers each took a wicket and Martin Papworth and Eddie Joyner with a combined age of more than Lanna B's total managed a school boy run out.

Lanna B were bowled out for 109 as Lanna Juniors won by a mighty 125 runs to prove once again that the best of the Juniors had outgrown this level of cricket in Chiang Mai as the young team went top of the league with two wins in two matches. Well played boys.

Lanna Spirits conquer Bangkok with victory at Southerners Sixes

Lanna Spirits took the trophy home.

Richard Lockwood
Lanna Spirits returned from a wonderful weekend's cricket at the Southerners Social Sixes in Bangkok with four juniors joining forces with more experienced cricketers not only to take part in but also to win the main competition by beating a strong Southerners Gold team in the final.

Lanna Vagrants had made a good impression in the 2014 competition and were given a generous donation to support junior cricket so it seemed only fair to make a return visit in 2015. With only two players confirmed with a week to go a brilliant solution to the selection problems was devised: take the juniors to play and show off their talents to a new audience.

All the arrangements were put in place with Jun, Chanchai and Cher invited to play in the two-day event. Phone calls were made to Walter Persaud who runs a team in the Bangkok League and Jun and Chanchai were able to play a 45-over match on the Saturday. Luckily Max Coombes had a day off from his studies and football training in and two more reserves were found for the first day while the league match was being played.

All the careful planning almost came to nothing on Saturday morning as a car breakdown almost saw the early morning flight from Chiang Mai missed but a helpful batman came to Lanna's aid in the final dash to the plane. The taxi then made it from the airport to Harrow School in time for the first match and Cher was already in action playing for another team.

The Lanna Spirits assembled with Parvais and Javed joining Cher, Max, Rich and Locky for Saturday's matches with simple aim of staying in the competition until the reinforcements came in time for Sunday's matches. The tournament format saw seven teams playing in a round robin league with six matches each before play-offs for the top six teams with three winners' trophies to be played for.

Lanna's first match was against Southerners Black and on taking the field the first two overs were costly as Javed was hit for five fours in his over. Luckily Locky showed unexpected form with ball having saved himself for the big occasion and his high bounce proved almost unplayable. Max and Parvais backed him up and Black were restricted to 54 for 4.

Max was in powerful form with the bat but Richard Cowles made a golden duck before Cher and Javed saw Lanna home in the last over helped by two wides from Leigh Whitten. The battle of the captains had been decisively won by Locky and Lanna's campaign was underway in great fashion.

The second match was against the stronger Southerners Gold side but Lanna almost pulled another victory out of the fire as Rich made 29 and Javed provided a late flourish as he hit a four off the last ball to tie the scores but Lanna had lost one more wicket so had lost by the narrowest of margins.

With Gold, Parrots and Phuket looking formidable opponents it was important that Lanna Spirits kept in contention by winning the third match but Pattaya were scoring lots of runs thanks to man of the tournament Simon Philbrook and they reached 59 for one in their five overs. Javed had been promoted to open but didn't last long and somehow Rich made his second golden duck of the day but Max and Cher held their nerves and smashed the ball to all parts to win the match with three balls to spare.

Day one had gone according to plan for Lanna and news came through of the Bangkok Spirits match against Thailand CC. It was a one-sided affair as Thailand won by eight wickets but Chanchai had looked impressive as he was very composed with the bat before being run out and his figures of 1 for 14 in 5 overs were by far the best for his team. Jun made 11 with the bat but couldn't get the ball to swing as Titas made a century in a total of 134 for two. Walter and Martin failed to make an impression and were very determined to do better on Sunday.

The boys all stayed in Walter's apartment and Martin, Rich, Martin and Locky tried a new approach when staying in Bangkok by planning the strategy for the next day and having an early night. Walter's hospitality was tremendous and the boys cleared their minds of cricket by watching Spiderman.

A smooth ride into the ground allowed for yet more warming up as Lanna continued their new professional approach but the expected opponents had not arrived and it was discovered there were two different schedules for the second day's play. The Parrots had not left their nest but Black Swans obviously prefer an early start to the day so they were Lanna's next opponents.

Again Lanna bowled first and restricted the Swans to 43 for 2 to claim a bonus point with Locky keeping his place in the side and keeping Walter on the sidelines. The Lanna Spirits were outstanding in the field with Jun, Cher and Chanchai bowling well and saving countless runs in the outfield. Martin Cardno was run out but Chanchai and Rich completed a comfortable victory.

'Leave the Parrots to me', said Walter but the key to winning the next match was Chanchai's nonchalant catch on the boundary to dismiss Bobby Raina as the Parrots made only 40 for 4. Walter was promoted to open and he and Martin raced to victory over their Premier League rivals. Locky was content to handle the paper work and noted another bonus point had been achieved.

Four wins in five matches had made a place in the main final almost a certainty but the captain was not leaving antything to chance and named an unchanged side against the Phuket Blasters. He demanded high standards from his team and used the same recipe for success as he won the toss and put the opposition in to bat. A total of 49 for 1 was again a good return after a fine performance in the field and Chanchai and Martin needed only 15 balls to reach the target.

Lanna Spirits would play Southerners Gold in the Jug final as Lanna's record of five wins in six matches was bettered only by Gold's six out of six, but two more finals were played first as Pattaya defeated Black Swans to win the Bowl and Phuket Blasters beat the Parrots to win the Shield. Southerners Black were worthy winners of the Wooden Spoon and Leigh Whitten's lovely little daughter was delighted with her new toy.

Locky, having decided that manning the scoreboard was more important that any quest for personal glory, again applied the tried and tested formula in his batting and bowling orders and by winning the toss and choosing to bowl. Jun and Cher were a little more expensive than normal but Walter and Martin bowled steady overs and Chanchai was outstanding as Gold made 51 in their five overs.

Lanna had been tremendous in the field all day but their batting had also been impressive as they had lost only one wicket in three matches. They lost another wicket as Chanchai was called through for a second run and was just short of his ground, but the experience of Martin and Rich made sure there was no late panic and the winning runs came with a wide.

Lanna Spirits had conquered Bangkok and proved that you could win trophies with kids, at least if they were highly talented Thai kids. Locky was extremely pleased to receive the trophy but even more happy with the kind words from tournament organizer Vaughan McClear who said that the boys' performances had made the competition very special.

Of course, while the adults reflected on a remarkable success and made their thank yous for another donation to junior cricket from the Southerners, the boys went back on the field for some catching practice and to use the bat that had been won in the raffle.

On this occasion at least, you get what you deserve..... Thank you to everybody who has supported the hill tribe kids over the years. Your generosity is being rewarded magnificently,

Papworth takes five after Lanna International School enjoy a special morning’s cricket at Gymkhana

Richard Lockwood
The children, parents and teachers had a fantastic time in the Lanna International School Cricket Match on Sunday 25th January and the school has recently become a generous supporter of cricket in Chiang Mai with a new sponsorship of Chiang Mai Lanna CC in recognition of the club's role in the community and its promotion of junior cricket. Thanks are due to Hugh Williams for arranging this sponsorship and it is hoped that the school will soon be running their own junior team and more teachers and parents will also be playing cricket regularly.

After Lanna International School had finished their game the Gymkhana cricket members were divided into two teams so that Lanna CC and United CC players could play together on level terms. The 20-over match saw Martin Papworth and Ismail competing for honours and it looked like Ismail would win the battle as 22 came off the first over of the match.

But Papworth showed great persistence and picked up one wicket in his second over and two more in each of his third and fourth overs to finish with remarkable figures of 4-0-51-5 which were a career best and it was the first time he had taken five wickets in a long career.

Ismail meanwhile had retired on reaching 40 in only 16 balls but Tom Salusbury who had earlier made sandwiches for 60 people took 2 for 10 and Suhail 2 for 23, and it was Taran Persaud who finished off the innings off by having Ismail who had returned to the crease caught on the boundary with his only ball. Gymkhana A had been bowled out for 116 in only 14.1 overs.

Gymkhana B would have hoped to seal victory but Shine Thomas and Asif were both out for ducks as Burhan bowled extremely well and Beer used up 36 balls in his innings of 14. Firdoz made a bright and breezy 30 but Champ then batted for 34 balls for an unbeaten 10 and the younger boys will have to learn to go for their shots in this short form of cricket.

Tom tried to show them how with two fours and a three in his 13 and Imtiaz hit his first ball for six but Gymkhana B were well short of their target as they reached 87 for 6 in 20 overs as Gymkhana A won by 29 runs.

Twenty eight years of Sixes Cricket inn Chiang Mai

The Chiang Mai Cricket Sixes will return to the Chiengmai Gymkhana Club on April 5 and run through to the 12th.

The San Miguel Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes has become very much part of the sporting and social calendar in Thailand and everybody will be made to feel most welcome at Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club from 5th April to 12th April, 2015. Again in 2015, San Miguel (Thailand) is the official tournament sponsor. Play will normally be under way by 9.00 am every day and finish by 5.30 pm. The competition concludes with finals day on Saturday 12th April.

The 2015 edition that is being held at Chiang Mai Gymkhana Club is the 28th consecutive year of a tournament that has built its unrivalled success on a recipe of enjoyable yet competitive cricket with teams from around the world returning year after year.

A Sixes competition (six players aside with five-over matches) was first staged in Chiang Mai back in 1988 and began on a small scale with a handful of visiting teams competing against the locals but the event quickly grew in scale to become one of the largest amateur tournaments staged anywhere in the world.

In 2015, 32 teams will be playing nearly 100 matches during the week. Teams come from around the world: far afield from England, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa, but also from countries closer at hand in the Far or Middle East, along with local teams from Chiang Mai. The defending Cup champions, Walton Cricketers, who have won the last three years in a row, come from Bangladesh.

Walton Cricketers – Cup Winners 2014 Chiang Mai Cricket Sixes

Teams of all standards have the chance to compete on even terms and every player who takes part in the competition has the chance of winning a trophy. The first half of the tournament will see the 32 teams ranked for the second stage where the teams are divided into five different categories with five trophies up for grabs.

There will be five teams of winners and five teams of runners up so a third of the 32 teams will win prizes at this year’s event, and some of the best junior cricketers in north Thailand will be on show playing for the San Miguel Thais team who have always given a good account of themselves here at the Sixes.

As well as almost a hundred short and sweet cricket matches with fours and sixes galore, spectators will enjoy a festival atmosphere with food and drink available all days, and there are three official functions during the seven-day event.

Further details are available on the newly-updated website www.chiangmaisixes.com. The new website features a highlight video from the 2014 Sixes, and during the 2015 Sixes there will be live video and audio feeds as well as updated scores from all the matches.

 

Prem takes gold at CMAC cross country meet

Prem Junior Cricket goes to Mae On

Juniors outclass Lanna B to lead the Chiang Mai Senior League

Lanna Spirits conquer Bangkok with victory at Southerners Sixes

Papworth takes five after Lanna International School enjoy a special morning’s cricket at Gymkhana

Twenty eight years of Sixes Cricket inn Chiang Mai