The Pattaya Cricket Club’s Social Team vs Koh Chang Cricket Club match was a 30 over event split into two innings of 15 overs each and played at Pattana Sports Resort on 13th March.
Steve Perry from Koh Chang and his team do a fantastic job of introducing Thai children to cricket and coaching them over several years to a high standard. It was great to host such an enthusiastic team who bowled well and ran like whippets around the field. The aim was to let everyone bowl at least one over and bat for no more than 5.
PCC selected a team of players with an average age of 60+, temporarily known as the Pensioners Cricket Club, who were more suited to slow-speed social cricket, except Leo Lamprecht, aged 13 and PCC’s youngest player.
PCC were asked to bat first and sent in Trevor Moolman and Simon Wetherell who faced Guy. Guy was quick and accurate, but Trevor found a way to hit some boundaries before he was bowled for 15 by Win. Simon went for 8, run out via a mix-up with Bernie Lamprecht. Bernie went on to 20 before he retired and Koh Chang had been making plenty of changes in the bowling. Leo, who prefers to bowl, only managed 3 runs before he was bowled by Johnny.
At this point PCC were 83 for 3, which included generous assistance from Mr Extras, but then the wheels fell off. Poom and Guy took wickets and Gazzatron (don’t ask) got himself run out in slapstick fashion. PCC finished their 1st innings with 95 for 6.
Koh Chang’s first innings didn’t start too well. Johnny, James and Tee could all hit the ball, but only to catchers around the field. Sid Varma took two catches, one a caught and bowled, and Andy Emery and Andy Schofield took the others. 5 for 3 after 3 overs, but Guy and Jame came to the rescue.
Guy got a quick 16 before being caught by Leo off Pavit and Jame retired on 12. Win only managed 1 before Leo bowled him – his first wicket in cricket. This is when PCC’s bowling arms fell off. Gary Moolman, managed to bowl two overs and concede 22 runs, 18 were wides or no balls. Koh Chang concluded their innings on 92 for 5 (Mr Extras got 56) and only 3 runs behind.
PCC took the crease for their 2nd innings. Andy Schofield and Richard Holt faced accurate bowling from Guy and Johnny, but the score ticked along with extras being added regularly. Andy was well caught by Guy for 9 and Holty retired on 7.
Andy Emery and Pavit were next. Andy was run out for 5 before Pavit who hit PCC’s only boundary of the innings, was bowled next ball by Poom for 9. 60 for 4 after 10 overs. Then the wheels fell off again. Peter C and Animal both fell LBW to Poom and Nut without scoring whilst Gary Moolman (9) and Ian (2) were both run out by some good fielding. This left Gazzatron 1 not out and PCC on 93 for 7.
Koh Chang needed 97 to win in their 2nd innings. Poom and Nut opened and Poom quickly fell to Leo for 2, but Bodhi steadied the batting with 13 before being retired along with Nut. Gary Moolman had found a new arm in the break between innings and took 2 wickets in one over – both Yui and Veer for ducks, one bowled and one caught by Animal, the last of PCC’s 7 catches for the day.
Koh Chang then had a series of run outs, Meow for 1 and Johnny for 0, which looked like they were going to be well short of the target; however, Got managed a fierce 15 not out off 8 balls but they ran out of overs and players. Koh Chang finished on 88 for 8, giving PCC a win by 8 runs.
The Man of the Match award was given to Poom who was presented with a PCC shirt.
Thanks to Andy Emery for arranging the event, Steve Perry for bringing Koh Chang on tour, the umpires Dave Samways and Reds Liddell, and scorer Clive Rogerson.
