The start of the final day of the tournament saw Pattaya Stallions with 14 points having won 3 from 3 and leading Division A. The Pattaya Thoroughbreds were a tad unlucky to be only 1 win from 3 and were 4th with 4 points in Division B. Both teams had 2 more round-robin matches, but it was expected that the Stallions would be involved in the semis and the final.
After heavy thunderstorms during the night, the sand had been suitably flattened by Mother Nature and an early fixture saw the Koh Chang Hornbills playing the Stallions who fielded first. It appeared that heavy overnight drinking did wonders for the Stallion bowlers. Simon W restricted Ramon to just 2 and then Jake got a hat-trick against Qu – caught behind twice by Habby and at square leg by Simon W. The score retreated to -12. Win and Kinny got into positive territory, 5, against Wez and Andy with Jainish dropping a catch, but Nut was bowled by Habby without scoring and the total was back to 0. Jainish bowled that last over in which Wez dropped a catch but caught the next one and the KC Hornbills finished on -4 and the whole team visited the duck pond.
A good start from Simon W and Jake saw 17 runs against Raman and Qu, but Wez stepped up the pace against Win with 15. Andy continued the onslaught with 4 boundaries and the total stood at 48 with 2 overs to go. Habby got 7 against Nut but Jainish was caught behind by Raman off Nu for -1 and went to the pond. The Stallions won by 58 runs and collected 4 bonus points.
Next in the sandbox was the Thoroughbreds, looking to improve their win:loss ratio against the British Club Master Batters. Denzyl got a good 10 off Eddie, but Simon P’s bowling was seriously wayward and leached 16 to Dilip. The middle order batsmen made minor gains against Trevor, Reds and Crunch who bowled Manish for -2 (another duck pond visitor) and the score was 35. Mossy was stumped for 4 off Andy S’ last ball by Trevor and the score board stopped at 39. A reasonable score but not a certain win.
Mossy allowed Eddie some quick singles, but encouraged a risky run and Eddie was run out for 1. Simon P hit a big 6 to add 9 to the score and Trevor went to town against James with three 6’s but was bowled off the last ball. 24 runs at half way and a chance of a win. Ed, Dilip and Denzyl all bowled well and Andy’s wicket restricted the Thoroughbreds to 30 and a loss by 9 runs.
The Thoroughbreds were back against the Palmy Army for their final match, but it would be an unlikely win. The Thoroughbreds batted first, with Eddie and Simon W making little progress but retaining their wickets. Trevor smashed Perry for 21 and brought up 28 at halfway. Reds, Crunch and Andy all nibbled away without loss to get to 49, 1 short of a bonus point. A defendable score and a possible win
Perry hit Eddie for 12 in two balls and promptly got caught and bowled to finish with 7. Simon W got wobblyitis of the bowling arm and Crunch dropped a catch to allow Magu to get another 8 runs. Wickets fell quickly when Wizard was bowled by Trevor, Perry was run out and Crunch had Dave caught behind by Simon. The Palmy Army was in trouble at 9 and one over left. Bobby added 12 but the Palmy Army were dealt their first defeat by 28 runs. A definite upset.
The Thoroughbreds ran their last race and finished 7=. A good effort from a team with an average age of 60+. Trevor was their star player with bat and ball.
The Stallions’ last round-robin was against the Phuket Penguins, their likely adversaries in the final. The Stallions batted first and Simon W made a good 10 off Pancake, and Jake got 9 with help from Sajal’s iffy bowling, but it was Wez that did the damage with 18 from Tony. 37 at halfway and a good start. Andy, Habby and Jainish all added a few runs but kept their wickets and so the score finished at 56 and another bonus point.
Tony was bamboozled by Simon and was bowled for -2. Dayton was dropped by Jake and then caught and bowled by Jake next ball. Jainish dropped his 3rd catch of the tournament which allowed Pancake to add 9 runs, but the Penguins were struggling. Andy took a superb caught and bowled when he dismissed Sajal and Habby caught Flowers one handed but ran over the boundary for 6 and a score of 21. The Penguins lost by 35 runs but got into the semis with 17 points. The Stallions would play Lamphun in the semi-final having won all four matches and finished 1st with 25 points.
In the interval, Jainish dressed up as Dino the dinosaur, invaded the ground and interfered with the Ladies Match. In defense of the ladies, a fat chihuahua went berserk and attacked Dino. Hilarious.
In semi-final 1, the Phuket Penguins smashed the Palmy Army 61-19. Semi-final 2 was the Stallions versus Lamphun. Chalam faced Simon W and was dropped by Jake, his third, and advanced to 12. Jake made amends in the next over by bowling Chinoy for -4 and Wez restricted Nung for 2. Only 10 at halfway. Neither Ton or Chuan added much and it was left to Leng to add 11 and reach 30. That was going to be hard to defend.
The Stallions did not bat well and scrapped home by 5 runs. Simon, Wez and Andy all lost their wickets cheaply – a total of 14 runs, with Jainish being the top scorer, adding another 9 which brought up 35 and a place in the final. They would need to lift their game if they wanted to win.
The final, predicted by many, was between the Stallions and Phuket Penguins, whom had already been beaten by the Stallions, but they could not afford to be complacent. Flowers bowled to Wez who scored 13 but unfortunately lost his off stump and was reduced to 13, whilst Dayton strayed down the leg side and was punished by Simon W for 14. Jake went to the duck pond, again for a Duck and Andy was inexplicably denied several wides by umpire Jack. Habby managed 9, despite being caught at long-on and Jainish finished with a flourish to progress the scorecard to 45. A defendable score, but not a guaranteed win.
Pancake was restricted by Andy to 4 as he was runout, but Jake strayed down leg and leached 17 runs to Dayton. Nothing between the sides but Habby made a significant impact. Without getting a hat-trick, he bowled Tony twice and then caught and bowled him off the last ball and the score was reduced to 7. However, poor bowling and a fight-back followed. Wild Bill added 9 despite Jainish finally catching a ball and Wez gave away 16 to Shelby to bring up 32 with one over left. Jainish managed 3 dots and had Flowers caught behind by Habby before a 6 off the last ball and a score of 33 gave the Stallions a win by 12 runs. 6 lost wickets cost the Penguins the final.
The Prize giving was conducted by Chops and Steve Perry who thanked all of the Shambala Resort staff, the match officials, the sponsors and teams for making this a superb weekend of social cricket. Prizes in reverse order were as follows: 6th place, Toothpick to Alibaba; 5th place, Chopsticks to Lanna; 4th place, Wooden spoon to Palmy Army; 3rd place, Plate (scalloped edge no-less) to Lamphun; Runners up Cup, Phuket Penguins and Winners Cup, to Pattaya Stallions.
Individual prizes went to: Best batsman, Pancake from Phuket Penguins; Best bowler, Habby Singh from Pattaya Stallions and the Man of the Tournament went to Chalam of Lamphun.
The sponsors of the event were: Shambala Resort, Serenity Resort, 15 Palms Beach Resort, Taste of India, Paddy’s Palms Irish Bar, Blue Lagoon Bar, Joom Joom Bar and The Pearl luxury pool villas.
PCC wishes to thank their followers and sponsors, the Magic Bar, the Ayen bar, the Outback bar and the Pattaya Sports Group for their support which is much appreciated.
