Pattaya Cricket Club visited Bangkok last weekend for the annual Southerners Sixes tournament and returned home with the Plate final winner’s trophy. It was a highly enjoyable two days of sixes cricket that included a round-robin and finals.
PCC had the unenviable start of playing their first two games against the two ultimate finalists, Southerners Gold and Siam Parrots. Obviously unaccustomed to the pre match bonding session the night before in the salubrious Nana Plaza, PCC failed to register competitive scores in both fixtures and recorded two inevitable losses.
Somewhat rejuvenated by a liquid lunch, PCC found some form and hustled to a win over the British Club with notable performances from Sam Nethery and Venky. However, the good form was only temporary and had it not been for the heroics with both bat and ball from the unlikely source of Shaun Jones it would have been a total embarrassment. The PCC captain was overheard mumbling “where would we be without such a Trojan as Shaun?”
After such a miserable day by PCC standards a strict curfew of 10pm bedtime was imposed for the Saturday night. This was only obeyed by one member of the touring party, the non-playing scorer, so the usual shambolic mess turned up at 9am for a must win game against The Black Swans from Perth. Having clearly learnt from the previous day’s debacle, PCC bowled beautifully and restricted the opposition to only 36 runs from the allocated 5 overs. Simon Philbrook and Venky made short work of hitting the winning runs and a final in the Plate was assured.
The last group game against the Phuket Blasters was a dead rubber and in a close game, where Chris Waddington stood out for all the wrong reasons, PCC came second.
Finals afternoon and the last game of the day was the Plate Final, PCC versus The Black Swans. PCC, fired up by yet another liquid lunch, won the toss and elected to bat. Simon (29) and Venky (26no) tore into the bowling from ball one. A cameo innings from Paul Hack ensured PCC posted a commanding 83 run total.
The Black Swans, led by the irrepressible Vaughan McLear, made a valiant effort to keep up with the required run rate but the bowling was too good. In particular Dave Scott, Sam and Paul Hack were miserly. Jason Darby kept it interesting as the batsmen deposited him more than once into stands but it was all in vain as PCC eventually closed the game out to win by 27 runs.
PCC man of the weekend was Shaun Jones whose chest was so pumped both the club and sponsors emblems on his playing shirt were protruding proudly and whose whites would have tested any’ Daz doorstep challenge’. By the way, Southerners beat Siam Parrots in a one sided final.
PCC would like to thank the PSC and Alan’s Taxis (from Barnard Castle to Bangkok) for their support and would welcome anyone to join the club by visiting the website www.pattaya cricketclub.com or go the club Facebook page.
PCC’s next fixture is at home on Sunday, January 31 in a league game against Bangkok Strikers starting at 11am.
