Pattaya Cricket Club
It took 3 months to eventually conclude the 2017/18 Eastern Seaboard Cricket League season, a consequence of unseasonably wet weather. At its conclusion for Pattaya Cricket Club the only item in the trophy cabinet to show for the players’ efforts is a very grand toothpick, well four toothpicks wrapped together by tape, for winning the Toothpick Final at the recent Koh Chang International Beach Cricket weekend. And yes, there was room in the cabinet for the smallest trophy in world cricket!
At the serious end of the season PCC hosted the Southerners from Bangkok in the ESCL semifinal and having won the toss elected to bowl first. Salman and Wezley Masterton bowled excellently early on and the pressure soon began to take its toll as wickets started to fall in the pursuit of runs. At the drinks break after 15 overs the game was evenly poised at 75/3. Patil (33) and Elder (20) accelerated the score in the final 10 overs as the Southerners posted 145/8 from the allocated 25 overs. Himmeth was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/28 from his 5 overs.
Despite losing Wez (14) early the PCC captain Simon Philbrook and Manik steadied the innings as they reached 78/1 at drinks. However, a batting collapse that England or India would have been proud of quickly ensued as 3 wickets fell in the space of 4 overs including that of Manik (39) who was the mainstay of the PCC innings. Despite a rally by Lee Standon (23) and Reds Liddell (16) PCC finished 11 runs shy of the target. To add to his 33 runs Patil took 3/28 to claim the man of the match award.
It was a valiant attempt by PCC to secure an ESCL Cup Final spot but it was not to be and the players can now hang up their boots before the start of the next season in November whilst admiring the toothpick trophy.
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