Inaugural Pattaya V’s Phuket Tour 2010

24-25 July 2010 – The eagerly awaited tour to Pattaya was recently concluded with all Phuket representatives having a most enjoyable time.

Players all arrived in Pattaya on the Friday afternoon with senior members being greeted by our hosts, Simon Phillbrook and Earl Brown of the Pattaya Cricket Club.  Everyone got to know each other over a few cold beers before the Phuket boys went out in town to see some of the sites.  One memorable moment was captured on photo with the team going shirtless in the sub-zero temperatures of the ice-bar.

Saturday morning arrived and we all made the mini-bus trip to the ground at Horse Shoe Point.  This impressive facility, who are very supportive of cricket in Pattaya, is a vast improvement on the grounds of the Cherng Thalay oval, with our boys being keen to play on a ground that doesn’t resemble a dust bowl.

Captain Anthony Van Blerk won the toss for Phuket and chose to bat in the start of the 35 over match.  The HSP pitch, being synthetic, produces a much high bounce than we are sued to in Phuket, however, it is also much more consistent.  With the assistance of Nathan Kincaid from the Southerners in Bangkok, the Phuket Team managed a score of 128 runs.

With some fine bowling, and a reshuffle of the batting order, Pattaya scored with a rate of knots and managed to reach the total with ease.  Bruised and tired, Phuket would have to put up a better show in the following days 20/20.

With another show of hospitality, both teams were invited to attend Umpire Kim’s birthday at Jameson’s Pub.  Everyone had a great night and enjoyed the company, great food and some wonderful free beer put on by Jameson’s.  Thanks Guys!  The night started off extremely well with Australia winning against the South Africans in the rugby but this is about cricket so we won’t go there. J

The Sunday brought about another match with the Phuket boys moving around a little gingerly.  Another great, fun game was had with some big hitting been seen by Richard Folds and Anthony Van Blerk.  With a faster start to our batting there was a chance for a win, however, the strong Pattaya side were just too good on both days.

Drinks and festivities were enjoyed around the pool at Horse Shoe Point before another night in town saw the conclusion of this tour.

On behalf of the Phuket Cricket Group, we would like to thank our hosts for a wonderful weekend and we look forward to hosting them in Phuket in the weeks to come.

Zaheer Abbass Cricket Academy V’s Phuket

For the second year running, Phuket Cricket has been chosen as a destination for some of Pakistan’s up and coming cricketers.

These boys, who are being developed by the “Zaheer Abbass Cricket Academy” in Pakistan, gave the Phuket Team a cricketing lesson last year and much the same was expected of this years touring side.

New PCG Tournament Director, Richard Folds, did a fine job under short notice, organising two games on Saturday 17^th and Sunday 18^th July, with members from most sides in the Island Furniture Senior League taking part.  Unfortunately, as this time of year has frequent rain in Phuket, Saturday’s game was cancelled due to wet ground conditions.  When Sunday arrived, both teams were eager and delighted that the rain had held off over night and the ground had dried up enough for a game to be played.

Debut captain, Ian Lenton, won the toss and sent the visitors into bat.  Opening bowlers Anil and Joshi started well, however, the Phuket Team let themselves down in the field by dropping 4 or 5 catches, which could have placed them in a very good position to cause an upset.  However, it wasn’t to be with the visitors reaching the first drinks break with 68 runs on the board and the loss of no wickets.

The second session saw Phuket take their first wicket which brought Pakistani U19’s representative, Ahmed Iqbal, to the crease.  This young man gave the Cherng Thalay crowd an exhibition in controlled big hit batting.  On more than 6 occasions, the ladies from the roadside food stalls were kind enough to retrieve the cricket balls from the far side of the road, something that has not been seen here before.

After his magnificent century, Ahmed graciously retired providing the relieved Phuket Team with some kind of a chance to save face.

And save face they did, by bringing on Mike Kahn (who had previously been keeping wicket) for a very fine bowling spell.

In his first over, Mike managed to crack the ZACA’s strong batting with a nice catch in the outfield, however, the two following balls were right on target, managing to clean bowl the two batsmen for a magnificent hat-trick.

The next over, Mike didn’t disappoint either taking another two more wickets with more impressive line and length bowling.  At the end of the innings, Mike managed a Man-of-the-Match performance with 6 wickets.

Eventually, the ZACA boys ran out of wickets and with one lad retiring hurt after misjudging a full toss, Phuket was set a lofty total of 264 runs to win.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the good news for the Phuket Team.  The ZACA opening bowler was lighting fast and managed to bowl out most of the top order for around 15 runs.

The fielding by the ZACA boys was also a delight to watch with the fast pace and lightning reflexes being a much higher standard than we are used to on this island, the scoreboard showed an unusual 5 run-outs.

At the end of play, the ZACA’s quality was just too good for the Phuket Team who managed only 68 runs in reply.  Not the best of efforts, however, reports on the day showed that it certainly wasn’t Phuket’s worst.

In the evening, long time cricket supporters, Karon Sea Sands Hotel, put together an inexpensive Indian buffet where members of both sides gathered for a very pleasant evening.

The young lads celebrated their victory with some traditional Pakistani dancing and a good time was had by all.

The boys from Vietnam arrive

Saturday, 24th April, 2010

The touring side from Vietnam arrived this week and the 2 scheduled games were played in great spirit.

The first was a fun 10/10 game with some of the less experience players being involved.  All the boys seemed to have a laugh and a good fun game was had.

The second was a bit more serious with some quite talented players on both sides taking the field.  After some solid batting from the visitors, the local Phuket boys took out the game making a clean sweep of the day.

Everyone from the PCG would like to thank the boys for coming over and hope that they enjoyed our part of the world and another visit might be in plans for the future.

Cheers guys.

2009 PCU Tour to Kuala Lumpur

Following are some great shots of the PCU team visiting KL in 2009.

HMS Bullwark Pounds the PCU 2009

Phuket was recently visited by the Royal Navy in way of the HMS Bullwark. Needless to say a match of cricket was organized against a PCU XI in amongst the all the ‘hard work’ that a port call entails.

The Phuket XI went into bat first but struggled against a strong HMS Bullwark XI bowling attack. Captain Lennox Simon, one of a strong West Indian contingent, did the most damage, taking 3 for 18. Kevin Quilty and Sameer Khan were the only batsmen to emerge with any credit, amassing 17 runs apiece, the former having his innings interrupted to receive 17 stitches to a head wound after being hit on the forehead.

Faced with bowlers who could swing the ball, a rarity in Phuket, the batsmen struggled and were eventually bowled out for 109 after just 22 overs. Even with three nights out in Phuket already under their belt it was always going to be an easy total for HMS Bullwark to chase.

Joshi Naresh gave the hosts a glimmer of hope by taking three extraordinary catches. The first was off his own bowling when the batsmen hit the ball back with interest straight towards his shins and he somehow managed to stoop to take a clean catch. The next two were equally impressive when, fielding at mid off, he managed to athletically dive and take two low catches with the ball seemingly destined for the boundary.

Despite some economical bowling from Sameer Khan, who conceded a mere 12 runs from his 5 overs, HMS Bullwark were able to overtake Phuket with three wickets remaining. For triumphant captain Lennox Simon the preparation was the key, ‘I was out in Patong last night and the night before that and the night before that and I shall be going out tonight as well. I think if anything it has improved my game. We play on the flight deck on the ship whenever we get the chance,’ he said.

All in all, a great day at the cricket ground was had by all followed by an after-match bash at the karon Sea Sands hotel.