Pattaya CC return from the Koh Chang Beach tournament emptied handed – Part 1.
The 11th Koh Chang Beach Tournament was held at the Shambala Resort Hotel from Fri 21th to Sun 23rd August. This year was another record attendance with 20 teams from 7 regions of Thailand and two teams from Malaysia, divided into two groups; the Cup and the Shield competitions. Pattaya CC had one team, The Stallions, in the Shield and The Thoroughbreds in the Cup. Each of the PCC teams had a father and son pairing with Tony and his son Jeramiah in The Stallions and Jainish with his father Vishnu in The Thoroughbreds. Each team would play 4 matches in their groups and the top two teams would play for the respective trophies. The competition was very fierce with top seeded teams such as the Mutant Misfits, Alibaba, the Legacy Sixers, Sons of a Beach, Pitch Please, Chamsuksa and Palmy Army all vying for glory.
The playing conditions for this magnificent tournament were: 6 players per team with each player bowling one 5-ball over. The batsman would run half-way up the wicket and back – yes, some people forgot but nobody was run out. The batsman would receive all the extras to his score, but would lose 5 runs each time he was out and if zero or a minus score accrued, a trip to the freezing water of the duck pond would result. 12 runs were awarded if a ball landed directly into the swimming pool, and Wides/No Balls scored 2, 4, 6, 6 and 6.
The Stallion and Thoroughbreds contribution began on Saturday, as work commitments prevented an earlier start. This report will cover the 5 matches played on Saturday and the remainder on Sunday will be in Part 2.
The Thoroughbreds made an early start against The Purple Helmets. Salman Khan © won the toss and decided to bat. Jainish Parikh opened the batting against Rehab with 3 boundaries to score 17. Simon and Salman added another 15 but Animal Slater was less fortunate as Rukie dismissed him, bowled and LBW not playing a shot. Animal’s first game had him in the duck pond for -10. Vishnu followed suit as the score slid to 18, but Daryll Lovegrove recovered the score to 35.
Daryll bowled well against Rehab who was caught by Jainish and another visit to the duckpond, -2. The rest of the Purple Helmets made modest contributions but retained their wickets and scored 51. The Thoroughbreds were 0 for 1.
The Stallions were next against the vaunted Mutant Misfits who won the toss and batted first. Bodie Martinez started with a strong 17 off Andy Emery and Jeramiah went for 15 against Mohawk. Chub was dropped by Andy S off Tony as the Misfits reached 42. Andy Scofield had Neraj caught behind by Jeramiah and then run out for a -7, but Ballad recovered the score to 52.
Ballad restricted Deepak to 4 whilst Noddy Heathcote got a healthy 14. Andy E got 9 from Shoebacca but it all fell apart. Jeramiah and Andy S only added 2 when Noddy was caught at long off and then bowled by Ballad for a score of -8 and 23 for the team. A loss by 29 runs.
The Thoroughbreds won the toss against the Palmy Army and decided to bat. Jainish and Simon wereheld to just 9 by Poom and Win. Animal was bowled by Bar but 2 sixes helped him to 10. Daryll was caught behind for -1 and the score dropped to 30.
Poom was out first ball to Daryll and then dropped by Simon for a lucky 3, but it was Bar and Mago that did the damage with both scoring 31 off Jainish and Simon. Pezza only added 2 for the last stand as Salman bowled him. The Palmy Army won by 20 runs with a score of 50.
The Stallions played their final match of the day against Koh Chang and decided to bat. Deepak started well with 13 from Ho Chi Min but both Harry and Tony were out to Sunny and Tun and could only add 8 between them. The two Andys added 17 but Noddy was caught behind for -3 and the score slipped to 35. Those 3 dismissals were crucial.
Koh Chang made a reasonable start with 11 off Andy E and Tony dropped a chance from Johnny off Harry for 13. Ton battered Tony for three 6s as he bowled too short. Andy S bowled well to leach only 6 to Ton but Deepak managed a maiden over. Noddy bowled the final over where Pang was caught by Andy S but Koh Chang scored 43 and won by 8 runs.
The final match of the day was between The Thoroughbreds and Pitch Please. Could a PCC team win at least one match? Pitch Please batted first and gave the Thoroughbreds a bit of a thrashing. Daryll had success as he caught Ben for 2, but John took Animal for 20 and Jainish was taken for 15 by Avi. Mayank got 16 from Simon and Salman took a wicket, but the damage was done and the Pitch Please accumulated a massive 73.
The chances of a win were exceedingly slim, although Simon hit a very good 22 but Animal was out twice for -9 to Mayank and Salman was out for -4 to Ben. 14 from the other 3 batsmen wasn’t enough and the Thoroughbreds finished on 20 for a loss by 53 runs. 0 & 3 for the day. Disappointing.
Neither PCC team could register a win although the Stallions had come close. We would have to wait until the last day to see if their fortunes could change.
