Another lovely Sunday of cricket was marked by three members of the new Lanna ladies team which had played a practice match in the morning being able to turn out alongside the men in the afternoon and all of them played their parts in an entertaining contest between Lanna and Lanna Thais.
The ladies team is training hard as they look forward to taking part in an expanded women’s competition at the 2016 Chiang Mai Sixes which will see young Thais who are learning their cricket at school thanks to CMSCA’s coaching program play alongside regulars from the Sixes.
Martin and Puy Papworth always try to hold a match in the morning before the main afternoon match and on this occasion the ladies had combined with the younger boys who are moving on from softball cricket to playing with a hardball. The game was played to Sawasdee rules so everybody batted in pairs and also got to practise their bowling.
The afternoon was to see the senior Lanna team continue their sequence of matches against Lanna Thais and several late withdrawals had left places in the Lanna Thais team for three girls, so Pin, Ting Tang and Lulu agreed to take on the men. All three did themselves proud as Ting Tang, now a university student who had first played when she was at PRC, bowled three overs of capable in-swing; Lulu claimed the wicket of Michael Holt with a deadly straight one, and young Pin fielded for both teams and managed to run out her father with a strong throw as he turned tor two.
The participation of the three girls made for a special afternoon and it was another enjoyable match with the senior Lanna team won by 26 runs in a game full of runs as 350 were scored from 50 overs. Chris Coombes led the way with 40 before retiring and Shine made 33 as the score raced along before the introduction of Jun brought Lanna Thais back into the contest as he took 2 for 22 from 5 overs.
Captain Pete stood firm as he batted alongside newcomer Tom Critchley who is on his way to run a Kung Fu school in China but it was the skipper who hit two sixes late on to take his team to 193 for 8 from 25 overs leaving Lanna Thais with a stiff task ahead of them.
Lanna Thais did have their wonderful opening pair Jun and Jason Bray who had stunned CMCC the previous week with an unbroken match-winning partnership of 139 and they were soon scoring at more than 10 an over. Of course it was Chairman Tom who finally broke the partnership with the score on 64 as Jun was caught at deep mid-wicket for 33, but runs continued to flow although Jason was forced to call for a runner.
He finally retired on reaching 40 and Matt Bray quickly reached 43 and followed him back to the pavilion to leave the lower-order to deal with a run-rate of 9 an over. Martin, loosened up his wicket-keeping and a spell as Jason’s runner, was caught short of the crease by his daughter: ‘she normally throws like a girl’ was his response to this calamity.
Chat hit three lovely fours in a promising innings of 17 not out but Lanna Thais finished on 167 for 5 to lose by 26 runs. The result frankly didn’t matter because it had been a fantastic day of cricket for all involved with Lanna Cricket.... boys, girls, men and women all can find a place to have fun with CMLCC.