After holding the club AGM the evening before at the newly rennovated UN Irish Pub, Lanna hosted its first club friendly of the season in which regular players from Lanna and Lanna Thais teams played alongside the Thai children who are learning cricket at schools as part of the CMSCA coaching program run by Martin and Puy Papworth.
It was a highly enjoyable day with everybody getting the chance to bat and bowl with the adults trying to give the youngsters some moral support with six of them taking part in their first full-scale cricket match. And when stumps were drawn for the day there was plenty of time for a barbecue washed down with a few cleansing ales as the club celebrated Christmas a week early.
The result on the field was not important on this occasion but for the record Lanna defeated Lanna Thais by 7 runs as the 25-over match went down to the last over. It was a match designed to give the juniiors a chance to play alongside the adults so it was appropriate that the innings of the day was played by John who had learnt his cricket at CPP School and is relishing the chance to continue playing the game.
John made 51 out of a total of 118 as the mystery left-arm spinners caused unexpected damage but Lanna were able to defend the total despite the best efforts of Yot and Adrian and the hard hitting Jon Scales was probably batting too low in the order. Bo was very impressive on his debut in adult cricket as he took 2 for 9 in his 5 overs.
Everybody left the David Buck Oval in good spirits after a very enjoyable afternoon and evening which said a lot about Lanna CC’s dedication to the cause of junior cricket in Chiang Mai. Thanks once again to our sponsors UN Irish Bar, Lanna International School and Assist Thai Visa who help to make all this possible.