Thanks must go to Dave (2ball) Metcalfe who has created the Lovee Cup so we can all remember Chris Love whenever we meet up throughout the year for social cricket at Gymkhana or at Koh Chang.Beach Cricket or at other similar events. It is almost a year since Chris died when he was about to play for the Black Swans in Hua Hin but we had the first Lovee Cup on Dave’s 60th birthday in January which was won by Lamphun under Champ’s captaincy
7 June was chosen for the second edition with Black Swans and two Lamphun junior teams now known as the Northern Lions and Lion Cubs along with teams representing Lanna and Floggers and Robbers playing a Sixes competition for the Lovee Cup.
Fingers were crossed, nightly prayers held and daily inspections of the ground at Gymkhana were carried out but all was to no avail as heavy rain on the Saturday evening looked like it had put an end to the competition and the final inspection at 7am on Sunday morning saw the Lovee Cup called off.
Disappointment was shortlived as we all met up at Gymkhana at 12pm to enjoy the lunch provided by President Tom and we were all able to share memories of Chris Love and Ray (Lemon) Matti who died just after the Sixes and both were very popular characters in the social cricket world.
Great credit must go to the Black Swans with 2ball coming from Australia, Martin Peters and Obi from India and Vaughan McClear and Paul Jeffels had flown in from Bangkok. There had been no cricket played but everybody had enjoyed their weekend in Chiang Mai.
There are plans afoot for the Lovee Cup to be held on many more times and will be presented whenever Lamphun, Lanna and Black Swans are playing in the same cricket event.