The British Club has been visiting Chiang Mai from Bangkok for 32 years and traditionally plays a team of junior cricketers on the Saturday as a warm-up match before taking on the might of Gymkhana Club on the Sunday, but this year the visiting team was firmly put in its place by a wonderful innings from Bunchuai as he made 87* to guide his young side to a well-merited victory by eight wickets.
The British Club has played against more than a generation of young Thai cricketers on their regular visits to Chiang Mai but they can rarely have been more impressed by what they saw as Bunchuai hit 14 boundaries and paced his innings to perfection after a slow start against the new ball as the Juniors chased a target of 128 in 20 overs. Bunchuai was given good support by Chanchai and Boom, but he gave a batting master-class to his team-mates as he was unworried even as the required rate reached nine runs per over.
The Juniors had also done well in the field as they restricted the British club to a total of 127 for 6 as Chanchai and Cher bowled well with the new ball and three girls all had a chance to show off their bowling skills. Nok took two wickets in two balls, and Nai took a good caught and bowled, while Wheel bowled a tidy over at the end.
The young team of six boys and five girls were delighted with their victory and the juniors also had a very worthwhile coaching session in the morning as Adrian Salter from the British Club put the children through their paces on the outfield, while Richard Cowles and his father Simon held a very valuable wicket-keeping clinic in the Gymkhana nets.
Richard has been impressing all his Lanna team-mates with his wicket-keeping skills, his prowess as an opening batsman and also with his web-site design, but it turns out that his father played for New Zealand junior teams and was reserve wicket-keeper for Canterbury behind Test wicket-keeper Ken Wadsworth. Simon and his wife came on holiday to Chiang Mai to visit Richard and all at Lanna would like to thank Simon for giving up his time to play, umpire and to conduct this wicket-keeping clinic.
Bunchuai, Boom, Nok and Aree all benefited from his advice and will all get the chance to keep wicket in future junior and senior matches. At the end of the day all at the British Club were very complimentary about the young cricketers they had seen who form the basis of the Lanna Juniors and Lamphun teams, and looked forward to many future contests.