Round 6 - 30th September 2000

Saracens v. HKU at KCC
Result: Saracens won by 7 wickets

No report received.

At KCC: Saracens 148-3 (R Sharma 64, R Sujanani 43*) beat HKU 146-9 (S Buckman 34; Y Vachha 5-31) by 7 wkts

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Round 5 - 23rd September 2000

Tartars v. St George's at KCC
Result: Tartars won by 95 runs

On Saturday the Tartars put up a sound display of batting with a total of 262-4. On a wicket which was firm and fair giving the seamers and spinners a chance but allowing enough for the batsmen to score runs. Solid displays again from TR and Annoop, followed by Lama and Jaideep, and a whirlwind 51 by Faroque including 40 off two overs. St Georges, despite a brisk start failed to keep up the run rate in their chase and were well short.

At KCC: Tartars 262-4 (TR Kalyaranaman 42, S Lama 81*, S Farooque 59; Bertram 3-37) beat St Georges 167 (H Zafrula 40, R Gon 33; Sameer 4-47) by 95 runs

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Round 4 - 16th September 2000

Crusaders v. DBS at DBS
Result: Crusaders won by 119 runs

The latest tracks of the travelling Knights ventured due north to the school of learning for their first game on the intellectual playing fields of DBS. All were surprised to the amount of grass present and even more so by the fact that the boys have got new stumps, have new balls (of the cricket variety), new orange cones to mark out the boundary and seemingly a new attitude, ie., young and forthright. What a breath of fresh air it seemed as Louis Chan (KCC member) preceded to win the toss (Captain O, still calling wrong) and inserted his seniors.

Green and Muddy opened and were initially kept in pseudo quietness by Maurice Ling (also KCC Colt). Greenie’s first shot went for an all run three as the jungle grass on the swimming pool end hinder any chance of an opening boundary. All cheered from the boundary, but obviously this must have taken it’s toll on the Tasmanian fitness guru as at the score of 44 he was runout by a direct hit. In retrospect one feels Greenie may have been better off taking his ritual ‘dump’ before the game had begun to ‘lighten the load’ so to speak. In strode Streamline Scanlon who at No.3 is enough to scare any of the locals, especially the vegetarians amongst them. Steady progress was made until Muddy lost concentration in the 20th over and was caught at cover for 26. A slow start to the season for the media superstar, maybe due to the lack of autograph hunters, but one hopes that it is a prelude to some outstanding knocks in the future, and perhaps better delivery on screen. By this time Scanners had gorged himself on the little bowling lambs from DBS by planting 1 irons into the trees at both ends of the ground. Travalator moved purposefully to the wicket and the crowd was rewarded by a little cameo of innings, easily out scoring the resting carnivore. The Kiwi did play one shot on the off side, however the boys did bowl at his legs, including Chuck-a-Charlie (the new DBS Pakistani paceman) and he gratefully smashed them accordingly. Sundeep Singh (now known as Singalong-a-Sandpit, or Singalong for short) entered the fray for his first League innings for the club. He played with thought giving Scanners, ever increasing hefty blows, the strike and was obviously short of match practice when trying it himself only to resemble a konker doing windmills. Still Singalong did what was called for and his time will come. Ben raced to the wicket for the last 4.5 overs, which saw Scanners smash the ball and windows respectively, but fall short of his first Crusader’s ton by three. The boys did bowl well and stuck at their task admirally, which can only bode well for the future.

Imran Farcy (now known as Paasty-his-bedtime) opened from the School end with Toad at the Bird Cage end. Imran bowled far too well and very quickly and was unlucky not to claim their best bat’s wicket with an LBW appeal making all close to the wicket asking what it would have missed. Toad got one wicket (Toadometer stands at 26 to go) and hobbled off claiming injury and rashes to his nether regions. The swing Toad did get may have been due to illegal use of the sun tan lotion, which he applied generously between his cheeks prior to the start of the game. Hyph and Beefy took over with little success against the bespeckled school boy and the Indian ‘get into line’ kid. Hyph tried his full repertoire including the Jim Middleton grunt bowl and was unlucky again to bowl too well for his own good. Beefy, still recovering from his extended tour of the Middle East and the associated Arabian (K)Nights, was a little ragged, but still bowled quickly enough to show that not all his fitness has been wasted on the belly dancers. He was replaced by Muddy who brought instant success bowling his leggies, now known as Parwannies, and claimed 3 wickets either side of drinks. He may well have claimed more if the young man at square leg had had his glasses on and knew the rules, much to the displeasure of the gnashing Scanlon behind the sticks. Finally the pair of Farcy and Captain O polished off the boys aided by one piece of magic from Toad who threw the stumps down from square leg on the boundary via the odd bump or two.

Congratulations to all including the opposition who all hope will keep up the good work and not have to many ‘see me’ statements in their score books.

At DBS, Crusaders 238-4 (S Scanlon 97*, T Pittman 31) beat DBS 119 (N Waters 3-30) by 119 runs

Saracens v. Nomads at KCC
Result: Saracens won by 8 runs

A terrific game of cricket which did no good for the nerves of the veterans, PC and the Finesmaster watching from the pool. Starting off slow and only 60 odd for 4 at the drinks it was looking as if the Nomads had the evil eye on us following last season’s debacle. However there is no other batsman in Hong Kong with the ability to pace an innings and find extra gears than Rahul. Ably assisted by Rob Marsden they took the score to 140 but with only 5 overs to go it looked as if we would fall short. To finish at 210 is one of the stories of the season. Unfortunately for new C of C of HKCC, Gavin Erasmus, his name was in the frame for the Sharma demolition derby. His last over went for more than it would be kind to mention. Suffice it to say he was 10 with only one legitimate delivery bowled. One back foot pull for 6 that challenged the tenacity of the glass of the scorebox will live long in the memory.

Still Nomads are a fine side and after an early dismissal of Paul Varty, Powells and Harwinkle settled in scoring 30 and 50. Then a usual brutal knock by the Big Ash taking advantage of a let off in the deep was ended by Earl making amends taking a very good catch. Then another superb effort from Jammy saw the Nomads succumbing at last. A great game and Yarmy, after being dropped last week by the ruthless skipper, showed he’s still got it with a four for. Revenge at last.

The game was played hard but with great spirit and sportsmanship from both sides. Saracens given 3 LB’s by Nomads. Enough said.

At KCC: Saracens 209-5 (R Sharma 124*, R Marsden 34) beat Nomads 201 (J Powell 38, S Hawinkels 50, A Ashman 38; Y Vachha 4-56) by 8 runs

Tartars v. CCC at Mission Road
Result: Tartars won by 85 runs

No report received.

At Mission Road: Tartars 296-2 (Anoop 108, TR Kalyanaraman 170*) beat CCC 211-4 (M Eames 94, D Jines 34) by 85 runs

Round 3 - 13th September 2000

Saracens v. Centaurs at KCC
Result: Saracens won by 187 runs

X-Men

In a secret location a mad scientist has been working on producing the perfect mutant cricket specimens to unleash on an unsuspecting Hong Kong. The results of these bizarre experiments were unveiled to a disbelieving public at the KCC in a match against the hapless Centaurs whose only crime was a total inability to compete against this strange combination of the familiar and the very strange. Saracens 2000 made their entrance on to the cricket scene.

There was Grumpio moaning and complaining all the way to 175n.o.. The Captain of Croquet (CoC) running about faster then his legs could manage. Crazy Baldhead Steve making a fine debut scoring 30. Tyrannosaurus Vach thumping around in the outfield. New boy Maniac Marsden steaming in, so fresh off the assembly line that you could see the join at the back of his head. The return of the Prodigal Jammy still waiting for the radar to be inserted. The pieced together with bits of wire and blue tack PC man. Unable to bend his elbow or anything else. Robokeeper eyes blazing behind the stumps. The Youngster showing he could drop catches in the finest Vach tradition but then unlike any other spinning his opponents to distraction.

The Cash man, having brought back quite a few pounds from England was his usual frightening sight thundering up to the wicket. Not as frightening as after the match as the new specimens were to find out. Organizing it all the brooding handsome figure of their leader, Ravinator. How had he got himself into this? What does the next few months hold in store? What has this match report got to do with the game? These and many other questions will not be answered in the next installment.

At KCC: Saracens 260-3 (R Sharma 175*, S Wilson 34) beat Centaurs 73 (R Marsden 3-6) by 187 runs

Round 2 - 9th September 2000

Crusaders v. Police at KCC
Result: Crusaders won by 8 wickets

At last the time had come and the weather held true, a new season, a new wicket (pseudo) and new players for the first game against the old force. The commencement of the 2000-2001 season began with a good win for the bearers of the red cross who rode purposefully towards their Jerusalem (ie., the Saturday League Championship) by swamping the defenders of the embattlements (Wanchai, Tsim Sha Tsui and Kowloon City).

The Crusaders paraded their new talent in the forms of Scanlon, Marzook, Farcy, Singh, Gohel (of the Michael variety, nephew of previous CoC) and Ladharam. Each in their way play their part, but some things do not change, the Captain could not win the toss (although Steads says tossing the coin and the oppo captain calling it right is not a technical loss), Greenie was still looking for his harm strings somewhere in darkest Tasmania, and Toad bowled a bad first over. However, the Captain having formerly inherited the Mr Objectionable title from the incumbent the previous week was rumored to have smiled twice before the game, but this was only hearsay.

Having decided to bat first on the new block the Police were in trouble early and were reduced to 21 for 4 by the new opening attack of Johnsen and Marzook with Farcy first change (turned up late and paid the price by being bowled at the wrong end). Only Gareth (I’m not really a Celt) Jones and Bull (first name unknown and some of the shots equally so) put up any resistance. Toad took three good wickets and now the Toadometer stands at 3 down 27 wickets to get. Imran bowled with pace on a slow wicket and troubled all the thin blue line, and was unlucky not to claim more than his two wickets, however the pick of the bowlers was Mohana who I suspect will be claiming many more wickets this season with his intelligent offerings. Of additional note was Mickey Gohel’s contribution of 7overs which were most encouraging and only bow’s well for his return closer to the festive season. Catching was satisfactory, Travalator juggling at Cow but was successful, but Toad drop for even Mrs Vacha (the senior) would have been easy, and Green’s inability to move five yards for a dolly suggests that the chaps require practice and new body parts respectively.

It took 18.2 overs for the knights to put the coppers to the sword. Captain and Green opened, Captain was still playing as if he was in the nets and preceded to sky one and was caught on the boundary. Green was circumspect (right spelling and has two boys to prove it), which may have been brought on due to the fact that nerve (physical not mental) problems and a bad back were restricting his movements, while the imposing figure of Streamline Scanners (a marvelous advert for the all protein diet of meat, meat and more meat) belted and devoured anything that came his way. Having reached 104 for 1 the a fore mentioned carnivorous batsman trying to finish the game quickly was caught in the deep by a good running catch and moved slowly back to the pavilion for another plate of lamb chops and sirloin steak. His devouring of bowling attacks will continue!! Mohana strode to the wicket played one defensive shot and realised (what everybody knew, that this was not his normal game) and hit two fours to the win the game.

A good win, and do not fear all new recruits are close to nicknames which will of course be forthcoming by that orator of the Cricket Section Mr Dandelion Green. Special apology for all club members who were in the area of the children’s playroom after the game for the Paul Kelly renditions from the Aussie’s – be assured this will be brought up in the next committee meeting and will be stamped out of at all possible.

At KCC: Crusaders 114-2 (D Green 59*, S Scanlon 31) beat Police 110-9 (G Jones 37; M Mazook 4-26, T Johnsen 3-24) by 8 wkts

Round 1 - 2nd September 2000

Crusaders v. Gap Ramblers at HKCC
Saracens v. Mainlanders at KGV
Tartars v. Islanders at KCC