Round 13 - 23rd November 2002

Crusaders v. St George's at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Crusaders lost by 5 wkts

What do you get when you have 13 players and 3 captains? Well, that was the rather odd scenario facing Crusaders at the start of their match against St George's. Based on their performance, even 13 Crusaders wouldn't have won on the day...

Crusaders batted first with the now regular pair of Manoj (Mojo) and Damian (Killer) opening the innings. Mojo had a rare failure and Killer was very subdued against the St George's bowlers who were giving nothing away. Anthony (Barney) joined Killer and the two put together a stand of nearly 100 runs before Barney, having just reached his half century, gifted the long-on fieldsman a simple catch. His departure started a collapse as the incoming batsmen tried to up the tempo. That they failed to do miserably, with the exception of Ray (Brewbags) who managed an undefeated 33, and the innings limped to a disappointing close at 187-9.

Unlike their Crusading counterparts, the St George's batsmen found no demons in the artificial wicket (why would they?) nor the Crusaders' bowling attack, hitting balls to and over the boundary at will. Jayasekera was particularly harsh on the bowlers - fired up by a few choice words from Barney, whose antics may well catch the attention of the MDC if he is not too carefeul. Mojo took a great slip catch and Killer claimed three late wickets but their efforts failed to deceive as St George's raced to their target with the best part of 9 overs and 5 wickets to spare.

Crusaders players can now enjoy a short break as Hong Kong hosts cricket teams from Singapore and Malaysia at the 2002 South East Asian Championships - also known as the Tuanku Ja'afar Cup. Crusaders next match is against Centaurs at Po Kong Village Road on 7th December 2002.

At Kowloon Cricket Club: St George's 188-5 (D Jayasekera 90; Damian Kelleher 3-29) beat Crusaders 187-9 (Damian Kelleher 63, Anthony Barnett 51, Ray Brewster 33*; D Shah 4-47, J Iqbal 3-47) by 5 wkts

[Top]

Round 12 - 16th November 2002

Crusaders v. DBS at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Crusaders lost by 3 wkts

Crusaders hit and miss season continued on Saturday with a loss to perennial bottom dwellers DBS.

Damp conditions greeted the players as they arrived at the KCC not knowing whether the match had been called off due to the morning's heavy rain. In another demonstration of the incredible drainage powers of the new ground, the game not only started on time but a full 35 overs per side match was possible and the balls used were barely damp at the end of each innings.

Crusaders won the toss and elected to bat. With more than a little help from DBS's opening bowler, who had control problems and conceded 10 runs from his first over with only 1 delivery actually hitting the bat, Crusaders got off to a flyer, scoring 65 runs in the first 6 overs. Having said that, it was only Manoj who was doing the scoring for Crusaders, blasting his way to 49 out of a total 77 for the opening partnership, with Damian contributing a mere 7 runs. Damian continued to struggle in the early going and it wasn't until the 15 over mark that he started to play a few shots of authority. Unfortunately just as he looked like getting into the bowling he popped a simple catch to the gully and was on his way. Graeme came and went and it was left to Ray and Dan to resurrect the stalled innings. This they did quite well, scoring freely against the second string bowlers but being cautious against the ever dangerous Afzaal. Whilst they didn't take the bowling apart, they did manage to lift the score to a respectable 221 by the close, with Ray finishing undefeated on 67 and Dan on 30.

DBS's reply got off to a bad start when Adrian Baker induced Nizam to feather one through to the keeper in the first over. With the other opener falling soon afterwards, Crusaders looked to by cruising to an easy victory. The incoming batsman, Iftikhar, recently kicked out of the KCC for not paying his bills, survived a straight forward chance at slip before he had settled but after that he found the bowling much to his liking. His partner, Suboor was also taking a liking to the bowling (though nobody was taking a liking to him) and together the two DBS batsmen started to put together a decent partnership. The KCC bowlers weren't bowling well and poor line and length allowed the batsmen to swing their arms freely. There was a lot of unorthodox stroke play but the ball kept finding gaps in the field. The best chance to break the partnership came when both batsmen managed to get themselves stranded at one end during a quick single but the return from the field was a shocker and the opportunity was lost. As the light started to dim, Iftikhar finally holed out for a creditable 85. With only 40-odd runs required off the last 8 overs, DBS looked to be in the driving seat now. However a string of quick dismissals by Manoj kept the game in the balance. Suboor managed to keep his end intact as partners came and went at the other end. He brought up has maiden century in the 34th over with a typical hoick to the leg side boundary. At the start of the 35th over, 5 runs were still required and it was now quite dark. Fielders had almost no chance to see the ball once it was struck and the DBS batsmen scampered for the winning runs with 2 balls to spare.

Next week sees Crusaders take on the high-flying St George's team - who knows what will happen for that one!

At Kowloon Cricket Club: DBS 225-7 (Suboor Ahmed 102*, Iftikhar Ahmed 85; M Cheruparambil 3-39) beat Crusaders 221-3 (D Kelleher 36, M Cheruparambil 49, R Brewster 67*, D Davern 30*) by 3 wkts

[Top]

Saracens v. SubCont CC at Police Training School
Result: Washed out

[Top]

Tartars v. Witherers at Mission Road
Result: Washed out

[Top]

Round 11 - 9th November 2002

Crusaders v. Lamma CC at Kowloon Cricket Club
Result: Crusaders won by 5 wkts

"Fabulous Baker Boy Plays Whoopee with Lamma"

Crusaders completed a famous victory over table-topping Lamma on another beautiful autumn day at the ground described by Adie's boss as the best he had ever played on. How the New Balance man would have reacted to the news that Hong Kong's premier cricketing venue had been acquired by the Hong Kong Jockey Club is anyone's guess. With revenue from gamblers – oops! "punters" ("Get it right," said Ban On-lien, CEO, HKJC, "our valued clientele are investors") – continuing to plummet, a sensational deal was secretly concluded to switch all weather racing to the heart of Jordan. Unfortunately, the 10-race card planned for Saturday was marred by accusations and counter-accusations after the stands mysteriously vanished overnight, leaving only the remnants of a broken down horsebox, which had been cunningly disguised as a scoreboard.

"It is simply intolerable that our customers have nowhere from which they can tear up their tickets from a great height", said Ban. "Part of what makes racing what it is in Hong Kong is the debris left behind after a meeting. We are quite simply the envy of the world. We meet regularly over a brandy or two with our counterparts in other racing jurisdictions, and they are all trying to emulate our success. And then KCC goes and takes the stands down. In our view it's a clear breach of Rule 10, which states "In the event of any dispute over Rules 1-9, a stewards' enquiry shall be convened, which shall find in favour of the Jockey Club after due process etc. etc."

A spokesperson for KCC, who declined to be named, replied, "As a police officer, I am unable to concur with Mr Ban's perception of events. He is also overlooking the fact that the tearing-up-of-tickets ritual has been officially reinterpreted at the recent CPC Central Committee Plenum in Beijing as Littering with Chinese Characteristics. Anyone caught littering at KCC will be fined $600 on the spot, with all proceeds going towards the Saracens end of season trip to Macau."

(At the mention of the word "Macau", the Jockey Club man fainted and was finally brought around when a bottle of Hennessy XO was placed under his nose. The initial offering, a splash of Wellcome own label, had brought gales of protest from the supine supremo, who lodged an objection in the strongest terms that a Havana cigar deserved better than "muck in a mug".)

Click here for more pictures. All images © Travis Pittman - copies available upon request.

As for the meeting itself, no one who was present will easily forget the drama, which went right down to the wire. As in all fields featuring the Crusaders, there was trouble at the start, although this time it did not involve the troublesome gelding Barney. The hours of work that master mentor Ivan Arthur has put in before dawn were rewarded with Barney getting a flyer from barrier 2 finishing with a very creditable time of 58.0 and fully justifying his promotion to Class 1 in the absence of Mojo the Great. With The Veteran missing the start from barrier 3, Mr Grumpy took full advantage from gate 4, although he needed a couple of reminders as he turned for home, clocking a time of 44.0 for the final 1,000 metres. Storming through on the rails, after taking a sit at the rear of the field, was Super Scanners, who, although appearing to be in need of the run and putting up several pounds overweight, completed his last 220 metres in just 14 seconds to claim a tierce spot.

Although he settled midfield and appeared to have every chance as he box-seated on the circle, Australian import Tennis Pro (by Per-Ulrik out of Tight Buns) didn't respond when he came under the whip as he was pressed for room at the 200 pole. A random drugs test proved negative, with his trainer putting the indifferent performance down to the fact that the 3 year old colt seemed to enjoy the whipping a bit too much. Tennis Pro will be blinkered at his next race start, although the horse itself is said to prefer being handcuffed and blindfolded.

Surprisingly, given they do much of their training on the beach, Lamma didn't adjust well to the sand track, with their recent entry in the International Races, But Howzat!, never managing to get in from his wide barrier draw of 14. With skipper Brandy Ta pulling up after a suspected doping incident at his Wan Chai yard, it was left to a runner bearing an uncanny resemblance to the mount that gate crashed the photo-shoot for the International Races and Former Operations Manager to push Crusaders in the final furlong. But in the end, with Fabulous Baker Boy returning to the form that has seen him trouble some of the very best in the past, Lamma were quite simply never at the races.

At Kowloon Cricket Club: Crusaders 188-5 (Anthony Barnett 58, Graeme Jardine 44) beat Lamma 186-8 (H Butt 43, M Burns 47*; Adrian Baker 3-32) by 5 wkts

[Top]