KCC Ladies v. HKCC Ladies, Kowloon Cricket Club - 4th May 2003

Result: HKCC Ladies won by 9 wkts

Report of the Inaugural Women's Cricket Match between HKCC Bauhinias, and the KCC Maidens - The Double C Cup, played at KCC on Sunday, the 4th May.

After an uncertain morning due to the stormy weather, the match finally got underway at 12.45 pm.

KCC won the toss and under advisement, batted first, with Daphne Gohel and Sarah Eames. Daphne lost her wicket to a very good catch for 15, which brought Celia Brown to the wicket. Celia was caught and bowled by Belinda Pote, unfortunately, before she could unleash her legendary potential...It was Belinda's second wicket. Sarah Eames and Kim Lamsam then steadied the innings, with Sarah eventually retiring on reaching 30 runs. A slow outfield deprived Sarah of several boundaries, and restricted the KCC run total somewhat. Sabrina Kitney and Alisha Mahbubani also spent time at the crease, allowing Kim Lamsam to bat through to the end of the innings for 25. That brought the total for the KCC innings to 117.

The pick of the bowlers for HKCC were Olivia Boyd and Natasha Miles. Olivia Boyd bowled 5 overs and conceded only 6 runs for one wicket.

In reply, HKCC opened with Max Lever and Natasha Miles. Sabrina Kitney achieved an early breakthrough claiming the wicket of Max Lever for a duck. Unfortunately from then on, some of the inexperienced KCC bowlers found it difficult to contain the more experienced HKCC batsmen. Both Natasha Miles and Olivia Boyd reached 30 overs and retired. Belinda Pote and Olivia Wakely finished the innings with more than 3 overs to spare. Of note in the KCC bowling was Celia Brown's 4 overs for only 8 runs, and also Sabrina Kitney, with 3.1 overs for 9 runs, and one wicket.

The HKCC woman of the match was awarded to Natasha Miles for her outstanding performance at everything, and for KCC, it was Celia Brown, for her crisp bowling and her amazing fielding, which limited the HKCC run rate considerably.

Julie Atkinson did a fantastic job as KCC's wicket keeper being on the receiving end of Celia's skud-like missiles, which she launched repeatedly from the boundary.

The after match party was great fun. Held in the New Sportsmens Bar, it featured 'One Crowded Hour', and a wonderful curry buffet. The atmosphere and camaraderie beween the two teams was wonderful, and there has been so much positive feedback and enthusiasm since then, that we have made a firm commitment to make sure that it happens again, and that we keep the team together.

Thankyou to HKCC for their great cricket, and to Anita Miles who made the initial contact and organised the match with Julie Atkinson. Huge thankyou to The Cricket Section of KCC, who really supported the day wholeheartedly. Thankyou Burji.

The Maidens would also like to acknowledge the help of a few people, without whom this day wouldn't have happened. Thankyou to Jenny Lethbridge, our scorer, Fahmy Jowharsha for his umpiring and Travis Pittman for the great photographs. Also to the men who turned up to coach us- apart from Lal, who was terrific, we also benefited from the experience of David Arthur, Graeme Jardine, Ravi and Travis.

Check out some of the many photographs from the game.

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Robbie Lee Trophy, Kowloon Cricket Club - 19th April 2003

Result: KCC won by 1 wkt

Click images to enlarge.

The Robbie Lee is a game held in remembrance a cricketer, a member of both CCC and KCC, who died at KCC while enjoying one of his passions, cricket. Unfortunately this event is fading from the memories of those still members of these two clubs, and the exact details of the man and his role in HK cricket is dimming, as he played in the 1940's. The Robbie Lee Trophy is held every year between CCC and KCC in memory of Robbie Lee and his contributions to cricket and we, the custodians of the game must pass this history down the line to preserve this memory in the name of his family, the clubs and the game. Fortunately this match is becoming one of the most keenly contested and prized matches of the year and this year was no exception, for despite the gentlemen’s agreement that there should be a suitably sporting finish, the games are intensely competitive.

The CCC Captain Doug Jones, declined to toss with a $10 coin having lost the toss with such a denomination some two weeks previously, suffering a defeat still stirring uncomfortable memories. The KCC Captain, ‘the Prof’ quick to point out probability theory, was reminded of the fact that such coins have fewer revolutions than do the two dollar coins and that the latter would be used. CCC lost the toss and were put in. “I reckon 170 should do it” said Doug and sent in his men.

KCC opened the bowling with Jards, fresh from his scintillating display at the Hua Hin sixes, where he batted all week and steered the Clive Howard led team to a tie against Melbourne CC, and Anurag. Not much could be done and some fine batting wore down the KCC attack and ‘the Prof’, reveling in his chance behind the stumps, couldn’t contain the onslaught. Despite Brewbags delightful late outswingers early on, Dan Davern’s cunning line and length, Pinky Pittman’s odd startling delivery, Harry, Shiroy and Rishi for variety. Even Killer couldn’t contain them, so when Eamsey came in and started his onslaught the heads dropped, and the CCC innings was finished off with some well struck blows and 270 looked a bit hard for KCC to get.

Tactically the CCC skip won the day as he had that fine total to defend and decided to use slow leg, hand grenade theory to his best advantage. The wise guns Ben Wilkins and Dan Davern chased at around six an over but when the likes of Jards, Killer, Trav, Rishi and Harry couldn’t handle the grenades of Doc Foster (10 overs 4 for 60) and Co. all looked lost. Until of course that legend of the game, Brewbags came out and started to stamp his name on the game. With ‘bags retired on 50, and the Prof striding to the wicket with Anurag in fine form but still three overs left and 30 runs required, the crowd hushed and waited for the delivery from Adrian Lee which the Doc gently pushed back for a simple caught and bowled….game over? No way, ‘the Prof’ had out thought the skip from the ‘Gower’ and back came Brewbags to finish the game with a couple of balls to spare. Anyway, true or not that’s the stuff that legends are made of and the game still belongs to Robbie Lee and was played by a happy crew of cricketers who love the game and will endeavour to keep its spirit alive.

Click images to enlarge.

Thanks to Jenny Lethebridge and Alice Jones for scoring week in week out and adding a little some extra to the game. Ray Brewster was awarded the man of the match from CCC and Jonathon Foster MoM form KCC.

Read the CCC Match Report and check out more photos from the game (thanks to Adrian Lee).

At Kowloon Crickeet Club: KCC 273-9 (R Wilkins 49, D Davern 31, A Bhatnagar 45*, R Brewster 84*; J Foster 4-60) beat CCC 269-7 (G Wines 45, M Eames 53 (ret), R Nissim 39, J Foster 46*) by 1 wkt