(by Peter Goodchap)

The normal tradition for Southerners cricket teams during these events is for a great showing off the field, and a poor showing on the field, normally due to the afore mentioned drinking, etc. Well this year we certainly kept up the off field antics, but we also had some success on the field.

We were matched in the first round with the defending Cup Champions from last year, the Bangladesh Cricketeers, and we were expecting to be hammered by them. Well we faired ok, and while we were beaten, we certainly did not disgrace ourselves, with my personal highlight including hitting 3 sixes in a row of an ex test bowler.

So after the round matches we were allotted into the Bowl division, which we were quite happy about, and after a good win in the first match, we came up against the Robbers and Floggers from Chiangmai, a team which included our mates Steve Penney, Wani Imatyaz and Dave Hird. We must mention at this stage that we played the match at 8.30 in the morning, a time when some of the team (Andrew Spedding) is normally only walking back into the hotel after a night of partying.

So in the early morning we were lucky enough to be given a lot of extra runs due to the number of wides bowled by the Floggers, and so we ended with 95 runs from out 5 overs. In most circumstances this would be more than enough, but for Southerners there is no certainties, and our bowling lived up to expectations and we got smashed around the field.

The final over was to be bowled by Andrew Spedding, and this is one guy who actually thrives on pressure situations and especially while still drunk. The first 5 balls were ok, they hit a few runs, and so the final ball required a 6 for victory. Speddo put one right in the slot, and Wani helped it over the mid wicket boundary for the victory. One up for Floggers and Robbers.

Well we had a better showing in our next few matches, and we made it through to the final of the bowl division, and who do we come up against…… Floggers and Robbers again.

Well this time they bowled better, but we batted better as well, and I got us off to a decent start, retiring on 30 and then Jamie, Vaughan, Tony and Speddo all contributed nicely to help us reach 81 from the 5 overs. The most outstanding performance of our innings though was certainly by James Moss. He opened the batting with me, and at the end of the 5 overs the scoreboard showed Mossy to be 3 Not Out. Now for a powerful opening batsmen of Mossy ability, this gave us great amusement, and we hope that he will be reminded of this innings for many years to come.

Anyway we went out to bowl, and unfortunately the Floggers batted very well, and they hit the winning runs off me on the last ball of the 4th over.

So runners up in the bowl division was a good result for us, and we were very pleased with our cricket. What we enjoyed even more was the off field events, which included seeing Speddo’s chicken legs running up and down the hotel hall, Tony Tree having a leg injury and hobbling around, a round of golf where Mossy and Jamie won, Vaughan finally finding his hamstring muscle, Mossy taking a liking for topless tuk tuks and everybody feeling the results of too much Jagemeister, which was our 2nd drink of choice on tour.

Obviously Guiness was the most drunk liquid, and it certainly helped us get onto the stage for some karaoke. A big thanks to Graeme (Watta) Pity, who was in Chiangmai for a holiday, and joined us for a few games while our injured players took a rest.

All in all it was a great week, and we were all sad to leave for Bangkok. The best news is that most of us will be heading to Macau in July for the first ever Macau Sixes tournament, so look out for news of that tour soon.