Washington Cricket Club were formed 40 years ago in Belsize Park in London to play social cricket. The team was based in a pub but has travelled across the world to play friendly cricket. This is a long awaited first visit to Chiang Mai for the team although certain individuals are regular visitors both to the city and to Gymkhana Club. David Walker and Taran Persuad are both life members of the club and Locky has many. happy memories of tours with the club to South Africa in 1992/3 and West Indies in 1996/7.
Chiang Mai proved to be the perfect place for a club reunion as there was a strong local connection and it was convenient for players travelling from the Southern Hemisphere as well as the UK. Players past and present gathered together as the team participated in the Chaing Mai Big Bash over the weekend of 11th and 12th February.
The team played a full part in the competition and four eight-over matches, although all lost, proved a useful warm-up for players who were in their off-season and some were coming out of retirement. The tour dinner at Good View was a memorable occasion but the centrepiece of the tour was the match against Lanna CC at Gymkhana Club on Wednesday where two clubs with the same philosophy of cricket enjoyed a delightful day of cricket.
The sides were not quite evenly balanced as players from both Lanna and CMCC, the two main local teams who were both finalists in the Big Bash, all wanted to play against such distinguished visitors and the touring team was already in a depleted state with several players already on the way home and others a little bit worse for wear.
Gary Evans and Alan Moffat have been to Chiang Mai before and so chose this special occasion to return to the field and Locky and Taran were also brought in to strengthen the team with their local knowledge. Lanna had an impressive batting line-up including Cowles and Cardno, Aasif and Ismail. It was probably one of the strongest line-ups gathered together in recent seasons so Captain Pete had quite a problem on his hands to give everybody a gain.
Some of Locky’s fondest memories of Washington on tour was the after-match presentations when David Gluckman, another mainstay of Washington cricket, gave a number of speeches to bemused opposition teams about the merits of social cricket (and how they hadn’t played it).
The two captains Pete and Clint Dugmore had the solution to the problem as Washington batted first probably to save the visiting team’s legs in the field. Early wickets on a difficult pitch also had to be overcome but after a short burst with the new ball a variety of slow bowling options were used.
Opening batsman Mike Turner fought hard to make 21 when conditions were at their worse but the bowling grew ever more friendly and Peter Kloss and Gary Evans made hay while the sun shone as both reached 30 in a fine sixth wicket partnership that ensured a respectable total of 141 in 30 overs.
Chairman Tom provided another splendid lunch after which Max Coombes and Tanvir Ahmed opened the batting for the home side. Two boundaries and a dropped catch were not good signs for the Wash but left-armer Stuart Marsh took two wickets as Mike made up for his dropped catch.
Asif Hasan and Richard Cowles were in impressive form with the bat but Tony Harris dismissed Asif to ensure that Martin Cardno got to the crease so that both batsmen and the bowler were Kiwis. Cardno appeared to be pushing singles simply to extend his stay at the crease as Taran was then treated with great respect.
As Lanna closed in on their target Locky was given the call to bowl and with Richard Cowles looking to finish things off quickly he was dropped twice after completing his fifty. Cardno finished things off with a six over long-off and Lanna had won by seven wickets.
The early finish allowed for a good number of beers being consumed and more money was raised for CMSCA to esnure their work in schools could carry on. Both teams enjoyed their late afternoon of socialising as the girls from Dara Academy joined the boys from the CMSCA coaching program in some enjoyable practice on the ground.
The two teams met up again at UN Irish Pub where Sandy Cullen had put on a splendid buffet in his upstairs room which is well known location for cricket teams from around the world and the Chiang Mai Sixes Cup is still sitting proudly behind the bar following UN Irish’s triumph in 2016. Washington’s chairman Luke Mitchell said his thank yous and Brad Hitchcock ran the fines session as a few more beers were consumed and both teams agreed that should meet up again soon.