PCC starts cricket season with a blast

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Pattaya Cricket Club and Pattaya Panthers players pose for a group photo at St. Andrews International School, Sunday, November 11.
Pattaya Cricket Club and Pattaya Panthers players pose for a group photo at St. Andrews International School, Sunday, November 11.

Pattaya Cricket Club (PCC) played a very social game of cricket against the Pattaya Panthers at St. Andrews International School on Remembrance Sunday, November 11. The day started in royal fashion, as PCC’s very own Lord Harvey paid a stunning tribute to those who have lost their lives in wars by playing a superb rendition of the Last Post.

With formalities over, PCC won the toss and elected to bat first. The Panthers, more used to handling the oval ball, were decked out in full rugby uniform and were passionate from the off. They bundled out the Pattaya top order, leaving PCC on precarious 18 for 3. However, ‘Big’ Jason and Andy ‘The Tractor’ Schofield settled the team down with a great partnership of 50 runs, which included a little bit of assistance from extras.

With Ben, Andy and the return of Holty, the other retirees got PCC into a healthy position, until there came a bit of drama. Joe the Filipino suddenly started to skittle the PCC tail and ‘Slow Poison’ Booby Young strode out to the crease on a hat-trick. After dusting the cobwebs off his bat, he managed to survive the pressure cooker and played his full repertoire in a glorious 16-ball innings duck. PCC closed on a good total of 196 for 7.

Panthers started off their reply in a solid but cautious manner. That was until ‘Slow Poison’ came on to bowl and took 2 quick wickets. The Panthers were behind the rate, until a wobbling Rob came to the crease. He took on the advice from skipper Strang and hit the middle ball of the 5 that he was seeing and played many lovely strokes. Then a swashbuckling innings from Alex Mc and a rather scratchy one from Spike got the Panthers past 100. This gave the rugby lads hope and Markus hit a couple of monster blows out of the ground. It was left to Satyan and Holty to take a few wickets to put a halt to the mayhem and steer PCC safely home.

It was a great day and PCC would like to thank the Panthers who attended. Well done to ‘man of the match’ Georgia and commiserations to Shaun who was awarded ‘least valuable player’ for his 2 ducks in an innings – surely a record!

PCC would also like to thank the club sponsors PSC, Amigo Group, Retox Outback Bar, Macallan Insurance and Aegis International. The next game will be on Sunday 25th November at St. Andrews International School. If anyone is interested in playing cricket, contact [email protected]. All abilities welcome.