The 2nd CMSCA & Lamphun cricket Sawasdee mini tournament in as many days, again with 4 teams, the second tier of Lamphun teams particapate in this event, the hosts Rimping, the favourites Chai Stan, Hong Kor Muang and Wat Kheelek. This turned out to be a real shock the winners by a clear margin were Tambon Rimping who won all 3 of their games despite the fact that they didn’t know what cricket was until 2 months ago!
Tambon Rimping, a new school to the CMSCA Lamphun junior cricket development programme, who have only been playing for 2 months so very new to cricket, it’s also a new venue to hold competitions. This tournament was a second tier competition put together to allow other new teams to experience playing cricket in a competitive atmosphere. As normal most teams start very nervously and quiet, only one team in this group had previously played in a Sawasdee tournament before, Chai Stan and they were very green to say the least.
First up was Chai Stan v Wat Kheelek, a steady start from Chai Stan who took advantage of a very young and inexperienced team from Wat Kheelek, to win by a comfortable margin of 25. Things should have got better for the Chai Stan team but unfortunately they got progressively worse as the afternoon wore on. Wat Kheelek got slightly better but were no match for the Rimping or Hong Kor Muang teams, both developed an understanding of the game and what you need to do to win much quicker than the other teams.
Rimping won all 3 of their games and the margins just got bigger, against the pre tournament favourites Chai Stan they won by 44 runs and in their final game against Wat Kheelek they won by 86 runs, for a team that learned to bowl only 2 weeks ago they did very well, also credit must go to Rimping’s teacher Ajarn Tooh who had the team practising for 3 days before the competition and their fielding was as good as any team playing in Lamphun. Hong Kor Muang steadily improved throughout the competition, they have one of the smallest players I have ever seen play cricket, little “New” had a great day, he bowled and batted very well and then took probably the best catch in the history of Lamphun cricket to date, the Hong Kor Muang team finished off with a very unlikely win against Chai Stan by 27 runs to finish off the day.
By winning this competition Tambon Rimping booked themselves into the Chiang Mai Sixes Sawasdee tournament to be held at Mae On on the 11th March with Hong Kor Muang as 1st reserve.