Printer-friendly pageTuesday, June 20, 2006
Well after 18 months of planning and numerous hic-cups along the way the touring party assembled at Heathrow ( even though one member of the country's nobility texted on the day unsure as to which airport we were due to depart from ! ) on the evening of January 18 2006 . What was so strange , after weeks of uncertainty and changes was that everyone turned up on time and in the right place ( once the noble Lord Lucan had been informed )
Amazingly this pattern continued throughout the next 14 days when almost everything went like clockwork .
Apart from a couple of blips - Ning , The Tub's fiancé , being involved in a car accident on route to the airport
and thus being delayed in joining up with the party and Mick ( Sister ) Stanley having to delay his departure for
a few days ( still not sure when he actually turned up ? ) - everything went to plan .
Apart from these minor hiccups the tour could not have gone better, even the injuries and hospital visits had a ring of comedy about them ( Wath not knowing for 5 days , until he came back to England , that he had actually broken a finger , Mick Stanley dislocating a finger after being knocked over by a wave in the sea ! and Steve Keenan and John Griffiths being hospitalised after stepping on poisonous sea urchins ) . Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves , enjoyed the company and the country and felt that it was an appropriate and successful way for us to celebrate the cricket clubs 25th Anniversary .
Everyone found Sri Lanka to be an amazing country . We were very lucky that the heavy rains only stopped on
the Tuesday before the Thursday that we arrived and we were blessed with 14 days of sunshine . We were also
fortunate to be based in a wonderful 5 star hotel , with its on private beach and pool , giving us a great opportunity to explore both Colombo and the island , courtesy of Kumar's travel contacts . The country has both extremes from the better off ' colonial past ' areas to areas of abject poverty but wherever we went we were met with smiling faces and a laid back people who did everything to please and accommodate us on our stay .
Obviously the recent tsunami put a different outlook on our trip . I don't think any of us who witnessed the
devastation that the Tsunami wreaked upon miles upon miles of coastline will ever forget it . Rubble , where
houses once stood , the tented villages , shanty towns and gravestones that lined the coastline brought home to us what a fortunate existence we have and put into perspective any problems we may have in our lives . I don't think we could have witnessed these scenes without thinking we were doing something to help and hopefully , in our small way , through the money we invested back into the county as tourists and through our fundraising we have.
We visited the boatyard where our boat ' The London Saints Golden Duck ' is being built .Unfortunately it wasn't
finished but the shell was complete and it will soon be launched ( pictures will then be supplied from Sri Lanka )
providing a livelihood for around 20 families and 100 people . We then went to our other project - Camp Coconut, a childrens day centre which caters for children who have lost one or both parents in the Tsunami . This was avery uplifting experience and we stayed for a few hours enjoying their hospitality , learning about the project andjoining in some of the games with the children .
For this camp our money has provided trampolines , spring-back cricket stumps , a junior Assault course and the building of a cricket net facility . Due to the heavy rains work has only recently been able to start but an area of 50 yards by 20 has been cleared and concrete , matting and nets will soon be put up and completed by the end of February ( again completed photos will be supplied ) Joe Ramdial also brought out with him cricket equipment from his cricket club - Wanstead C.C. and perhaps most keenly appreciated was all the brand new childrens gear that Hampshire County Cricket Club provided for us to give .
The children looked great in their new Hampshire tops and tracksuits etc - so good in fact that Johnnie Quinn(who incidentally earns a very good living doing this ) organised an excellent photo shoot .
Some of our party also went to an orphanage on the outskirts of Colombo - an all together more distressing
experience . The Vajira Sri Rehabilitation Childrens Home was set up in 1983 and caters full time for 330
children , from all denominations , orphaned as a result of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka . Due to the publicity
and money that has surrounded the effects of the Tsunami this project has largely been ignored over the last year and is probably in greater need of urgent support .
Consequently we are looking at supporting this equally deserving cause with the remainder of the Appeal money ( over £ 3,000 ). In fact , having witnessed these events first hand , we have decided to keep the Appeal open and many of us , and hopefully the LSSC , will look to provide on-going support . For as little as £ 6 per month you can sponsor a named child through school or help with the running costs of the orphanage or childrens day camp . I am obtaining details of this support and if anyone is interested please contact me .
Onto the cricket aspect of the tour - full match reports can be found on the website ( www.londonsaints.com )
Ok we lost all 3 games but we narrowed the winning margin game by game , firstly 192 runs then 114 runs and
finally 65 runs - if we'd stayed for another week we'd have won a game !
Like I was saying to Michael Vaughan, when he asked my advice before leaving for India , spend more time aclimatising ( we went from a freezing cold London to playing a game in temperatures nudging 100 degrees only 4 days later ) and perhaps our one game of beach cricket the day before our first game was not enough preparation time for the rigours of a hard tour.
As tour organiser I bowled the first ball of the tour . Little did we know that this guy had opened the batting for
Sri Lanka in a Test match but we soon realised our task when he effortlessly stroked the first ball to the boundary followed by the second ball and the sixth ball - 14 - 0 off one over ! We stuck to our task in the field and helpedby the fact that their batsmen had agreed to retire after scoring 35 we ' restricted ' them to 279 off 35 overs , not disgracing ourselves against opponents a class above anything most of us had faced before . The same could not be said for our batting as we struggled to adapt to the hard pitches . Never mind one down with two to play .
We turned up with slight trepidation to Game 2 as it was being played on a former Test match ground - Town
Park Enfield this was not ! Although the ground had seen better days it was nonetheless very impressive and again better than anything most of us had played on . A giant scoreboard , that was kept very busy ticking over
as our opponents batted first , dominated one side of the ground whilst other stands started to fill up with locals
as news spread around that The London Saints were in town . My worry about us being mistaken for the Under 19 England World Cup team were realised when one of the local kids walked up to me and asked whether the game we were playing was a Test match - he had probably seen Reggie giving Little Jon batting tips !
We improved in this game , restricting our opponents to 228 and reaching 3 figures ourselves with 114 . Another thoroughly enjoyable occasion , another excellent curry buffet for lunch and a hugely sociable evening with our opponents who , after the speeches , enjoyed a sing-song and knees-up with ourselves putting to bed once and for all the myth that Sri Lankans don't drink .
Onto our third game and Kumar's old public school with very impressive buildings , grounds and facilities . A
much better performance in this game as we started to adapt to the conditions and ran them ' relatively ' close
as we scored 148 in reply to their score of 213 . Again another excellent lunch and evening of socialising with our ever friendly hosts as bottles of Arrack appeared and were then emptied in quick succession
Overall despite some bruised egos , everyone thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing at some fine venues
and against both skilful and sociable opponents .Garry Burrell was the batting find of the tour and there were also good knocks played by John Quinn , John Griffiths , Andy Jones , Ian Shiels , Kumar Yogeswaran and our fitness coach Joe Ramdial .
The top score on tour though was achieved by Steve Keenan who chose a perfect setting to achieve his best ever score for the club . Five ducks were scored , two of which coming from the man with his own bat - Phil Rogers who got a pair - the second a golden which serves him right for sulking for hours after his first one ! To be fair Phil was the pick of the bowlers ( 12 of us actually bowled and 17 batted ) although Paul Wathan topped the averages taking 4 wickets and narrowly missing a hat-trick .
The Skipper also picked up 4 wickets including his 350th for the club whilst Pete Berkeley topped the catching stakes with 3 and Gary Jones took his 50th club catch . A special mention must be made for Dave Smith ( Smudger ) who despite never setting foot on a cricket pitch before , umpired all 3 games for us . The second game when he umpired in a sarong , black socks and sandals was a sight to behold - we all hope he keeps it up .
I don't think the games could have been played in a better spirit - we even got a mention in a Sri Lankan daily
National newspaper ( it would have been 2 papers but I upset the journalist from the first paper by drinking his
beer by mistake ! ) and hopefully we made friends wherever we went - a truly unmissable experience
Dave Thomas
