Finland: Surprising start to the Finnish Championship

The opening weekend of the Finnish season on 19 May saw last year's champions Vantaa CC destroyed by Helsinki CC.

Vantaa won the toss and elected to bat at Helsinki's new home ground in Kaisaniemi. The decisionsoon back-fired as Vantaa lost wickets regularly and were soon bowled out in only 27 overs for a total of 81. There were 4 wickets for Anil Sood and 2 a-piece for Amrik Bhatia & Gautam Bhasker. Of the batsmen only Tariq made double figures with 22.

In return, despite losing the early wicket of Tony Walker for 1, Helsinki raced to the target in only 12,4 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. Ashraf Shahid and captain Abbas Khan saw Helsinki home with scores of 22 and 27 not out respectively.

In another low-scoring game at Ruskeasuo the home ground in Helsinki of SKK, Turku batted first and were cleaned-up by the new SKK opening bowling attack of Simon Rose and Johan Steynberg.

In 17.1 overs Turku were all out for a paltry 63 - figures for Rose of 3-20 and Steynberg 7-32. SKK hadlittle trouble in achieving the runs in only 12,1 overs for the loss of three wickets. Richard Hanley opened with a quick-fire 20 and the victory was sealed with a four by Andrew Armitage who remained not out on 10 woth Matti Vihtonen at the other end on 8.

European Cricket Day - May 20

At the SKK ground in Ruskeasuo, Helsinki, whilst spectator numbers were limited due to Arctic conditions, with temperatures not rising above 5 degrees Celsius and strong winds, European Cricket Day was a great success for cricket promotion in Finland.

The Finnish Cricket Association (FCA), ably assisted by ECC Coach Stuart Barnes, managed to dodge rain showers and held events largely in line with the original 6-hour planned schedule.

The Finland National XI played a 25-over exhibition game against the "Rest of Finland" XI (including Stuart). The National XI were put in to bat by Rest of Finland captain, Andrew Armitage, and were duly restricted by some tight bowling to a total of 149-6.

In return the new "Finnish opening discovery" Janne Lumme clubbed the National XI bowling to all parts for 36 well-deserved runs, setting the Rest of Finland up for a victory with 3 overs to spare. The winning runs were majestically made by Stuart Barnes with minutes to spare before being whisked-off to Helsinki airport just in time to catch the Sunday evening Heathrow connection!

In between innings, 3 teams of 9-14 year olds contested the first-ever FCA childrens' continuous cricket tournament, with the Helsinki International School team coming through to win the first prize of an autographed miniature bat from Gloucestershire CCC. European Cricket Day t-shirts and commemorative certificates were distributed to all participants.

Following the children's event was the first-ever Finnish ladies sixes - a tightly contested 9 over innings game was played with the "M's" (a whole team of Finnish ladies whose first names start with M!) coming through as glorious victors. Great fun was had by all!

Tampere Cricket Club (TCC) ? vying with Stykkisholmur in Iceland for the title of most northerly cricket club in the world - staged a series of "scripted" demonstrations and a ten over match on Cricket Day. Extensive publicity was arranged, and sponsorship obtained from two local bars and an engineering company.

Well-known local TV star Meku Manner supplied the Finnish commentary. Playing cricket in Finland requires a certain ability to cope with unexpected hazards -- elk, bears, or reindeer on the pitch, for example -- so the TCC players were not deterred by the steady drizzle which threatened to turn European Cricket Day into a wet t-shirt contest.

Play took place in the Hameenpuisto park - the only flat piece of ground close to the city centre, but otherwise far from ideal, apart from being a very popular place for Sunday afternoon walks (when it is not raining).Despite the rain, about twenty spectators were present during the two hours of play and it is estimated that up to a hundred stayed for a time and watched. The ten over six-a-side game drew an enthusiastic response from the spectators and ended in a purely coincidental 43-43 draw.

Several spectators asked to try their hand at the bat, with creditable results, and TCC gained three potential players and six new supporters. The event provided further exposure for cricket in Finland, and TCC gained a supply of t-shirts with the club logo, as well as an interview with vice-captain, Shamin Alary, on local station, Radio Tampere.