British Airways crash in Santiago, Chile (21 Dec 1999)

19 December 1999

British Airways crash in Santiago, Chile

The cricket has been hot in Chile lately, as the Prince of Wales Cricket Club has hosted two visiting teams.

Tim Messner, the Chile Cricket Association Development Officer reports:

"Firstly the Old Bedfordians. The Old Bedfordians took their name from the local Pub in London were most of the players go. They were able to make the trip due to the generosity of an Irish tycoon who paid for all their flights.

The only game played was won by the P.W.C.C. The P.W.C.C batted first and reached 8-241. Stuart Nelson top scored with 65, Ian Scott poked away for 43 and yours truly got 35. The Old Bedfordians offered little resistance and were bowled out for 64.

The British Airways team arrived quite confident of victory but again the Prince of Wales prevailed in both games.

The first game was played at the Grange school. Chile batted first and scored 7-262 with Pete Richards 97, Guy Hooper 71 and Nick Greene a quick 31 being the pick of the batsmen. British Airways started off very well knocking up 50 in about seven overs but after they had reached 120 for two they collapsed. The tail wagged a bit and they managed to reach 200 all out.

Here's a match report by Dean Illot for the second and main game. Dean writes for the English newspaper here in Santiago called News Review.

A century from Chile's wicketkeeper-batsman Guy Hooper and a stirring comeback by the Chilean team in the field were too much for the talented cricket team from British Airways, the "Eccentrics", in a 40 over game held at the Prince of Wales Country Club on Sunday.

Opening the innings, Hooper showed by why is the best batsman in Chile, reaping 112 runs including 17 fours and three sixes. He was well supported by fellow opener Dean Ilott (17), Ian (Snake Hips) Walker (a patient 28) and Tim (Westy) Messner with a whirlwind 25 at the end of the innings. BA's fielding was generally good, claiming three run-outs, including Ilott and Walker, although their bowling was mixed.

Unfortunately, the rest of Chile's batting line-up suffered an England-style collapse as the overs dried up, tumbling from 1-184 to 226 all-out. For BA, E. Parsons bowled well, taking 5/32 off eight overs, including Hooper, caught and bowled.

BA's strong top order set about overhauling Chile's total at Concorde speed. Openers Dharnam (49) and Mazhary (16), and later Parsons (15) and S. Reed (47) took the score to 85 in only 12 overs. Chile was diabolically bad early on in the field and its bowlers gave the batsmen too much width.

A smart catch by Alejandro Saldaña, followed up by a quick stumping began to turn things around for Chile. Ilott and spinner Neil MacFarlane found their line and stemmed run flow enough to keep Chile in the match, but it was a crafty slow-bowling spell by skipper Stuart Nelson that brought Chile back into it. Nelson took 4/29 and was well supported by Ian Scott, whose miserly medium pace bagged 2/35. Both showed their experience in a crisis with shrewd and accurate bowling.

Chile visibly perked up after a couple of wickets and soon had BA's long batting tail exposed. Their batting collapse rivalled Chile's, nose-diving from 2/103 to eventually capitulate to 163 all-out.

Chile showed a lot of character in this victory and after similar wins over Peru this year and last year, again proved their reputation of being a team who guards a total very well.

Both tours were played in Great Spirit and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately we aren't going to tour Argentina this year. We are definitely going to Brazil over Easter and we are hoping that a team from Argentina can come in March."

If you would like to tour Chile, you can contact the CCA through Tim Messner tmessner@ctcinternet.cl