Cricket makes progress in Finland (10 Jul 1999)

9 July 1999

Cricket makes progress in Finland

The highlight of the Finnish cricket season, the Finland Sixes, was staged last month. Andrew Armitage provides all the details:

The Finland Sixes tournament was held in Helsinki on June 19 for the fourth consecutive summer and the organisers and hosts SKK cricket club were blessed with glorious weather, a record turn out of eight teams as well as an appearance by Jason Barry as part of his BBC-backed "One Man and His Bat" world cricket tour.

SKK captain Andrew Armitage asked Jason to represent the host team and Finland duly represented the 74th country where Jason has played the beloved game on his way to the record target of 100 countries. There can hardly have been a more exciting days cricket so far....

The eight teams were split into two groups of four, with two seeded teams in each group. The seeds were the "first" teams from SKK, Helsinki, Vantaa and Turku cricket clubs. SKK, Helsinki and Vantaa each posted a "second" six and the final team comprised of the first-ever "Finnish National" six. Games were played with five overs per innings with all but the wicket-keeper having to bowl one over and wides/no-balls counted for four runs.

Despite some strong home support and gallant resistance from the Finnish squad, the four seeded teams won through to the semi-final stage with Vantaa I topping Group A, and Helsinki I Group B with a clean sheet of three victories comprising strong batting performances in achieving three scores over 100.

The first semi-final pitched Vantaa against Turku. Batting first Vantaa scored freely in setting a target of 65 for victory. In reply Turku started well but were then restricted by some tight bowling and eventually fell 14 runs short despite not losing any wickets. The second semi saw the unbeaten Helsinki team face SKK. Helsinki batted first but were restricted by some tight bowling and a couple of sharp catches to a total of 66-3. SKK opened solidly with Jason Barry and Scott Thurling pushing the score along to 45 for the first wicket in good time. Under pressure the Helsinki bowling wilted and Hugh Fitzpatrick joined Jason at the wicket to knock-off the needed runs with five balls to spare.

The final saw the rematch of the opening round-robin game between Vantaa and SKK, a game which Vantaa had easily won by a clear 33 runs. Armitage won the toss and decided to bat, again opening with the Barry-Thurling partnership. Runs flowed freely and with some particularly powerful blows from the Thurling blade, SKK reached a useful score of 80 runs without loss. Vantaa lost an early wicket but then proceeded to score reasonably well and reached 62-1 after four overs. Armitage took the last over with 19 runs required for victory. The first three deliveries were promptly despatched for four to the legside boundary. With pulses racing on and off the field, the umpire gave a plumb LBW decision from the fourth ball and the next Vantaa batsman was duly run-out by Armitage backing-up his own bowling from the fifth. Vantaa's top batsman Zaheed on 40 not out and having crossed to the striker's end, faced the last delivery and duly cleared the straight boundary for six. The scores were therefore tied on 80 and SKK were declared the winners by virtue of losing less wickets. An incredible game of cricket in the Australia-South Africa mode!!

Most importantly, the whole day was a great success and represented a major stride forward in the development of the game in Finland. Many new faces were seen and even Finnish TV gave a first ever three minute spot on the Sunday evening news, BEFORE showing the winning runs from the World Cup final at Lords !!!