The Biggest & Best Invitational Festival yet as the spirit of ‘friendship through cricket' is realized in Hong Kong!

Players from the HKCC Willow Wielders and the Shanghai Roses enjoy a moment at the HKICF prize Presentation © HKCA

Hong Kong: The fourth annual Ichor International & Chesterton Petty Hong Kong Invitational Cricket Festival 2005 concluded on Sunday at Po Kong Village Road was the biggest club sixes event in the world and the best ever Hong Kong Invitational Cricket Festival.

Thirty four men's and women's teams competed over 3 days in three divisions - Open, Spoon, Women's - and fourteen overseas sides, organized by ACST's Mike Maher, flew into Hong Kong to participate alongside the twenty local cricket sides. Eighty matches were completed on the two PKVR pitches; twenty four sides competed in the Open competition, five competed for the Spoon and five women's teams, including two from Shanghai, participated in the Women's competition.

As Doug Walters, who was playing for Chesterton Petty in the tournament, commented, the standard of play was incredibly high in all divisions. No doubt the contributions of star players Heath Streak (ex Zimbabwe), Adam Huckle (ex Zimbabwe), Naeem Ashraf (ex Pakistan), Paul Pritchard (ex Essex) and Abeed Janmohamed (Kenya), as well as Doug Walters, contributed to the impressive quality of cricket.

High standards appeared to be a feature of this year's Festival as the contributions of the Umpires and Scorers, drawn mostly from the Hong Kong ACU & S, were remarked on by many players to be of a very impressive standard and contributed greatly to the quality of the tournament.

One particular incident however, which may need closer scrutiny by officials, took place on Saturday morning in a match featuring Lamma Probables and the Macau Scrubbers when a hapless Lamma batsman was given out LBW to great applause after the non-striking batsman, Lamma skipper Toby White, was the only man to appeal! Cricket and Delaney's were the winners as Lamma went on to lose the match convincingly and proceeded to drown their sorrows at the bar.

Off the pitch in the new Festival Village, superb food & beverages and catering were served by Delaney's and Jashan Indian restaurant for players and spectators. The two bouncy castles, the Make A Wish fun stalls and the daily clown acts kept the kids entertained, while our sports masseuse Barbara tried to keep some tired and abused bodies going for a few more crucial hours in the massage tent.

The theme of the Festival is `friendship through cricket' and this was certainly lived up to at the two major event social functions. At the Gala Dinner on Friday night, in the Diamond Ballroom of the Eaton Hotel, we were entertained by the amusing tales of Heath Streak and Doug Walters. Will the Sydney to London record of 49 cans ever be beaten?! And the friendship of the tournament participants was extended to the Festival's charity, the Make A Wish Foundation (www.makeawish.org.hk), as over HK$15,000 was raised on the night to support the moving work of this local children's charity.

The Saturday Night function at Phad Thai restaurant in Wanchai was a great success with players and officials as they enjoyed sharing jokes and anecdotes with new comrades in cricket from around the world, whilst quaffing the free-flowing Fosters. One particular highlight was the introduction of the new Shanghai Pearls drinking game where the forfeit for the loser was `drink or kiss.' "A win-win situation," chirped one grinning `loser.'

Sunday was finals day and the competition hotted up while the weather grew a little cooler after the sun-drenched conditions of the previous few days. Some excellent cricket was played before the winners of each division were crowned.

In a re-run of the last three Festival Cup finals, Subcont CC, having downed a strong CBB Slammers side which featured Heath Streak in the semis, took on Little Sai Wan CC, and managed to defeat convincingly the Hong Kong League Champions and lift the Festival Cup for the first time. It was a popular win among an enthusiastic crowd and the bangra-style celebrations continued into the small hours for the Subcont players and supporters.

A strong Pakistan Association of Hong Kong outfit were crowned Bowl champions after they just pipped KCC Commodores by 3 runs in a tense final.

A mini-pitch invasion followed the victory of the Macau Scrubbers over HKCC Wanderers in the Plate final as the heli pilots from Macau won their first ever silverware of their history.

In the Spoon final, which was restarted after a stewards enquiry, Indus One proved too strong for Laguna Gully and won the match by 19 runs, thereby retaining their Spoon title.

Shanghai Roses took on HKCC Willow Wielders in the Women's final, but fell just 6 runs short of their target of 63 as the Willow Wielders ran out winners.

As the sun sank lower, an array of silverware was distributed to the deserving in an occasionally emotional presentation ceremony at the picturesque ground. The camera crews of Tensports covered proceedings as they had much of the previous three days, and team celebrations went into overdrive.

"How are we going to top this?" remarked Tournament Director, Brad Tarr to Mark Burns. One thing's for certain, they'll try!

Thirty four cricket teams from all walks of life and from all around the world came together in Hong Kong to compete in 80 cricket matches, make merry at two major social functions, help raise a healthy amount for charity and embrace the spirit of `friendship through cricket' at the Ichor International & Chesterton Petty Hong Kong Invitational Cricket Festival 2005.

Let's do it all again in Hong Kong in 2006. See you there!

Event website: www.hkicf.com

An Asian Cricket Sixes Tour event
www.cricketsixes.com

Ichor International & Chesterton Petty Hong Kong Invitational Cricket Festival 2005
Event Facts

Scheduled matches: 80
Competing Teams: 34
Women's Teams: 5
Spoon Teams: 5
Open Teams: 24
Overseas Teams: 14
CBB Slammers (Thailand etc)
Old Cranleighans (UK)
Formosa CC (Taiwan)
Tokyo Instrumentalists (Japan)
Shanghai Dragons (China)
CBB Prairie Dogs (Australia etc)
Surrey Vagrants (UK)
Macau Scrubbers (Macau)
Shanghai Pirates (China)
Bounty Buccaneers (Malaysia)
Sunshine CC (India)
CBB SC's (Thailand etc)
Shanghai Roses (China)
Shanghai Yu Lan (China)

Cup Champions: Subcont CC
Cup Runner-up: Little Sai Wan CC
Bowl Champions: Pakistan Association
Bowl Runner-up: KCC Commodores
Plate Champions: Macau Scrubbers
Plate Runner-up: HKCC Wanderers
Spoon Champions: Indus
Spoon Runner-up: Lagunagully
Women's Champions: HKCC Willow Wielders
Women's Runner-up: Shanghai Roses
Most Sporting Team: CBB Slammers

Player of the Final
Cup: Bruce Borges (Subcont CC)
Bowl: Najeeb Amar (Pakistan Association)
Plate: Ben Allan (Macau Scrubbers)
Spoon: Parvez Akhtar (Indus)
Women's: Natasha Miles (HKCC Willow Wielders)

Player of the Tournament
Open: Ankur Sharma (Subcont CC)
Women's: Kathy Gavin (Shanghai Roses)

Tournament Director: Brad Tarr
Event Director: Mark Burns
Tournament Referee: Ian Liddell
Overseas Team Coordinator: Mike 'Cat' Maher
Umpire Coordinator: Hugh Tyrwhitt-Drake
Scorer Coordinator: Kim Leung
Tournament Officials & Volunteers:
John Freeman, Kim Leung, Narly Kalupahana, Gopal Balakrishnan, Kay Dayal, Jim Middleton, Anoop Gidwani, Sudhir Gidwani, Ghulam Saqlain, Greg Mason, Hugh Tyrwhitt-Drake, Graeme Stillwell, Atif, Rex Evans, Barry Ross, Barbara McHerron, Jonny Hyman, Daryl Bending, Kevin Bishop, Terry Williams, Semeul Shing, Daniel Way, Lou Coulthard, the Imransports ball boys.