Jim Hawker
Bangkok Post, Chiang Mai

Defending champions Gloucestershire Gipsies and first-timers Surrey Vagrants were the only teams to top their first-round groups with maximum points as the 17th Chiang Mai International Sixes moved into the second-round stage at the historic Gymkhana Club yesterday.

The two English outfits both look powerful contenders to take home the Cup on Saturday but there are a host of teams lining up as potential obstacles in what is sure to be a most competitive premier competition.

Wade Ridsdale hit 33 retired as the Gipsies defeated the Southerners from Bangkok yesterday while the Vagrants - winners of last week's inaugural Phuket Sixes who have former Essex County captain Paul Prichard in their ranks - enjoyed a well-deserved day off after a busy last week of cricket in the heat and humidity.

Bangladesh team Commonwealth C.C.,also making their Chiang Mai debut, demonstrated their potential by winning both their first-round matches on day four to take their place in the same Cup group as the Gipsies and former champions, the always-competitive Perth Postels from Western Australia.

Masudur Rahman hammered 33 retired as Commonwealth beat Ashwell Crusaders from England and then in the best match of the day, the Bangladeshi outfit just squeezed past the hotly-fancied Marchwiel Outlaws. The young Outlaws team, a powerful mix of British and Australian players, needed a six off the last ball against Commonwealth to qualify for the Cup, but couldn't manage to pull it off and therefore go into the Bowl as hot favourites. Nick Brown hit 30 retired for the Outlaws on another day of big-hitting which kept the crowd well entertained.

Lord's Taverners, the 2002 Cup winners and last year's runners-up, cruised past fellow Australian side Shenanigans Darwin Dilettantes, with Glen O'Brien making 32 retired, to show that they cannot be overlooked either.

The second round of the Cup, with nine teams bidding to reach the
semi-finals, begins this morning. Apart from the Marchwiel Outlaws, other fancied teams in the Bowl include defending champions Moonshine Warathais from Newcastle, New South Wales, the Chiang Mai-based Te Pakeha and Awali Taverners from Bahrain who have the highly-talented Sri Lankan Malinda Warnapura as their guest star.

RESULTS

First round - Cup/Bowl/Plate: Commonwealth C.C. 81-1 (Masudur Rahman 32 ret) beat Ashwell Crusaders 66-1 (Neil Sen 32 ret); Southerners 71-1 (Prashant Nandha 26 n.o.) lost to Gloucestershire Gipsies 72-1 (Wade Ridsdale 33 ret); Shanghai Dragons 47-3 (Mike Tsesmelis 27 n.o.) lost to Marchwiel Outlaws 48-2; Lamma C.C. 79-0 (Toby White 30 ret, Shur Lama 33 ret) beat Yes No Wait Sorries 62-3 (Mark Briers 30 ret); Lord's Taverners 74-1 (Glen O'Brien 32 ret) beat Shenanigans Darwin Dilettantes 57-2; Perth Postels 63-2 lost to Almar C.C. 66-0 (Ruchira Palliyaguru 33 ret); Commonwealth C.C. 84-3 beat Marchwiel Outlaws 80-2 (Nick Brown 30 ret).

Second round - Bowl: Javea Wanderers 88-2 (Tom Rowe 31 ret, Lantra Fernando 30 ret) beat Stairway to Heaven Drifters 82-1 (Rob Hall 35 ret); Moonshine Warathais 60-3 (Ian Liddell 25) lost to Shanghai Dragons 61-1 (Jeeva Kulatunghe 34 ret); Shenanigans Darwin Dilettantes 75-2 (Roger Weckert 30 ret) beat Silver State 63-1 (Amal Silva 30 ret). Plate: Darjeeling 56-5 lost to Southerners 57-0 (James Moss 32 ret); B.A. Dragons 53-2 lost to Ashwell Crusaders 57-1 (Richard Pallett 26).

Alan Parkhouse
The Nation, Chiang Mai

[CRICKET] English team the Gloucestershire Gipsies took a step closer to defending their title at the Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes yesterday by moving into the next round of the Cup division.
But hot on their heels and also through to the next stage in the Cup are the Lords Taverners, led by Australia's Tom Hogan, who is now a selector for the Western Australia state team. The Gipsies will be looking for revenge against the Lords Taverners, who defeated them in the Cup final last year.

The other team from Gloucestershire in England, the unusually named Yes No Wait Sorry, are also posing a threat in the Cup division, along with the Perth Postels - a team of Aussies, with a Canadian and American - and the Surrey Vagrants with former Essex captain Paul Pritchard in great form.

The other three teams through to the Cup, and perfectly capable of pulling off a few upsets, are the Lamma CC from Hong Kong, the Almar CC of South Africa and the Commonwealth CC from Bangladesh.

The second tier Bowl division being contested at the beautiful 106-year-old Chiengmai Gymkhana Club grounds features the very social Moonshine Warathias from Australia, featuring former Test player Trevor Chapell, and the boys are making a determined effort to defend the title they won last year. Chapell has been in fine form and has been busy coaching at schools in Australia after a recent stint in Bangladesh where he was the national team's fielding coach.

The Warathais lost in the final of last week' Phuket Sixes tournament to the highly-rated Surrey Vagrants, who are in the Cup division here, but their toughest opposition in the Bowl could come from either the Marchwiel Outlaws from Wales or the Shanghai Dragons.

The other teams through to the next stage of the Bowl division are Silver State of Malaysia, Australian team Shenanigans Dilettantes, the Javea Wanderers from Spain, Te Pakeha, which despite the Kiwi name consist of mostly Zimbabweans, the Stairway To Heaven Drifters from England and the Awali Taverners from Bahrain.

Charging into the Plate division are Bangkok-based team the Southerners, featuring Chanchai Asavasirisin, the only Thai in the seniors competition. Last year's Plate winners the B A Dragons from Wales are also through to the next round, along with the Dubai-based Darleeling CC and the Ashwell Crusaders from England.

Yesterday's matches sorted out which teams would be contesting which divisions and there were some very close games in the hot, humid conditions. In a world first for any cricket tournament, the organisers of this year's sixes have installed two large signs just outside the boundary and a direct hit gives the batsman 10 runs instead of the usual six. So far only one player has managed to score 10 runs from one strike on Monday, and while there were plenty of big hits yesterday no one managed the elusive 10. If a player does manage to hit the 10, sponsors donate Bt4,000 towards developing cricket in local schools.

The Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes is a non-profit event where team members pay their own expenses and any money made goes towards developing the sport in Thai schools. Running in conjunction with the seniors’ competition is a softball event for local children on an adjacent pitch and the standard has surprised many.

Admission to the Chiengmai Gymkhana club is free and the finals will be held on Saturday.