Spartans Star In Singapore

The Leeming Spartan Cricket Club’s Singapore Sixes team jetted off once again last June for the always exciting Singapore Sixes competition, and it never disappoints! Read the full writeup of another fantastic trip below!

By Tabitha Bond

On the first weekend in June each year, our good friends, the Singapore Spirits Cricket Club host their annual Denis Meyer International Cricket Sixes tournament.

Since 2009 members of Leeming Spartan Cricket Club have been participating and last year we officially entered our own representative team.

In January of this year, Spirit’s founder, President and tournament director, Amar Hanspal, sadly passed away. Due to this, a record 23 teams registered this year to play, a fitting tribute to Amar’s contribution to cricket in Singapore and Asia.

For those who recall, Spirits toured Perth in February of 2015, playing a game at John Connell against the Spartans. Amar was one of the Spirits players in that match and gave a speech following.

For those unfamiliar with International Sixes cricket, the format is a six man team, 5 over match played on a full size oval. A fixed batting and bowling line up sees each player bowl one over (except the wicket-keeper), and batsmen retiring generally after scoring 25 runs.

A winning score is generally above 60, and the innings is retired after the fall of 6 wickets.

The Spartan representative side in this year’s tournament.

Left To Right: Danny, Vijay, Megan, Dene, Graeme, Ken

A number of these tournaments are played around Asia, namely Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia.

Leeming have sent representative teams to a number of tournaments in Thailand and now also Singapore.

The Denis Amar Sixes this year was played over the Perth long weekend encompassing the 3rd and 4th of June and held at the picturesque Ceylon Sport Club and Indian Association grounds.

A rag-tag bunch of players, headed by Spartan Life Member Graeme Bond, and a mix of enthusiastic budding veterans (the DA Sixes is an over 35’s competition) – all of who were very keen to have fun playing cricket.

Players come from all parts of the world to play, with teams from as far away as Kuwait participating this year.

Here is a brief tour diary of the 2017 tournament for Leeming:

Friday 2nd June – 1900 Hours:
- Players and officials attended the official pre-tournament meeting at Harry’s Bar, Boat Quay, where rules and match fixtures are announced. A good opportunity for everyone to catch with old friends, start the sledging and generally have a good time.
- A disappointment to the night was the rain delay’s to the Australia and New Zealand Champions Trophy match, which was being televised on the big screens.
Saturday 3rd June – 0800 Hours:
- That’s right! Eight in the morning was our first game!
- With 3 new Spartans being presented their caps (and stubby holders!), we won the toss and bowled. Our opponent for this game was the Kowloon Cricket Club (Hong Kong) coached by former Spartan Scott McKecknie.
- A positive start to the game with cricket ‘virgin’ Vijay’s first over giving up only 5, but some wayward bowling in the later overs left us with a difficult chase of 67.
- As is tradition within the sixes teams, our tour virgins are required to open the bowling and also open the batting on the first game, so again Vijay was thrusted into the breach.
- The first ball faced was met with a sickening thump into his arm and a subsequent leg bye run. This ended Vijay’s enthusiasm to bat in future games.
- Again, our first over was good with 13 being taken from it, but the second over only going for one put the chase out of our reach. Leeming’s final score 0/31.
Saturday 3rd June – 1100 Hours:
- Our second match pitted us against regulars on the sixes tours, Kelawar Cricket Club (Malaysia), with our Spartans batting first and accumulating a moderate total of 2/45.
- Unfortunately this total was chased down rather easily by Kelawar’s batters, achieved in just 3.3 overs.
Saturday 3rd June – 1400 Hours:
- The final game for the day, with a few beers now swallowed and a few margarita’s downed, we came up against All Friends Club (Philippines), our tent next door neighbours.
- Again we batted first.
- Tight bowling and perhaps blurred vision presented AFC a very easy target of 33 to win.
- As with the previous game our bowling was destroyed and they reached the target in 1.3 overs.
- All teams retired to the Ceylon Sports Club bar area to drown sorrows, recount the days events and relax the night away.
Sunday 4th June – 0900 Hours:
- Sunday brought a new day and again a hot forecast.
- Our first game was against the TGA Wallabies (Malaysia), with Spartans putting a big total of 0/71 for the TGA boys to chase.
- The game came down to the last over. TGA needing 7 to win. Then 2 balls for 2 runs.
- Last ball still with 2 to win. A scrambled leg bye for a single had the game finish in a tie!
- However on a countback Spartans were awarded the win losing no wickets versus TGA with 3.
- The first win for Spartans in this years tournament!
Sunday 4th June – 0945 Hours:
- A back to back set of matches challenged the team’s ‘fitness’.
- This time a quarterfinal match against the Siam Parrots (Thailand).
- Siam batted first and amassed a total of 0/65.
- A spirited chase by the Spartans saw us needing 9 off the last over to win.
- We fell agonising short only managing 3 from it. Spartans ending up 1/59.
Sunday 4th June – 1245 Hours:
- Having lost to the Parrots, Spartans fell to the lowly Tequila Cup semi-finals and faced the Spirits Ruffians (Singapore) for a place in the Final.
- Energy and the weekend had taken their toll on the team.
- Ruffians managed a defendable total of 0/63, with Spartans only amassing 0/44 from their allotted overs, thus ending the tournament for the Spartans for 2017.
- It must be noted that Ruffians went on to win the final of the Tequila Cup.

Once again the tournament was an outstanding success, and a fantastic effort was put in by the Singapore Spirits Cricket Club’s committee, and we were privileged to be asked to attend.

Next year’s tournament is scheduled for the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd June 2018. A Spartans team will again be nominated. Should anyone be interested in playing for the Leeming Spartan Cricket Club next year, please contact the Spartan Committee!

Committee Note:

With the success of this tournament, the Committee, we’ll be looking to send our bravest and best over to Singapore next year for the tournament, which is hugely enjoyable and a great way to round out the season! Stay tuned for more information in the coming months!