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Uncle Paul’s Swan Song
The PCCT Chunghua season ending tournament also saw the end of my (henceforth referred to as Uncle Paul) cricket here in Taiwan. Kings Formosa CC (KFCc) has one of the strongest squads for some time and were very upbeat about their chances in a trophy that they morally held after last year’s unusual conclusion to the tournament. Unfortunately their optimism was short-lived as a determined and disciplined ICC beat them in the first game.
The game kicked off on a hot and sunny morning. KFCc captain Salim won the toss and elected to bowl. Things got off to a good start with Salim (1/10 from 3) setting up Alok with two outswingers followed by a ball speared in at the stumps to bowl him for a duck. In strode Anant Patel whose 17 off 23 balls was the backbone of the ICC innings. He and Ritish Shah struggled against the KFCc bowlers but was the assistance of top scoring Extras kept the score ticking over whilst preserving their wicket. In fact Ritish did not get out but “declared” (16 off 19) in the ninth over when he got a little bogged down late in the innings(?!). Patel had fallen in the previous over with the score on 45. This brought the talented Sandeep Patel and Nirav Shah together looking to accelerate the score but alas it did not eventuate Shah ran himself out and then elder statesman Sanjay fell first ball to leave ICC at 4 for 50 off 9 over with Heinrich Northnagel still to bowl. Dispite his 4 for 11 off 3 overs KFCc proved to be a bowler short and a late surge from ICC led by Vishwas got to 89 at the end of their 15 overs. Ric finished with 1/22 from 3, Jay 0/14 from 3 and Ashish and Sachin shared the other three overs for 28. 18 wides and a few give-away runs would prove costly.
A target of 90 at 6 runs an over looked fairly straight forward but the up and down wicket suited the accurate and disciplined ICC attack. Paul Spencer got a little bogged down and then was run out by the spritely ICC keeper. Timmy Chang (8 off 12), Sachin (2 off 7) and returning superstar Charl Esterhuizen (17 off 27) all struggled to get the bowlers away and KFCc were only scoring at 4 runs an over. In Charl’s defense he had drunk a lot of something that eventually disagreed with him. He even went to the atrocious port-a-loo to have a little sickie (a truly formidable effort). Northnagel followed up his great bowling effort to score 29 in 24 balls to give Formosa a sniff but the last over dawned with 17 needed to win. Skipper Salim skied the first ball and was caught which brought Uncle Paul on strike. He brought about a glimmer of hope by hitting his first ball for six (for the first time in his 4 decade long career) but Vishnas followed up with three very decent balls to leave the veteran needing to hit the last ball for six to tie. A shortish low ball eluded Turner’s flailing bat and bowled him giving ICC their first (and well-deserved) first win over KFCc in a tournament.
A glum Formosa squad watched our southern friends make fairly short work of new side Thomas’ CC and then squeak home against ICC after Duane Christie and Graham Terblanche got them off to a flyer with 78 off 7. The Herculean tactical blunder to not use Eben Haarhof more prominently almost proved costly for one of the tournament favourites.
TSCC had their third game in a row against KFCc in the late afternoon. The formidable pairing of Christie and Terblanche strode out confident after two big games. That did not last long. After a good over from Salim the Northnagel show started again. He made the best two opening batsmen in the country look very shaky. He induced a gloved hook which was dropped by a flopping Uncle Paul down the leg side and beat the bat monotonously. He would have been dangerous with lesser batsmen.
After 4 overs TSCC were 13 without loss including a maiden from the big South African quicky. Christie mauled Salim’s next over and with Terblanche chiming in they added 19 to the total. But Northnagel bowled Terblache (7 from 9) at the end of the next over conceding only one run. Northnagel finished with 3 overs and took 1 for 3. The question was whether the other bowlers could keep up the pressure. Ric McGrail answered with an emphatic yes with his first ball removing Christie who hit a towering catch to the skipper who took a good catch. New Zealander Jeff Black and the Chairman, Andrew Carrick, then set about setting a competitive total. Scoring at 10 runs an over the score mounted quickly. Black was dismissed in the 14th over, smashing a flat catch out to Timmy Chang off Jay Magar, for 39 off 31 balls. Alan from the Scunners joined the Chairman and then kept things going finishing on 117 for 3 with Alan on 7 from 4 and Carrick 24 from 15.
On a dodgy track against good bowling 117 was going to be tough but Uncle Paul and Chang were determined to get things off to a steady start and see out Black. With a few fours and aggressive running between the wickets things were going along nicely and after 8 overs the score was 56. Close to the required rate and no wickets down. Productive overs from Chad and Christie got the score over 80 in the 10th over before Uncle Paul’s legs stopped working trying to sneak a second and he was run out for 45 off 38. Chang followed in the next over for 29 off 30 with the score on 86. That left 32 to win in just under 4 overs. Black removed McGrail in the same over and Christie bounced back to remove Magar and bowl TSCC to victory. Things went from bad to worse as Roy removed Northnagel and with the ball jumping and running the FCC innings faltered and failed finishing 16 runs short and pretty much putting them out of contention although mathematics suggested otherwise.
The final game of the day saw KFCc play TCC and our friends Thomas and Srini. Salim won the toss again but this time elected to bat. In a relatively uneventful innings KFCc made 110 for five with a couple of late run outs. Uncle Paul made 38 off 37, Esterhuizen 17 off 15, Salim 11 off 13, Chang 8 off 10 and Northnagel got a shooter to bowl him for 6 off 9. Twenty nine extras helped the total. In response TCC limped to 82 for 7 off their 15 with Magar taking 2 for 17, Northnagel 1 for 7 both off 3 overs. Salim, Ashish and McGrail bowled tightly without reward. The highlight (or perhaps lowlight) was the four fairly inept run outs, something TCC need to work on for them to become more competitive.
Stuff happened on Sunday but I wasn’t there so I will leave it to others to comment on it.
So my final article would not be complete without some goodbyes and some philosophising.
Can I first thank my teammates for three fun years of cricket, less successful of late but the opportunity to play with such a great group of gentlemen has been a privilege. I will always remember the early days with Heinrich and Charl bowling really quick and scaring the ….. out of all but Duane and very few others. I still call for a ‘social’ tournament so that great guys like PW, Grant and Lex can be out there getting a bat and a bowl. Had I had more time I would have loved to organise a tournament of this nature.
I would like to express how much I have enjoyed playing against TSCC, especially over the last two seasons. Games are always competitive but played in excellent spirit by decent blokes. To my number one fan, thank you. I have only had two fans in my life whom I have not been related to. The other was a 14 year old hottie when I was seventeen and that was very short lived. It has been a great honour. And avoiding Groot Kont’s sledging was a great relief. By the way – my daughter is still in hiding somewhere in Europe.
To Prem for all his work to keep Formosa running , my two captains Charl and Salim, thank you for all your hard work. Also to Mujahid, Ali, Sanjay and the other captains/presidents who work so hard to keep the competitions running.
Special thanks go to Andy Carrick for all his work. I hope that one day his dream of a Taiwanese international team will come true. I suspect it may be a woman’s/girl’s team with the number of daughters around the place.
To Grant Dexter without whose efforts certainly FCC and possible the whole competition would not run, at least it would not run as smoothly. Without the likes of Grant, Andy and the others many of us would not be able to front up and have a great time without lifting a finger ourselves.
To umpires – although I have done my share of whinging let us reflect on their performance and decide whether the quality of the cricket we play is so much better, if not worse, than the quality of the umpiring. I have thought about and decided I make more mistakes in a day than any of the umpires. Thank you to the likes of Khalid and Marc who spent all weekend in the last tournament out in the sun when the rest of us had breaks.
A word of advice to those who are starting to say you are getting too old for cricket/bowling. If you think you are too old in your thirties please remember that you are old for a lot longer than you are young and don’t give up too early. If I can take up keeping at 45 anyone can. It has been a pleasure, at my age, to play against cricketers of the calibre of Shezad, Thomas, Duane, Jeff and Graham.
All the best to everyone. I look forward to following your exploits over the internet from Brunei over the forthcoming years.
The PCCT Chunghua season ending tournament also saw the end of my (henceforth referred to as Uncle Paul) cricket here in Taiwan. Kings Formosa CC (KFCc) has one of the strongest squads for some time and were very upbeat about their chances in a trophy that they morally held after last year’s unusual conclusion to the tournament. Unfortunately their optimism was short-lived as a determined and disciplined ICC beat them in the first game.
The game kicked off on a hot and sunny morning. KFCc captain Salim won the toss and elected to bowl. Things got off to a good start with Salim (1/10 from 3) setting up Alok with two outswingers followed by a ball speared in at the stumps to bowl him for a duck. In strode Anant Patel whose 17 off 23 balls was the backbone of the ICC innings. He and Ritish Shah struggled against the KFCc bowlers but was the assistance of top scoring Extras kept the score ticking over whilst preserving their wicket. In fact Ritish did not get out but “declared” (16 off 19) in the ninth over when he got a little bogged down late in the innings(?!). Patel had fallen in the previous over with the score on 45. This brought the talented Sandeep Patel and Nirav Shah together looking to accelerate the score but alas it did not eventuate Shah ran himself out and then elder statesman Sanjay fell first ball to leave ICC at 4 for 50 off 9 over with Heinrich Northnagel still to bowl. Dispite his 4 for 11 off 3 overs KFCc proved to be a bowler short and a late surge from ICC led by Vishwas got to 89 at the end of their 15 overs. Ric finished with 1/22 from 3, Jay 0/14 from 3 and Ashish and Sachin shared the other three overs for 28. 18 wides and a few give-away runs would prove costly.
A target of 90 at 6 runs an over looked fairly straight forward but the up and down wicket suited the accurate and disciplined ICC attack. Paul Spencer got a little bogged down and then was run out by the spritely ICC keeper. Timmy Chang (8 off 12), Sachin (2 off 7) and returning superstar Charl Esterhuizen (17 off 27) all struggled to get the bowlers away and KFCc were only scoring at 4 runs an over. In Charl’s defense he had drunk a lot of something that eventually disagreed with him. He even went to the atrocious port-a-loo to have a little sickie (a truly formidable effort). Northnagel followed up his great bowling effort to score 29 in 24 balls to give Formosa a sniff but the last over dawned with 17 needed to win. Skipper Salim skied the first ball and was caught which brought Uncle Paul on strike. He brought about a glimmer of hope by hitting his first ball for six (for the first time in his 4 decade long career) but Vishnas followed up with three very decent balls to leave the veteran needing to hit the last ball for six to tie. A shortish low ball eluded Turner’s flailing bat and bowled him giving ICC their first (and well-deserved) first win over KFCc in a tournament.
A glum Formosa squad watched our southern friends make fairly short work of new side Thomas’ CC and then squeak home against ICC after Duane Christie and Graham Terblanche got them off to a flyer with 78 off 7. The Herculean tactical blunder to not use Eben Haarhof more prominently almost proved costly for one of the tournament favourites.
TSCC had their third game in a row against KFCc in the late afternoon. The formidable pairing of Christie and Terblanche strode out confident after two big games. That did not last long. After a good over from Salim the Northnagel show started again. He made the best two opening batsmen in the country look very shaky. He induced a gloved hook which was dropped by a flopping Uncle Paul down the leg side and beat the bat monotonously. He would have been dangerous with lesser batsmen.
After 4 overs TSCC were 13 without loss including a maiden from the big South African quicky. Christie mauled Salim’s next over and with Terblanche chiming in they added 19 to the total. But Northnagel bowled Terblache (7 from 9) at the end of the next over conceding only one run. Northnagel finished with 3 overs and took 1 for 3. The question was whether the other bowlers could keep up the pressure. Ric McGrail answered with an emphatic yes with his first ball removing Christie who hit a towering catch to the skipper who took a good catch. New Zealander Jeff Black and the Chairman, Andrew Carrick, then set about setting a competitive total. Scoring at 10 runs an over the score mounted quickly. Black was dismissed in the 14th over, smashing a flat catch out to Timmy Chang off Jay Magar, for 39 off 31 balls. Alan from the Scunners joined the Chairman and then kept things going finishing on 117 for 3 with Alan on 7 from 4 and Carrick 24 from 15.
On a dodgy track against good bowling 117 was going to be tough but Uncle Paul and Chang were determined to get things off to a steady start and see out Black. With a few fours and aggressive running between the wickets things were going along nicely and after 8 overs the score was 56. Close to the required rate and no wickets down. Productive overs from Chad and Christie got the score over 80 in the 10th over before Uncle Paul’s legs stopped working trying to sneak a second and he was run out for 45 off 38. Chang followed in the next over for 29 off 30 with the score on 86. That left 32 to win in just under 4 overs. Black removed McGrail in the same over and Christie bounced back to remove Magar and bowl TSCC to victory. Things went from bad to worse as Roy removed Northnagel and with the ball jumping and running the FCC innings faltered and failed finishing 16 runs short and pretty much putting them out of contention although mathematics suggested otherwise.
The final game of the day saw KFCc play TCC and our friends Thomas and Srini. Salim won the toss again but this time elected to bat. In a relatively uneventful innings KFCc made 110 for five with a couple of late run outs. Uncle Paul made 38 off 37, Esterhuizen 17 off 15, Salim 11 off 13, Chang 8 off 10 and Northnagel got a shooter to bowl him for 6 off 9. Twenty nine extras helped the total. In response TCC limped to 82 for 7 off their 15 with Magar taking 2 for 17, Northnagel 1 for 7 both off 3 overs. Salim, Ashish and McGrail bowled tightly without reward. The highlight (or perhaps lowlight) was the four fairly inept run outs, something TCC need to work on for them to become more competitive.
Stuff happened on Sunday but I wasn’t there so I will leave it to others to comment on it.
So my final article would not be complete without some goodbyes and some philosophising.
Can I first thank my teammates for three fun years of cricket, less successful of late but the opportunity to play with such a great group of gentlemen has been a privilege. I will always remember the early days with Heinrich and Charl bowling really quick and scaring the ….. out of all but Duane and very few others. I still call for a ‘social’ tournament so that great guys like PW, Grant and Lex can be out there getting a bat and a bowl. Had I had more time I would have loved to organise a tournament of this nature.
I would like to express how much I have enjoyed playing against TSCC, especially over the last two seasons. Games are always competitive but played in excellent spirit by decent blokes. To my number one fan, thank you. I have only had two fans in my life whom I have not been related to. The other was a 14 year old hottie when I was seventeen and that was very short lived. It has been a great honour. And avoiding Groot Kont’s sledging was a great relief. By the way – my daughter is still in hiding somewhere in Europe.
To Prem for all his work to keep Formosa running , my two captains Charl and Salim, thank you for all your hard work. Also to Mujahid, Ali, Sanjay and the other captains/presidents who work so hard to keep the competitions running.
Special thanks go to Andy Carrick for all his work. I hope that one day his dream of a Taiwanese international team will come true. I suspect it may be a woman’s/girl’s team with the number of daughters around the place.
To Grant Dexter without whose efforts certainly FCC and possible the whole competition would not run, at least it would not run as smoothly. Without the likes of Grant, Andy and the others many of us would not be able to front up and have a great time without lifting a finger ourselves.
To umpires – although I have done my share of whinging let us reflect on their performance and decide whether the quality of the cricket we play is so much better, if not worse, than the quality of the umpiring. I have thought about and decided I make more mistakes in a day than any of the umpires. Thank you to the likes of Khalid and Marc who spent all weekend in the last tournament out in the sun when the rest of us had breaks.
A word of advice to those who are starting to say you are getting too old for cricket/bowling. If you think you are too old in your thirties please remember that you are old for a lot longer than you are young and don’t give up too early. If I can take up keeping at 45 anyone can. It has been a pleasure, at my age, to play against cricketers of the calibre of Shezad, Thomas, Duane, Jeff and Graham.
All the best to everyone. I look forward to following your exploits over the internet from Brunei over the forthcoming years.

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