The Cricketeers made a fine boundary bashing 82 against the Lords Taverners from Australia who, despite responding with equal batting aplomb, could not quite reach the score set.

The 2008 Cup winners, the Surrey Vagrants from England, got some late runs after a tight bowling start from Darjeeling from the UAE, but this proved insufficient and they were beaten by careful batting from one of the tournament’s longest participants.

The Darwin Dilettantes overcame Sa Pa from Vietnam. The partnership of Pike and Hall, and a score of 89, saw a comfortable win for the Zoombar Drifters from England over the Stuffed Beavers from Thailand.

In other action,the local Gymkhana Cavaliers and Ios Malakas from Greece, lost to the Floggers & Robbers from Zimbabwe and Almar from South Africa respectively.

As expected, the Awali Taverners from Bahrain and the Wombats from Australia entertained the Gymkhana Club crowd with a game in the true spirit (much of it inside the players) of the Chiang Mai Sixes _ a tough game of fine efforts from both teams, with Awali taking the win.

Strong batting from 2010 Bowl winners Tokyo Dingbats proved too much for the Kiwi Taranaki Taverners.

The much awaited re-run of the 2010 Cup semi-final between the Lik Lik Wombats from Australia and the local Chiang Mai Irish Pub ended in a thrilling tie, with a Wombat batsman being run out off the final ball.

Newcomers to the tournament, the Anglo-Australia Clifton Hill Straycats scored a strong 79 against 2007 Cup Winners the Gloucestershire Gipsies from England, but fine fielding and batting from Gipsies’ Bill Johnson resulted in him winning the game with a four off the final ball.

Popular winners of the 2010 Shield, the Yorkshire Puddings, proved too much for the other newcomers to this year’s Sixes, Bristol from England. The Pattaya Dilettantes beat their fellow Australians the Moonshine Warathais.

The final two matches of the day involved teams making their second appearances of the day. The Darwin Dilettantes celebrated their second win of the day after good batting and fielding (including the wicket of Lantra Fernando) saw them defeat the Zoombar Drifters. Sa Pa scored their first win of the day by beating the Stuffed Beavers.

All proceeds from the Sixes go towards promoting the game at the junior level in Thailand. The action continues daily this week from 8.00 or 9.00am until dusk with the finals on Saturday.

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But the match, played at the Prince Royal’s College and the second so far contested by the Burmese team, was hard fought, with red cards being shown a player from each squad. The Burmese side was defeated 2-1 by Laos and face Singapore tomorrow.

Deputy Minister of Education Aung Myo Min and a large group of Burmese football fans watched the competition.

Burma is competing in a total of eight sports at the games being held from December 15 to December 23, joining representatives from nine other Asean member countries along with the bloc’s guest, East Timor.

In other football news, The Guardian of London reported last week, citing a WikiLeaks US embassy cable, that Nay Shwe Thway Aung, grandson of junta leader Than Shwe, had in 2008 pressured his grandfather to buy English Premier League club Manchester United. The message said Than Shwe had considered a bid of US$1 billion but had thought such a plan untenable amid international condemnation of the junta’s slowness to act following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis.

The junta leader instead ordered crony businessmen to form a professional football league in Burma. The cable detailed how the regime was thought to be using football to distract its population from the nation’s continuing problems, the report said.

“The mooted price tag for Manchester United was exactly the same as the aid bill to cover the most urgent food, agriculture and housing for the three years after the cyclone, as estimated by international agencies including the UN,” The Guardian reported, quoting the cable. “The proposal revealed that the regime, which is increasingly exploiting its oil and gas reserves, felt confident of finding such a sum.”

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The start to Round 1 was perhaps too early for Darjeeling from the UAE who, despite the first six of the tournament from Nick Harvey, succumbed to tight bowling and some good running in the final over from the Lanka Lions.

The Irish Pub from Chiang Mai provided a display of more fine bowling from Maki to overcome the Tokyo Dingbats.

The Gloucestershire Gipsies (2007 Cup Winners from England and clearly determined to lift it again) held the Zimbabwean Floggers & Robbers to 41 with some careful fielding and went to win without wicket loss, although the game saw the first retirement with 30 runs from Floggers’ Simon Grant.

A close finish saw the Shanghai Hot Dogs just beat the Yorkshire Puddings. The first game of the “Gentlemen’s” half of the tournament also saw the first ‘golden duck’ earned by Ray Matti of the Ios Malakas, who were unable to surpass the score set them by the Darwin Dilettantes.

The Lik Lik Wombats from Australia put up a strong challenge, but could not match the Surrey Vagrants (2008 Cup winners from England) whose fielding produced a good run out and two fine catches just inside the boundary. Ashwell Martlets from England just scraped past New Zealand’s Taranaki Taverners’ in a tense battle which was made much easier to win by a wide in the final over with a penalty of four runs.

The Australian Maythais, this year with the benefit of the legendary “TC”, Trevor Chapell, set a target that was too hard for the local team the Stuffed Beavers to reach.

The local young lads of the Thai Thevada team fielded most effectively and curtailed a battling Sa Pa from Vietnam, and followed to win the game with steady batting and lots of running. The Wombats from Oz (with almost single-handed outfielding from Dasher) just didn’t have enough spirit (or Irish Coffee) in them to beat the Gentlemen Englishmen of Blythswood.

In a thrilling last-ball cliffhanger finish the Gymkhana Cavaliers from Chiang Mai beat the Awali Taverners from Bahrain. Perhaps the best performance of the day was by the Drifters from England who, with great bowling, a rare (for them) catch and lightening fielding, followed by fine opening batting from Rob Hall and Lantra Fernando, defeated the South Africans of Almar by the beginning of the fourth over. The worry will now be that the Drifters may have difficulty arriving intact for their 8.45am start today.

An entertaining first day’s play was completed by Players’ section matches between teams who were making their second appearance of the day; the Gloucestershire Gipsies soundly beat the Shanghai Hot Dogs and Yorkshire Puddings battered the Floggers & Robbers.

All proceeds from the Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes go towards promoting the game at the junior level in Thailand. The action continues daily this week from 9.00am until dusk with the finals on Saturday 3rd April.

Entry to the delightful 112-year-old Chiengmai Gymkhana Club in the northern capital is free and a large variety of excellent food and drinks are available.

If you cannot come then you can listen and watch online – for more information, check out http://www.chiangmaisixes.com

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The event will attract an estimated one hundred and seventy golfers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Ms Rae-vadee T Suan, the president of the Ladies Asian Golf Tour said “I am sure the tournament will be a big draw in many ways and it will play a major role in promoting tourism in Chiang Mai”.  She added that lady golfers make excellent shoppers!

Golf arrived in Thailand during the reign of King Rama V one hundred years ago. It was first played by nobles and other elitists of high society but over the past decade or so, the popularity of golf in Thailand has escalated, played both by local Thais and visiting foreign tourists and expatriates.

There are an average of 400,000 foreign golfers coming to the Kingdom annually, golf in Thailand has turned into a huge local industry with new courses constantly being developed. Golf alone is annually bringing an income of 8 billion baht into the local economy. The country has been given the nickname ‘The Golf Capital of Asia’.

Chiang Mai is already a popular destination for golfers, it has a great climate and some great golf courses.

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

Rally fans had a taste of things to come at Thapae Gate on August 14^th when the previous round of the Asia Cross Country Rally championship ended with the usual splashing of champagne and Singha Beer.

The No 15 Isuzu D Max of Atchiki Srimongkol and Tadamisu Nihori had been the fastest over the high speed off-road stages since the Bangkok start, and took top honours, while maximum credit goes to the disabled Takura Aoki who got his similar truck to 12^th place on hand controls. Takura was an engineer and racer for a professional bike team in Japan, until a crash cost him the use of his legs.

Watch this space for details of the Chang Dao event with times and places to see the best of the action!

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

The 17-year-old from Chiang Mai, who was runner-up to Britain’s Laura Robson last year, became the first Thai to win the girls’ tournament after seeing off top seed and French Open champion Kristina Mladenovic of France 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

“It means everything,” Noppawan said. “I didn’t think I was going to win here. In my first match I had five match points against me, and then today, after I lost the first set I didn’t think I was going to win, but I just fought.

“It’s good – it’s for the Thai people, and I will get a wildcard for the seniors next year so I am very happy to win

World number one Mladenovic admitted that a knee injury in the final set had slowed her down.

“Noppawan was better than me, she was in better shape than me. I had some problems – I couldn’t push up on my serve – but I tried to give my best and I have no regrets about that.

“I’m disappointed but I see some more matches for me in the future. I will not be disappointed for so long. It’s not that today I was in such bad (form) that it’s going to kill me for a while, it’s just tennis.”

Noppawan joins a list of junior winners that include recent Wimbledon champions in Martina Hingis and Amelie Mauresmo.