The 2007-08 domestic season kicked off on Saturday, 1st September 2007 with the first round of the HKCA Saturday League being played.

Conditions were hot and steamy at the start of play and they stayed hot and steamy throughout the day.

Crusaders, making their final pilgrimage up the hill to Po Kong Village Road, took on St George’s in what should have been a gentle warm-up game to the start season. New players in the squad, Andrew and Trevor, were introduced to the rest of the squad - most of who were looking pretty sorry after a late night in LKF the night before. There was much discussion on the bus to the ground about the absence of Messieurs Farcy and Mazook - victims of the ‘new’ guest policy that requires them to pay for their fair share of the match costs, but which they think is unreasonable.  See you later boys... there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Scanners won the toss and decided to bat. This being my first ever game on the PKVR number two ground, it was hard to know what to make of the wicket. I can’t remember seeing such a shabby looking ground - the matting at the eastern end of the pitch was ripped to shreds; the inner circle was clearly marked, being the area of the ground that hadn’t been mowed; the outfield had been mown but it was still ankle deep and there were mounds of grass clippings left piled up where they had fallen - although my last visit to the number one ground would have been pretty close.

Back to the game... the St George’s opening bowlers sprayed the new red balls all over the place and Crusaders were cruising along at five an over for the first few overs without having to play any shots. Only six overs had been bowled in the first 30 minutes, although at least nine overs worth of deliveries had been sent down, mostly leg side.  Whenever they got a ball to hit, the long grass made it hard going for the batsmen and they were getting very little reward for their efforts. Barney tried to go the aerial route but only managed to top edge a skier to gully. Rob Taylor looked completely out of sorts, playing and missing at numerous balls before finally deciding it was better to go lie down in the shade for the rest of the innings. Mojo brought about a bit of respect to the stroke play but he perished after looking set. Killer played a couple of nice shots and Shamal looked good when promoted up the order, but neither managed to push on to post a good score. Debutant Trevor played a nice little cameo, hitting a six and a four before he too perished.

So bad was the carnage that Crusaders were 8 down for barely 100 runs in the 22nd over. With St George’s so far behind the over-rate, Crusaders best chance was to try to bat out the overs and hope to gain an advantage with St George’s having to bat fewer overs. Brewbags and Pittman dropped anchor for a few overs and they looked untroubled, although runs were now only coming at a trickle. Brewbags’ dislike for dibbly-dobbly bowling eventually lead to his down-fall as he was trapped in front trying to hoick a very slow long hop over mid wicket. Pittman hit a nice straight boundary but the innings came to an end shortly afterwards when Andrew lobbed a simple catch back to the bowler. All out for 137 with only 3 boundaries and two sixes hit in the entire innings.

Whereas the Crusaders batsmen had taken 12 overs to hit their first boundary, St George’s got one off the very first ball of their innings. Mojo did grab an early wicket but the Mohammad brothers, Azam and Iftikhar, kept the scoreboard ticking over with some aggressive stroke play. Both gave eminently catchable chances to newbies Trevor and Andrew but neither fielder managed to lay a hand on them. At drinks, St George’s were handily placed at 78-1 but Crusaders still felt that they could turn it around. Five overs later and the game was all but over. In the meantime, Pittman had decided it was his turn to lie down in the shade. Azam and Iftikhar went on to score their half-centuries and Crusaders were well and truly beaten.

Highlight of the day was probably the vegetarian burgers served at the end of the match. Enough said...

R.I.P. Royal Po Kong.

Back at KCC, Tartars enjoyed a six wicket victory over the Hong Kong Under-19s. Comments from the match have not been received so here are the cold hard facts. The Under-19s struggled to 166-6 from their 35 overs and Tartars eased to 170-4. Afzaal Haider opened the innings and scored 57 while Shkawat Ali nurtured the team home with an unbeaten 87.

The HKCA Sunday League is yet to start so the only Sunday cricket to report was from the HKCA Women’s League. Sort of... The LSW Women’s team was unable to raise a side so the KCC Maidens were gifted a walk-over. With heavy rain falling on Kowloon in the afternoon any match played may well have been washed out.

- Travis