Photos from the 7th annual

Sixteen Teams gathered in Sarasota for the 7th Annual Festival to be welcomed by beautiful crisp sunny weather - ideal for Cricket. For the first time ever, there were no new teams in the draw. Many of the teams had played in at least 4 Festivals but only one - Memorial Cricket Club from Houston - had played in all 7.

After playing 35 matches in the first three days in gorgeous conditions the field was narrowed down to the “Last Four”. For the Semi Finals and the Finals the weather changed drastically, players and spectators had to endure a typical English kind of day with incessant rain making the pitch and outfield very tricky. With lots of big hitting and vast areas to be covered by the fielding teams it made for a very muddy but thrilling climax to the Festival.

The two primary Festival Divisions proved to be very competitive in that no team was undefeated in the four preliminary games in Group A. Old Cranleighans and Houston Memorial were 3-1, but the former won the division by the slimmest of margins. By the virtue of scoring 10 more runs over the four games with the same number of wickets lost.

In-Group B, again both teams were 3-1 but Toronto had a substantial runs to wickets advantage over the North Carolina Anzacs.

The Festival climaxed with the Final being played in very bad weather. Toronto batting first scored 123 of the 10 allotted overs. At the midway point, Anzacs were on track to win, but some good bowling, competent fielding and catching by Toronto and appalling weather conditions combined to make them fall 30 runs short.

In the final for the Social Shield two teams dominated. By the last day of the regular tournament Esher (Surrey) and the Little Thugs (London) were both undefeated at 4-0 and got to play each other. Youth prevailed in the form of the Little Thugs victory, but Esher had a chance of revenge in the Final. However it was not to be, as youth again prevailed over cunning old age experience and Little Thugs proved worthy winners.

To add even more color to the festivities, 25 members of the British Antique Car Club brought their “prized sparkling possessions” to the ground and did 3 laps around the boundary prior to the Final. It was a very uplifting sight on a rather dismal day.

The Club had also for the first time allowed the Pavilion to be transformed to a typical “English Tea Room”, complete with all the many accessories on sale such as tins of biscuits, jars of honey, Christmas crackers, mustard and Cadbury Chocolates. With the inclement weather it turned out to be the most popular place to watch the Cricket. A great success.

Photos from the 7th annual cricket festival.

"Cricket Festival 2000"