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Tour From Hell - Out For The Count
Lamma CC on tour in Sri Lanka The following story,
written by Mark Hughes, ran in the SCMP on February 24, 1995. |
Lamma cricket team is nursing its bruises after a disastrous tour of Sri Lanka.
The side’s manager, John Fox, said he took a giant size medical kit with him which was practically all used up as players toppled one after the other.
Girlfriends and wives looked on in horror as they stumbled down the walkway at Kai Tak on their return, some bandaged, some on crutches and some still in Colombo after missing the flight.
One player, Ed Johnson, went along on the tour despite having broken his leg playing football two weeks earlier.
The tour’s organiser, Ian Harling, was one of those stuck in the Sri Lankan capital for an extra week after getting the time of the return flight wrong. During that spell he was afflicted with a lip infection. When he finally made it back to Hong Kong, he found his presents for family and friends had been stolen off the airport bus. He had already lost his wallet on the trip while in a wheelchair.
The poor chap hardly even got to play any cricket after suffering a nasty hit from the ball on his shin while fielding in the slips in the first game.
The Lamma cricket team have won eight straight games locally, last Saturday soundly thrashing a social league team, the Champagne 11, by 115 runs.
“In Sri Lanka we were beaten by everyone in sight,” commented John mournfully. “It was a disaster. We were knocked all over the place.”
The tour got off to a spirited start when one member of the team got into a fight with a German on the plane.
The first game was even announced in the national press but Lamma collapsed for 137. Glen Perkinson suffered the first injury with a badly bruised foot, then Ian Harling cracked his shin.
Even the scorer suffered writer’s cramp marking down all the sixes being scored by the locals, each of whom had extremely long names.
Another team member, 12th man Clive Theobald, broke his finger while fielding after replacing Ian on the pitch. In the last game, Lamma, which set off with a complement of 30 players, were reduced to having to borrow two locals to make up numbers. Even then, Jim Hughes had to retire with an injured hip after colliding with a fellow batsman.
Even when relaxing, things didn’t go any better. Rob McGregor suffered nasty cuts to his face from his surfboard and someone else had an unpleasant encounter with a sea urchin which left its needles in his hands and feet.
“Next time I’ll take a bigger first aid kit. We ran out of bandages, disinfectant, the bloody lot,” said John, editor of China Hospital trade magazine and an old Hong Kong hand of ten years.
The side’s manager, John Fox, said he took a giant size medical kit with him which was practically all used up as players toppled one after the other.
Girlfriends and wives looked on in horror as they stumbled down the walkway at Kai Tak on their return, some bandaged, some on crutches and some still in Colombo after missing the flight.
One player, Ed Johnson, went along on the tour despite having broken his leg playing football two weeks earlier.
The tour’s organiser, Ian Harling, was one of those stuck in the Sri Lankan capital for an extra week after getting the time of the return flight wrong. During that spell he was afflicted with a lip infection. When he finally made it back to Hong Kong, he found his presents for family and friends had been stolen off the airport bus. He had already lost his wallet on the trip while in a wheelchair.
The poor chap hardly even got to play any cricket after suffering a nasty hit from the ball on his shin while fielding in the slips in the first game.
The Lamma cricket team have won eight straight games locally, last Saturday soundly thrashing a social league team, the Champagne 11, by 115 runs.
“In Sri Lanka we were beaten by everyone in sight,” commented John mournfully. “It was a disaster. We were knocked all over the place.”
The tour got off to a spirited start when one member of the team got into a fight with a German on the plane.
The first game was even announced in the national press but Lamma collapsed for 137. Glen Perkinson suffered the first injury with a badly bruised foot, then Ian Harling cracked his shin.
Even the scorer suffered writer’s cramp marking down all the sixes being scored by the locals, each of whom had extremely long names.
Another team member, 12th man Clive Theobald, broke his finger while fielding after replacing Ian on the pitch. In the last game, Lamma, which set off with a complement of 30 players, were reduced to having to borrow two locals to make up numbers. Even then, Jim Hughes had to retire with an injured hip after colliding with a fellow batsman.
Even when relaxing, things didn’t go any better. Rob McGregor suffered nasty cuts to his face from his surfboard and someone else had an unpleasant encounter with a sea urchin which left its needles in his hands and feet.
“Next time I’ll take a bigger first aid kit. We ran out of bandages, disinfectant, the bloody lot,” said John, editor of China Hospital trade magazine and an old Hong Kong hand of ten years.
