2018 Nepal Tour
Captains: Jon Gower, Grant Dixon, Joe Rahman, David Siddal
Again, this was another great tour experience in the Asian subcontinent. We had a touring party of 11, and played 7 games in the two main cities - Kathmandu and Pokhara. We even managed to organise a Rwandan national player to join us (Clinton Rubagumya), to add to the experience. In terms of results (won 1, lost 6), it was a familiar tale of struggling in Asia, where the standard of club cricket is high. However, our final game did bring our first win, albeit at the 20th attempt, in Asia. We did play against some quality teams though, including the army and the police. We struggled with batting in particular - with several of us getting into the 20s, but our highest individual score was a paltry 31. Our bowling was much more competitive. Socially, and culturally, it was fantastic. Tremendous eating experiences, and, with 9am starts and games finishing early afternoon, we had plenty of time to relax. If you would like to find out a little more, see below for scorecard, match reports, stats and an end-of-term report for all our tourists.
Date |
Opposition |
Venue |
Result |
Card |
Report |
Video |
Sun Mar 18th |
Himalayan Cricket Academy |
Mulpani, Kathmandu |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Mon Mar 19th |
Nepal Police |
Mulpani, Kathmandu |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Tue Mar 20th |
Nepal Army |
TU International, Kathmandu |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Thu Mar 22nd |
Pokhara CC |
Pokhara Stadium |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Thu Mar 22nd |
Machapuchre CC |
Pokhara Stadium |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Fri Mar 23rd |
Pokhara CC |
Pokhara Stadium |
LOST |
LINK |
LINK |
|
Sat Mar 24th |
Machapuchre CC |
Pokhara Stadium |
WON |
LINK |
LINK |
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End of Term Report:
Ujjal Roy (6.0/10)
As ever, a great tourist and a lot of fun to be around. Ujjal flew in from Hong Kong and gave the cricket his everything. At times he had some good spells bowling, with some good in-swing, and the last two games he batted really well with Vinay, and showed how to bat patiently in these conditions. He also took Clinton paragliding, hired a motorbike, ate a lot of Momo's and was frequently mistaken for a Nepali.
Clinton Rubagumya (6.5/10)
Clinton joined us from Rwanda, and was a superb addition to our touring party. Clinton is a cricketing natural, enjoys his game and yet also takes it seriously. He showed his batting could contend with high-quality bowling (e.g. against the Army), and his bowling improved throughout the tour. He was by some margin our best fielder.
Grant Dixon (6.5/10)
Grant's bowling was particularly impressive on this tour. In 3-4 games he produced very testing spells, and he now has good control over his variations and skills. His batting was less successful, but hey, that goes for all of us.
Ian Hutchcroft (5.5/10)
Ian. The Hutch. Simply a great human being to have on tour. Ian has a natural wisdom and a chuckle that is never far away - a great combination to have on a tour like this. Best moments included an elegant 23* against the Police, and a couple of wickets in Pokhara. Oh, and he also scaled a 5,000 metre mountain after the rest of us flew back to the comfort of home.
Jon Gower (5.5/10)
JG produced a couple of innings in the 20s, but, like all of us struggled to achieve a significant score overall. Jon was skipper for our first ever victory overseas, and was also a significant 'Person Of Interest' in the epic last night out in Pokhara.
Dave Gower (5.5/10)
Dr Gower was only present for the Kathmandu leg of the tour, and after the Army game had to fly off to the forests of French Guiana to resume his search for amphibians and reptiles. Dave hung around for a few runs in the Police game, and fielded with his usual positive intent throughout.
David Siddal (6.5/10)
'Sids' had a couple of good knocks, and demonstrated a typically fearless 'no holds barred' approach with bat in hand. He also skippered his first game for Strongroom, was a strong social presence throughout, and bought me a smashing blue shirt in Pokhara.
Joe Rahman (8/10)
The Rahman did what he usually does - bowl extremely well at high quality batsmen and emerge with wickets and a low economy rate. He really is pretty good. Joe was generally happy with the vegetarian food options.
Tim Moore (7.5/10)
Tim produced an absolutely brilliant bowling performance on the first tour fixture, and another good one against Pokhara on the final day. In-between these he cycled from Kathmandu to Pokhara, and generally was great company on tour, as always.
Vinay Venkateshan (5.5/10)
Vinay's tour had a bit of a slow start, but by the last 2-3 games he was starting to bat with nice fluency, and his pace was starting to return to his bowling after knee surgery in 2017. Always a positive-minded individual on tour.
Oliver Moore (4.5/10)
It was great to have Ol back on a Strongroom tour, after a few years away from the scene. Ol produced a good calm knock against the Police, showing he had the necessary composure and skill. Demonstrated his honed cycling skills in an epic trip from Pokhara to Kathmandu.
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