Sat 12 June saw the Socialists take on the the Old Boys on a hot and sunny day at Ruskeasuo. The Old Boys suffered an early blow losing Matty V (lbw) after only the third ball but they then recovered slowly against some good tight bowling from Jon and Seb who restricted the Old Boys to just 22 off the first 8 overs. With a steady partnership between Dodgy (16) and Gary (49) the 100 mark was reached in the 17th over. Some shaky moments then saw the loss of 3 further wickets before the 21st over but another good partnership between Stevie Law (27) and Shanta (44) saw the Old Boys to 182 before the loss of the 6th wicket precipitated a collapse and final limp to 191 ao.The Socialists started brightly with Jon cracking a 4 off the very first ball but he was then bowled off the fifth ball by Woody. A great patient partnership between Kajan (58) and Yathu (29) - through to the 18th over - then brought the Socialists up to 90/2. However, After Yathu departed lbw Gary G swiftly followed in the same fashion to bring Po (22) to the crease with good little innings to steady the ship. At 124/4 after 25 overs the Socialists still had enough batsmen to come and looked to be in easy striking distance until both Seb (12) and Selva (0) were caught in the 28th over. The bowling then restricted the tail- enders to just 10 runs for the last 3 wickets.

Old Boys won by 35 runs.

Most of the players then joined Sarath's party tram for a Helsinki Mystery tour and curry dinner which was enjoyed by all.

SKK Socialaists - Jon, Kajan, Yathu, Garry G, Po, Ed, Seb, Selva, Peter, Onni and Chris
Old Boys - MattyV, Gary, Dodgy, Lloyd, Stevie, Sarath, Shanta, Jono October, Nicholas, Woody, (Filiche)

Saturday 23rd April 2011
Turku Indoor Tournament 2011
Impivaara Sports Hall, Turku

Having the full SKK squad finally stumble into the Impivaara Indoor Sports Hall fifteen minutes prior to the first match after a couple of hours drive to Turku was not this captain's idealised preparation in order to stamp our presence in the first tournament of 2011. In fact, after the first eight balls of our innings it was clear that truly did resemble the well-described underdone Hesburger breakfasts from two hours earlier in the rush to Turku, as SKK went down three wickets without a run off the bat!

We got fair and squarely hammered by Tampere CC in the first match. Despite the two-paced nature of a spongy football surface, SKK batted terribly to be all out for 28-odd runs in the last over (a possible tournament record?). The whole top order collapsed before all seven wickets fell consistently apart from Gary who steered us to at least a competitive total with the help of those harshly penalised wides and no-balls (three runs each). The forementioned harshly-penaised wides and no-balls, however, were also rather handy for Tampere, as we gifted them a pretty cruisy start to their chase, although somewhat tapered by Kajan's tight 2nd over. Alas Tampere were pretty ruthless and claimed victory at the end of the 3rd over.

The embarrassing first up loss, rule-affirming antics on the field in the following match between Empire and whoever, in addition to losing the toss to FinnAsia, probably helped us regroup and feel like we were actually at Lempivaara and not still snug in bed on Saturday morning. Stepping out to field actually gave us some time to organise, put out our strongest team for the must-win match.

As such we went on to perform much better against a self-fancied FinnAsia, who set us a challenging 50 to win from 5 overs. Kajan, again was pick of the bowlers, picking up 3 or so wickets and stifling the run flow. Tatu and Yathu opened and got to understand the pace of the pitch quickly, Yathu rotating the strike to Tatu's strokemaking. About 15 runs or so were needed in about as many balls after Tatu struck the roof square of the wicket above the fire alarms (yes, that was a rule) with a pull shot that would have been six at Ruskeasuo, and when Yathu pulled a four off last ball of the penultimate over, SKK were cruising with only 4 to win and yours truly sealed victory with a gift from the first ball of the last over.

We were back in it, the team were pumped, the delicious curry lunch was served and we were entertained by the other matches continuing throughout the day - Vantaa looking the pick of the bunch and the team to beat. We also had the predicament where we had to win the last match to guarantee qualification from the group stages for the finals, and whilst trying to spread the games among our 10 member squad, Gary took the Team Hit of the Week when he requested that he stand down from the wicketkeeper role in the must win match vs Turku! A top gesture from the newly capped member. When discussing the qualification diemnas, Eddie White took Quote of the Week with a cracking line that left some of us still scrathing our heads, sparking up with ”So, who else was in our group again? SKK...” narrowly edging out Po's enthusiastic managerial advice ”Captain, my captain... I have a plan!” and ” I know what you should have done in the first match,... not get out!” Gold! You can't write that stuff.

After winning the toss I put Turku into bat, and despite not playing in this match, thought that we had better chances chasing than defending against a underperforming Turku Hawks team. However, Turku put on a pretty good display, despite SKK gifting dropped catches and some sloppy fielding and bowling. Eddie, though, had a miraculous runout at the bowlers end when a straight drive deflected to leave the dangerous Justin stranded and Kajan was excellent not conceding a wide the whole tournament keeping his off-spinning darts, full and straight. Turku, however, put on more than 60. SKK's chase became harder when Tatu was caught behind early in his innings, however full credit goes to Turku Hawks who bowled extremely well and defended in the field like it was their must-win match, and they restricted SKK's efforts to hit the much needed boundary walls. In the end SKK were about 16 runs short with plenty of wicket in hand. Yathu again steered the innings admirably, but no other batsman could put the ball away and ultimately SKK were knocked out.

Despite the disappointing finish, SKK with time to kill and a beautiful Easter Saturday afternoon, went outside the hall for a bit of impromptu match in the neighbouring field and some catching practice. In fact, the warmup was so good that if we had the same intensity outside as we did back in the hall, I'm sure we would have still been inside competing for the trophy. Nevertheless the spirit of this new SKK outfit was perhaps more encouraging than any results, and I was a proud captain of the guys conduct and atmosphere. Big ups also to young Po and Garry, who took the whole day off to be spectators in Turku and to the drivers, Gary, Jon and Martin... who volunteered their vehicles so that we could get there and play.