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King Williams College 24th June 2006 Karran Cup.
 
St Johns won the toss and elected to bat.
 
The opening Bowlers of Sewell (3 for 18) and Roome (2 for 21) soon had the visitors in trouble as wickets fell at regular intervals.
 
With St Johns at 24 for 5 from 10 overs, Scott Pearce came to the wicket and was to be chanceless for his un-defeated 30.
 
A sixth wicket partnership worth 47 runs with Dave Lockett (13), and un-defeated seventh wicket partnership of 11 with Swales (4 n.o) was paving the way for a total to be posted when the weather came in.
 
After a long delay for rain and with an early tea being taken, the St Johns innings was declared closed at 82 for 6.
 
Under the rain affected rules, Castletown were set a re-calculated total of 79 from a maximum of 26 overs, but with Castletown only allowed to lose seven wickets before their innings would be declared closed.
 
On a now sticky wicket, a patient and watchful undefeated 27 from opener Dave Griffiths and quick runs from Andy Cross (17) and Wickus Wessels (33 n.o) saw Castletown home comfortably for a 5 wicket win with three and half overs remaining.

Isle of Man Six-a-side Competition 25^th June 2006

King Williams College welcomed back the Isle of Man annual six-a-side competition for the first time in several years. Eight teams competed for the first piece of cricket silverware of the season.

The competition saw the sides drawn into two leagues of four, with the top two proceeding to the semi-finals. All of the games being played over fiver overs per innings, with each out-fielder having to bowl one over each. Penalties of four runs for a wide or a no ball, and with only four fielders in a standard cricket pitch, together with a bowler and a wicket keeper, resulted in high scores as usual, together with some tired fielders.

In group one Castletown, Cronkbourne, Loaghtyn Rams ‘B’ and Valkryes ‘B’ played six entertaining games, with Castletown v Cronkbourne proving to be the decider for first and second places in the group.

Castletown batted first, and as what was to prove the pattern for Towns day, powerful batting from Wicus Wessels (34) and Gareth Morris (20) ensured they posted a competitive target of 66. Matt Stokoe and Cain Dooley bowled a tight over each for Cronkbourne and ensuring they were still in the match.

In reply Peter Richards was to have the individual innings of the day, finishing with 51, but requiring 16 off the last over from Morris, could only manage seven runs to leave them 9 shy, of what would have been a remarkable win.

Group two with teams from Crosby, Valkryes, Finch Hill and Loaghtyn Rams was to provide the surprise of the day with Mickey Allison’s Finch Hill ensuring one of the favourites from either Crosby & Valkyres wouldn’t make it past the group stage, as the Finches won all three of their group games to finish top of their league.

Valkyres progressed as runners up in their decider with Crosby, with a good win coming with five balls remaining in the game. Tight bowling from Nick Yates & Chris Newbury had helped restrict the Crosby total to 39 from their 5 overs despite the best efforts of Danny Kniveton (17 n.o).

Nick Yates (21) and Peter Norris (14) ensured Valkyres progressed, to the disappointment of Crosby, who in McGreogor and Kniveton had two of the better young all rounders in the competition.

The Semi finals saw Castletown, winners of group one, meet Valkyres, runners up in group two, and Finch Hill, as winners of group two, play Cronkbourne.

In the first semi-final Valkyres batted first and were never able to unleash and get after the Towns bowling. Gareth Roome, Oliver Steriopolis and Wicus Wessels, and supported by some athletic fielding from Michael Baker meant Mark Entwisle (10 n.o) and J. Cannell (15 n.o) were only able to post a target of 42.

Castletown made short work of the total with Morris (13 n.o) and Wessels (18 n.o) together with a few expensive extras, seeing the Castletown side home inside three overs, and booking their place in the final.

The other semi-final saw Finch Hill continuing their ‘underdog’ run with an exciting win against Cronkbourne. Batting first Cronkbourne struggled to post a convincing target once Richards had gone for 12, and despite the best efforts from Matt Stokoe (17 n.o) a target of 41 to win for Finch Hill seemed straightforward.

Dooley, Richards and Singh all bowled tightly, keeping the Finches behind on the run chase, leaving Mickey Allison and Sean Grobbelaar the task of scoring 16 of the last over to win. Three boundaries, including a maximum ensured they did so, with only one ball to spare.

The Final of Castletown v Finch Hill saw the Finches win the toss and ask Castletown to bat. The unfortunate Michael Baker missing out for Castletown, having jarred his back in the semi-final in one of his many boundary saving runs in the field, and making way for the 7^th man.

Gareth Morris and Wicus Wessels, as they had done all day, dominated with the bat, and the unfortunate Liam Edmondson, who had bowled so well throughout the day, including the important wicket of Richards in the semi-final, saw his last two deliveries from his over disappear in the direction of the airport off the bat of Morris, ‘fresh’ from his Parish Walk the day before. When Morris finally did head towards departures he’d scored 34, having been comprehensively beaten by the hard working Ian Shanahan.

Wicus Wessels this time assumed the supporting role to Morris, with a solid 19 not out, helping Castletown post a competitive, but not insurmountable target of 65 for Finch Hill to win.

Ian Shanahan’s first ball duck, to Town’s Captain Roome was not how the Finches would have wanted to start their innings, but Grobbelaar and Nel put a strong stand together, and with some quick runs and five boundaries between them kept the scoreboard going.

The loss of Nel brought skipper Allison to the middle and despite his and Grobbelaars best efforts, another one of Castletown’s strong contingent of South Africans, Barend Wessels, took consecutive wickets in the penultimate over to leave ‘The Hill’ a mountain to climb.

Morris bowled the last over, and with Grobbelaar the ‘last man standing’ on 18 not out, Castletown had won by 16 runs to finish off what had been a most entertaining day of sixes, and a rather good weekend for Castletown.