Finland: FCA & MTS & SKK presents Spirit of Cricket weekend 4-5.5.2002 Suomenlinna

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The ICC European Development Programme Spirit of Cricket Weekend initiative, involving cricket being played simultaneously in over 30 countries, brought cricket elegantly into the spotlight in Finland like never before. The weekend of cricket was celebrated in historical surroundings of Suomenlinna ñ fortress islands just outside the Finnish capital, Helsinki. It must have been the first ever cricket event on a UNESCOñprotected World Heritage area!

"CRICKET FIESTA FOR YOUNGSTERS"

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To kick off the day, top EDP coach Stuart Barnes, assisted by a team of FCA coaches, took a group of 70 school children aged 6 to 13 through Kwik Cricket workshop. Young players got an FCA certificate for passing the workshop, EEC t-shirts and an overflowing cup of good spirit celebrated in front of international TV crews for the world to know. The event was rounded off with the FCA donating Kwik Cricket sets to 4 of the schools that have actively attended coaching sessions throughout the winter. A special mention of thanks to all that attended, coaches and children alike, who carried on regardless of the thunder storms showing the true Spirit of Cricket is flourishing already in Finland!

"FINNISH NAVY FULL SPEED TO THE PITCH"

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The first day continued with an exhibition game on the MTS Cricket Helsinki home field on the same island of Suomenlinna. It was MTS against the Finnish Navy. The NAVY team was made up of athletic Naval Academy personnel, naval cadets and conscripts from the Hanko Coast Battery. With little experience on the cricket pitch, 5 of the team were introduced to the game on the Thursday prior to the weekend and the other 6 only 1 hour before the start of the game! Rain delayed the start, so Captains Juha Harjunp”” of the Navy and Mika Siltala of MTS agreed on 15-overs per side. An intense game was dominated by MTS taking strategic moves to stay ahead of the physically magnificent Navy team. Batting first, MTS amassed 141 runs and in reply, despite a gallant last wicket stand, the navy innings closed on 104 runs. From the Navy team, Lieutenant-Commander J-P Nummila (Navy pentathlon world champion) proved to be a natural bowling phenomenon, clean bowling 2 of the MTS batsmen, whilst Lieutenant-Commander Olli Saravuo batted for an excellent 44 not out.

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The NAVY has already challenged MTS to a revenge fixture later in the summer. Captain Juha Harjunp”” is also now negotiating about integrating Cricket into programmes of the Naval Academies educational events and onto their regular sports curriculum. Cricket indeed does look to be a game with strong after effects, helping Cricket sail into all Finnish ports!

"WOMEN CHALLENGE MTS"

The SKK Cricket club is Finland's largest, and will boast 2 teams in the Finnish League this year. Saturday's program was brought to a close with an intriguing exhibition game between the SKK women and MTS, fresh from their victory over the Navy. This game was the first ever played by a full women's 11. The MTS gentlemen gave the women the choice and they decided to bat. The women applied themselves admirably and made 107-8 off their allotted 15 overs, with a top score of 20 from the great new Finnish talented bat of Minna M”kinen.

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Further cricket spirit was shown with the women allowing MTS to open their innings with Timo Mononen, using a runner having just left hospital 5 days earlier following a leg operation. Tight opening bowling from Diana Venter and Maija Scamans reduced the MTS batsmen to 55-6 in reply. However, a winning stand of 58 was then put together by Juha Harjunp”” (29 not out) and Jouko Salokorpi (21 not out) to leave the MTS winners with 3 overs to spare.

The MTS jury voted Diana Venter as player of the match and awarded her with a wine chiller full of a selection of wines. The women immediately challenged the MTS gents to a rematch later in the summer!

All the cricketers from Saturday's event gathered back at Suomenlinna's Restaurant Panimo. The FCA raffled signed miniature bats, cricket gear, wine and cinema tickets which proved a great success. Finally all were then treated to a display of DJ prowess from Stuart Barnes to finish off the evening and loosen those stiff cricket muscles on the dance floor!!

"FINAL EVENT ñ FINLAND'S NATIONAL SQUAD TAKE ON THE LEAGUE"

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Finland's "Spirit of Cricket" weekend activities were brought to a magnificent close on Sunday with an exhibition game between the Finland National XI and Rest of League XI. The great strides taken by the FCA in recent years with indigenous Finnish cricket development were clearly highlighted by the fact that for the first time ever the National XI was made up of 11 natural-born Finns, who were ably assisted by 12th man and "almost resident Finn" Stuart Barnes!

The Rest of League team won the toss and decided to bat first in this 30-over contest. Some tight Finn bowling and Stu Barnes' dibbly-dobbly wobblers, well backed up by sharp fielding honed to perfection indoors over the winter, restricted the strong Rest of League batsmen to a total of 190. Top scorer was Scott Thurling with 42 runs. In reply Finlands' openers Janne Lumme and Mikael Berglund got the innings off to a steady start, in face of tight seam bowling from Naim and Andy Armitage. However, following the departure of Lumme for 23 with the score on 35, the Finn batsmen never really got to grips with the Rest of League bowling and they struggled on to 130-9 before sadly heavy rain curtailed proceedings after 22 overs. The Finnish innings was held together around a sterling unbeaten knock of 59 from Mikael Berglund, who in batting so well probably booked his National team ticket to Croatia in August!

The National XI will continue with its preparation for the ECC Representative Festival to be played in Zagreb in August by facing opposition from Sweden and the UK in the next few months and will be ably assisted by numerous FCA coaches.

"FLICX FLIES IN"

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Excellent support for the weekend game was provided by some of the SKK women and children plus the already famous SKK catering crew, whilst World Sports Group TV battled though the elements to take footage of the proceedings played on an excellent Flicx pitch, which arrived just on time for the event on Friday evening! The pitch was a great success and suits Finnish conditions perfectly - the FCA is keeping fingers crossed that all its Spirit of Cricket Weekend efforts will suffice to beat other country events to win the Flicx wicket on offer so that the 2002 Finnish League will really benefit from improved playing conditions and further increase Finn participation.

"MASSIVE MEDIA COVERAGE"

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The FCA and MTS actively promoted the event through their own channels. As a result the national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat printed an article and interview with Mika Siltala in its "NYT"-magasine on 3 May. It was also noted here that development is being hindered by the lack of a permanent grass pitch in Finland. The national broadcaster YLE TV-1 will show a special report on the weekend in its "A-Studio" program which will be broadcast throughout Finland on Friday evening 10 May. World Sports Group TV film crew, led by Jon Moore, recorded in particular enthusiastic junior participation and an "MTS-special" which will be shown on Channel 4 in the UK. Helsingin Sanomat then reported on weekend events in their Sunday edition with an article specifically aimed at readers with little or no knowledge of the game - this described in detail the history and elegance of cricket and specified strategic elements of the game.

Andrew Armitage, FCA Chairman
Mika Siltala, MTS Captain

Spirit of Cricket Weekend was supported by:-

Suomenlinnan hoitokunta www.suomenlinna.fi
MTS Cricket club www.nettiteatteri.com/mts
SKK Cricket club www.cricketfinland.com/SKKindex.shtml
Finnish Cricket Association www.cricketfinland.com
ICC Europe Office www.ecc.cricket.org