Balearic Cup 2011 
Friday 13th May – Mallorca C.C. vs Ibiza C.C. 40 overs per side
Mallorca skipper Eric George won the toss and decided to bat first. When their 2010 batsman of the year Paul Mulkenberg fell early, Ibiza were understandably pleased, but then all-rounder Ben Vickers came in and, after being let off a couple of times, went on to score an aggressive and boundary ridden 166. He was ably supported by Richie Williams (24) and Ben Moss (48), and this effectively set up an imposing total of 308 for 7 after the 40 overs. All the Ibiza bowlers and fielders stuck manfully to their task, but found the fast sand outfield quite different from what they usually play on, and, along with a few dropped catches, saw the score continue to rise to over 300. Ibiza bowlers Ryan “Scrappy” Way (3 for 39), Sam “Rastaman”Feasey (2 for 54), Robin “Robiño”Parmenter (1 for 33) and Graham “F-pipe” Cooper (1 for 39) shared the wickets.
Ibiza then batted and lost several early wickets until Bob “The Vicar” Short (96) combined well in a 103 run stand with Dave “Washington” Climent (48) to take the shaky score of 53 for 3 to 156 for 3, and were scoring freely at over 9 runs per over until a debatable run out decision separated them. In any event, the large and vociferous crowd (not all Ibiza supporters!) voiced their disapproval and the famous cricketing expressions “catches win matches” and “if in doubt, give nowt!” came to mind, as they were certainly relevant on this particular day. This incident effectively ended Ibiza’s run chase, and their remaining batsmen managed to reach the 200 mark, finishing on 202 for 6 after 40 overs, with Mallorca winning by 106 runs.
Saturday 14th May – Menorca C.C. vs Ibiza C.C.
Ibiza skipper Jeremy “Silver Fox” Parmenter won the toss and chose to bat first this time. The Ibiza openers scored slowly but surely, then the run rate picked up with Sam Feasey (30) and Dave Climent (70) combining well and, along with a late surge from the middle order, the final score reached 191 for 7. The Menorca bowlers and fielders did well to restrict the Ibiza batsmen to a total that was considered a good 20 runs short, and, along with 2 clear cut run outs, plus 2 wickets from “Bomber” Phillips, the required run rate was just under 5 per over.
Menorca then began their reply steadily and did not lose their first wicket until the score was on 60, although Ibiza had learnt some lessons from the previous day and kept the run rate down over the first 20 overs with some disciplined bowling and fielding. However, as with the first game, the top scoring opposing batsman Andy “Tiger” Tyso was dropped early on and went on to score 87, which proved to be the decisive innings for Menorca in setting up their run chase. “Bomber”Phillips (23), Ian “The Crow” Williams (25) and Andy Cockcroft (28) all contributed with their main batsman to increase the run rate after the half way mark, and Menorca reached their target of 192 with 2 overs to spare, finishing on 192 for 5, thus winning by 5 wickets. This was in fact a hard fought contest which could have gone either way, and all the Ibiza bowlers and fielders went about defending their total enthusiastically, in spite of several late night drinking sessions! Sam Feasey, “Jimbo” Harvey, Robin and Jeremy Parmenter and Stuart “Bradford” Browne all took one wicket each.
Many thanks are due, as ever, to the scorers, “Tennis” Mike for Ibiza, John Seymour for Menorca, and Wendy “XFactor” Peters for Mallorca, as well as the umpires for the 3 teams. Thanks also to Mallorca C.C and their secretary Rob Hughes for their hospitality and their friendly clubhouse, and to all the travelling Ibiza friends and supporters from Cumbria and the UK, without forgetting the attending Ibiza C.C. committee members Lyn Carpenter, “Pabs” Ambrose, and Chairman Martin “Shaggy” Makepeace. In addition, mention should be made of the company sponsoring the cricket balls for the matches, Burley Sports Travel, as the fast sand outfield is responsible for chewing up cricket balls much faster than usual, thus making the bowlers’ task even harder!
Finally, at the end of this report, I have just been advised that Mallorca has in fact won back the 2011 Balearic Cup, after beating Menorca on Sunday 15th May by 112 runs: Mallorca batted first and scored 283/7, and then bowled out Menorca for 171 runs.
Congratulations to the new Champions!
That’s it for now, we’ll keep practising for this season and for next year, when the Cup will be played in Ibiza!
RPHood
IBIZA CRICKET CALENDAR
June 2011
Fri 10th – Ibiza v Hearsall C.C. (Warks)
Sat 11th – Hearsal C.C. (Warks) v Stock Exchange C.C (London)
Sun 12th – Stock Exchange C.C (London) v Ibiza
July / August 2011
NO MATCHES
September 2011
TBC
October 2011
Friday 7th – Ibiza v Fiddlers C.C. (Bucks)
Tuesday 11 – Ibiza v Fiddlers C.C. (Bucks)
Thursday 13 – Ibiza v Fiddlers C.C. (Bucks)
November/December 2011
End of Season Tour – Benidorm
Sat 12 Nov – Sporting Alfas CC 1st XI v Ibiza CC (40 overs)
Sun 13 Nov – Sporting Alfas CC 2nd XI v Ibiza CC (40 overs)
Dec – XMAS DINNER & DANCE – TBC
