Carnes March Oval, Sunday 20 October 2024.
Ibiza CC 161-3 (20 overs: Mathew Bartley 88) beat St Anne’s Allstars 130-7 (20 overs: Jan-Hendrik Rossouw 63, Mike Amos 3-18, Paul Cruttwell 2-6) by 31 runs.

Report by Garreth Duncan – Photos by Garreth Duncan and Phani Sainath

And so to our second tour fixture … what would Sunday hold? For the second day in succession, we gave it a fantastic go and gave much stronger opponents a real fright – only to fall short once again in the closing overs.

Ibiza CC have come an incredibly long way since our previous tour in 2009, when we played them on an artificial football pitch. Over the last five years, they have built a stunning ground and club house in the north of the island, and boast an equally slick online and social media presence to go with it. They regularly welcome two touring teams each weekend, and look after us all very well with Lyn and her team doing some great teas.

There were a few Allstars feeling a bit delicate having enjoyed the final night of Ibiza’s 2024 nightclub season, and we arrived to hear ominous reports from the morning T20 fixture – despite assistance from the advance party of Matt Biss, Alfie Arrand and Gren Thompson, Ibiza had crushed Wookey Hole by 10 wickets with plenty overs to spare. To ensure we at least got a full game in, skipper Gren asked Ibiza to bat first on winning the toss, despite the heat and my chunterings that we always do this against strong opposition – and when Ibiza opener Mathew Bartley crashed each of Alfie’s perfectly good first three deliveries for four, we all must have feared another absolute hammering.

But the 2024 Allstars tour party has courage by the bucket load, and we reined in the scoring rate as Jan-Hendrik Rossouw, now back in Allstars colours after helping out the Wookeys the previous day, began with a fine spell. We quickly realised the best way to deal with Bartley was to keep him away from the strike, and although our friend Rupert Style lived up to his name once again with some fine shots of his own, we’d kept Ibiza down to 72-0 at the halfway stage.

Vivek Seth got the first breakthough as Style was smartly taken by Matt behind the stumps, before skipper Gren, who has enjoyed the best season of his long Allstars career, got the next as he bowled Bartley twelve short of his hundred. Jan also picked up a deserved wicket by bowling the dangerous Sam Feasey, and Ibiza finished on 161-3 – an incredible effort by the Allstars in the field against opposition who regularly pass 200 in T20s.

We were keen to get Jan back out there before all the Red Bull from the night before wore off, and together with Nick Chadwick, his batting unimpeded by the calf injury he sustained on Saturday, we got off to a flying start, as 38 came off the first four overs. Although Chadders’ fun was ended as Rory Thomson knocked his stumps back, Jan continued imperiously as he raced to his fifty off just 30 deliveries. With Sirmad Shafique providing solid support, Ibiza seemed unable to stem the flow of runs, and at the drinks break we were 89-1 and could dream of victory.

But Ibiza are a formidable force, and they powered back into the game as six Allstars wickets fell for just 11 runs. Paul Cruttwell, who has done so much for their club, began the slide as Sirmad, greatly restricted by a groin injury, charged at him and was stumped – and then got the big break as he ended Jan’s mighty innings with a caught and bowled. How we wish Beckenham could let him play for us more often.

Gren promoted KP to try and keep the momentum going – but Mike Amos quickly snuffed out the dream with three quick wickets, dismissing KP, Joe Silmon and Kiran Chittajallu as they went for attacking shots and running out Phani Sainath. Alfie hit out bravely for the second game in succession – but the run rate was now beyond us and Ibiza closed the game out.

Ibiza were terrific hosts, and their secretary Martin has done a terrific job in promoting and showcasing the club amongst his many other commitments – and his team mates didn’t miss the chance to remind of him of this appearance on last year’s TV series of My Mum, Your Dad. As the sun went down, we swapped caps as a reminder of a great weekend’s cricket.

So ended another terrific Allstars tour, as we all chilled out with the opposition before heading for pizza back in San Antonio. Some incredible memories, new friends made and old ones caught up with – where will 2025 take us?