Hartford’s Riverside Cricket Club scored a thrilling victory in the final game of the annual Cricket Hall of Fame’s Six-a-Side Tournament held at Keney Park, Hartford, Connecticut, on Saturday, June 8, to walk away with the top prize. Riverside defeated last year’s champions Atlantis Cricket Club of New York by 20 runs to gain their second lien on the championship in the tournament.

After winning all their other matches, the two teams, regulars in the tournament, faced a showdown for the championship. Atlantis, with former West Indies player Clayton Lambert in their lineup, started as the favorites. Taking to the crease first, Riverside was able to put up the score of 51 for four wickets through the help of S. Rishi, 21, and S. Sumeer, 14. Lambert with two wickets for six runs led the bowling.

With their usual strong batting lineup, the score looked like easy pickings for the more experienced Atlantis team, who had also won Six-a-Side tournaments in Florida and Barbados. However, Riverside took to the field with a strong determination, and before you knew it, in the second over, they had Lambert back in the pavilion caught by the wicketkeeper off the bowling of Sumeer for a mere two runs. Sumeer struck again in the same over bowling H. Thompson for nine runs. P. Singh, the next bowler continued where Sumeer left off having N. Barry caught for a duck and then bowling D. Thompson for five runs.

Following a controversial run-out decision of B. Joseph and with the score at 31, it was now left up to W. White to pull Atlantis through. However, Riverside’s last bowler, S. Patel enticed Joseph to go for a big hit which he missed and was bowled for six runs to give Riverside the victory by the 20-run margin. Sumeer with two wickets for six runs and Singh two for eight were the leading bowlers.

Except for Sportmen’s Athletic Club, who did not win a match, all the games were closely contested. New Britain, who at one time looked like they would be in contention, lost their two matches by just three and eight runs respectively.

“Unless we can once again get the support of the teams or find a generous sponsor, 2002 could well turn out to be the last year for the tournament,” a disappointed Director of the Hall of Fame Michael Chambers said. For some unknown reason, the tournament failed to attract its usual quota of teams and as a result only four teams participated and the tournament was held for just one day instead o its usual two. If it was not for the fact that Atlantis had traveled all the way from New York, the tournament would have been cancelled, he said.

Contributed by: The Cricket Hall of Fame