Koh Chang Beach Cricket is a fantastic weekend and is leading the way in the development of junior cricket in Trat Province

The Koh Chang Beach Cricket Competition was held at the Shambala Resort for the tenth time in August 2025 having first been played in 2015 with one missing year thanks to the covid virus. The tournament was again a celebration of all that is best about social cricket combined with a weekend on the beach. Newcomers Mutant Misfits won the 2025 competition as the team was a collection of Bangkok Cricket League players with three members of the team with links to Koh Chang cricket. The local team Lord Ganesha were runners up after reaching the final and every team had a fantastic time with a multitude of junior cricketers involved throughout the competition.

18 teams took part in 2025 as chief organizer Steve Perry changed the format to give all teams competitive games. Eight teams played in the Shield which was the first division and the remaining ten teams contested the Cup which was awarded to the lower-level teams on account of the relative cost of the trophies.

All 18 teams of varying abilities had a wonderful time on the beach on what has again proved one of the most memorable weekends of the season in Thailand with the Pangolins flying in from Malaysia and two teams coming from Pattaya CC and two teams representing the British Club from Bangkok.

Two girls teams took part in the Cup with school teams travelling from Lamphun and Korat. Adult teams came from across Thailand from Chiang Mai to Phuket and lots of young players from Koh Chang played alongside the veteran cricketers of the Palmy Army. It was great to see a team from Koh Samui playing for the first time as they have just started playing beach cricket back on their home island.

There were two groups at both levels with the Cup games getting underway on the Friday morning. We had woken to torrential rain and went along to the beach in hope rather than in expectation but Steve Perry’s limitless faith again proved correct as skies cleared and we were even able to start earlier than the scheduled start time after the artificial mat was rolled out onto the beach.

Further heavy showers did disrupt the day’s play and the grass areas around the resort suffered more than the beach itself. Teams had a quick turnaround at the close of play as everyone headed to 15 Palms on White Sands Beach for the first of two social events.

Nine of the ten scheduled matches were played on the first day and there was a long list of 17 matches to be played on the Saturday but the pace of play is very fast in beach cricket as each innings consists of six five-ball overs with all six players batting and bowling for one over.

Five runs are lost for each wicket and it is possible to score 12 runs for hitting the ball into the pool behind the bowler’s arm. Two runs are conceded for bowling the first wide, four for the second and six for the third. The new batters are always ready to go on the edge of the beach and the fielders move round in the field at the end of each over.

Each match takes just over 30 minutes so we raced through the full program of matches so there were only six first round matches left for Sunday morning before the play-off matches were held later in the day.

The Bangkok Bandooks won the wooden spoon by beating Pattaya Thoroughbreds in the battle of the teams that came fourth in the Players Section. Then the Samui Mad Monkeys won the Chop Sticks by beating the Phuket Penguins in the contest between the teams that came third in the Players and Samui were delighted to win the battle of the islands.

We moved onto the semi-finals of the Shield with the Mutant Misfits beating the Pattaya Stallions who were 2024 overall winners before local favourites Lord Ganesha defeated Ali Baba to reach the final to keep the crowd of locals happy. The Cup semi-finals saw the local youngsters of Big Chang lose to the British Club Master Batters then previous winners Black Parrots proved too strong for Lanna CC from Chiang Mai.

There was a half an hour break before the two main finals as the ladies and kids played beach cricket against a ladyboy team as Koh Chang Beach Cricket is an all-inclusive event.

The Cup final was won by the British Club Master Batters who beat the Black Parrots by 34 runs to 12 and it was appropriate that one of the teams who have been heading to the beach since the start should win the Cup.

The final match of the day was the Shield Final and Koh Chang’s Lord Ganesha gave a good display with the ball with young Bas charging in off his long run but Natik made runs in the final over to take Mutant Misfits to 63 as he hit the last ball of the innings into the pool. Lord Ganesha couldn’t cope with an outstanding display of bowling and ended on a negative score so the Misfits were declared the champions of the 10th Koh Chang Beach Cricket Competition.

Cher, the coach of the Lamphun Red Caps who played for Ali Baba, was named batsman of the tournament for hitting two balls into the swimming pool but Natik of the Mutant Misfits was named player of the tournament as the trophies were handed out on the beach.

The two girls teams had stayed at Steve Perry’s Serenity Resort and had got on extremely well during the weekend and the last stage of the event was the closing party at 15 Palms as everyone said their goodbyes.

The most amazing thing about the beach cricket at Koh Chang is that it has helped to create the new provincial team of Trat who compete in senior and junior competitions arranged by CAT and SAT so the players are now travelling across the country to play in national hard ball championships.

Looking to the future, younger children played in a competition with the same rules on the Thursday with five teams of six players playing a series of matches with girls and boys enjoying their first competitive cricket. The day finished with a 15-aside match between the two schools from which all the players came and it was an incredible contest with every player batting and bowling and the match went down to the wire as Klong Son School beat Dan Mai School by one run.

It was the closest match of the whole four days and suggests that cricket on the island of Koh Chang will surely go from strength to strength.