We had it all in Antigua… cricket match, catamaran trip & a wedding!

We had it all in Antigua… cricket match, catamaran trip & a wedding!

We arrived in Antigua following on from New York where we had a four night stay to watch Elton for a concert that had been postponed for two years. Antigua was our first overseas test match since covid began, it’s been a long time coming but I’m sure everyone is excited to be travelling again with more and more restrictions being lifted by the day!

Our first opportunity to meet our clients was at Coolridge Cricket Ground, formally the Sticky Wicket, the famous ground built by Alan Stanford for the 20 million pound game.
It was to be the venue of our first event, without doubt a major coup for International Cricket Tours to be playing a cricket match at this iconic stadium. We have come a long way since I first had the idea of making more of an event out of this and challenged the hotel team to a game at the Dambulla Lake Hotel in Sri Lanka!
Following on from the cricket we had an open bar great food and the brilliant band “Spirited” which has two former West Indian legends playing Sir Curtly Ambrose & Sir Richie Richardson

The match was a great success, probably a tad biased as it was my first win on tour. My bowling was so bad that one of our players chased unsuccessfully a ball that trickled over the rope for four. He fell, almost strangling himself with the boundary rope and damaged his calf in the process. James Brumwell, apart from being a good friend is a great sport. In Cape Town he ended up in hospital! One more injury and I think we should give him the match ball mounted!
After a major contribution by Paul Taylor with the bat, every one on both sides played their part and victory went to the Antigua Pirates beating Richard’s side the Sticky Sloggers by around 30 runs.

Two Day’s later I had the unenviable task of sorting out 3000 tickets, not easy when at least 30% of the tickets were different from the previous day! After two Day’s of sorting we hired a car and delivered them.

We have a first wedding on this tour too. We had a couple getting married at Ocean Point Hotel – Pauline & Ozz. It’s just a shame that more of us couldn’t attend but Barbados was calling. Dom organised an impromptu stag do for Oz at lunch on the 5th Day of the test, that can only happen on a cricket tour! Pauline was presented with a Bride to be Tshirt on board our catamaran and the bubbles flowed.

The Test was very intriguing during the first three day’s but the pitch offered very little to the bowlers. I think we all more or less called a draw a long way out. We had several stoppages for rain during the match, in fact I can’t remember so much wind or rain in all the times I have been travelling to Antigua.

On Day two of the test Sara took the ladies on a day out- to Falmouth and Nelsons Dockyard with lunch overlooking the super yachts moored in the harbour finishing at Devils Bridge.

Our penultimate day in Antigua was with Wadadli Cats for a circumnavigation of Antigua, once again it was blighted by the weather, snorkelling didn’t happen due to the rough seas but at least they did get to swim around two different beaches where the weather was a lot nicer. I raised a toast to our long time good client Simon Cousins who lost his life to covid in 2019 and would have undoubtedly been here with Chris and Dave if that had not been the case. As we anchored on the beach of Dickerson Bay I said my goodbyes to those leaving us, and also to an emotional Pauline our bride to be!

Very best wishes to them both from all the travelling party and International cricket tours.
All the best
Gary