Story Hong Kong Days: Chapter 5: Where's Chris: Part 2

[TheGreemSim]

DRAKE THORPE: HONG KONG DAYS​

"Cricket may be a sport that not even half of the population of Hong Kong may have heard of however today the Hong Kong national cricket side made it's first steps to becoming a Test nation after ex Hong Kong and Dutch International Player, Steve Atkinson, was announced as the new coach.

Atkinson said in a press conference "I am delighted to be given the chance to lead such an aspiring nation. Cricket may not be a big name in Hong Kong at the moment but I assure you when I'm done it will be."
Hong Kong Metropolotis, Wednesday March 25th 2009

CHAPTER 1: THE CALL UP: PART 1​

It's rare to get much sporting news here in Hong Kong however as soon as I saw that article on the very back of the Hong Kong Metropolotis I cut out a snippet and pinned it to my bedroom wall.

Hi, the name's Drake Thorpe, born in Gloucestershire, England but raised hear in central Hong Kong. I'm a 15 year old die hard cricket fan who is unfortunately very isolated from the cricketing world as you'd imagine. I remember a few years ago seeing the Asia Cup. I was excited by the prospect of seeing my nation play against one of the world's best teams such as Pakistan. I travelled all the way to Sri Lanka only to be heartbroken by the fact that we lost by 173 runs. After reading this article however I was delighted as this could mean a reform for the Hong Kong cricketing side.

The World Cricket League Division 3 was coming up next month, We'll have a tough home match against Division 2 relegated Argentina which I was hoping to see live although I'd imagine I'd be the only person in the crowd with the exception of both teams players, coaches and physio's.

The Hong Kong Squad is to be announced in 3 days time. I've always wondered how they find these players as there isn't really any domestic cricket in Hong Kong except for a few clubs of mainly Pakistani or English born citizens. I play for a local club that is full of children unable to bowl a full length to middle aged men who are too weak to hold a bat. It's hard to find other clubs to play against although we do have an annual match against Kennedy Town Cricket Club tomorrow afternoon which I have been extremely looking forward to.

INDEX

CHAPTER 1: THE CALL UP
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

CHAPTER 2: TANZANIAN TROUBLE
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5

CHAPTER 3: A TASTE OF TWENTY-20
PART 1
PART 2

CHAPTER 4: VS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5

CHAPTER 5: WHERE'S CHRIS
PART 1
PART 2

OTHERS
HONG KONG ANNOUNCE SQUAD FOR WCL DIVISION 3
HONG KONG ANNOUNCE PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
HONG KONG BUS ATTACKED, HONG KONG METRO REPORTS
HONG KONG VS UNITED ARAB EMIRATES PREVIEW ON CRICINFO



DRAKE THORPE'S STATS

 

[Prithvi]

Ah. You're back. Thats the greatest thing. Good start

 

[AbhishekS]

Nice start. It was a nice and a simply read through the index. Loved the first post. Surely looking forward to this.

Cheers

 

[MaD]

Awesome start, looking forward to this story, what you doing it on?

 

[Aditya]

My friend you're back!

That's a nice start there mate,I hope you'll stick with this story,KIU and best of luck for this story.

 

[TheGreemSim]

My friend you're back!

That's a nice start there mate,I hope you'll stick with this story,KIU and best of luck for this story.

Hopefully this game won't suddenly start crashing on my pc like cricket07 and cricsim did

 

[pcfan123]

What game is this?

 

[Ollie_H]

Cricket Coach, it lets you play as associate nations.

 

[riz7khan12]

that story seemed pretty realistic, great start mate

 

[TheGreemSim]

CHAPTER 1: THE CALL UP: PART 2​

Well we lost to Kennedy Town CC, as expected. I beginning to think playing in a club is a waste of time. The majority of the team cannot play cricket to save themselves and it wastes an entire day where I'd much rather be studying for exams or going out with my friends. Their innings was agonisingly long, they got to 300/4 before they let us have a crack by which time it was late in the afternoon. Our team succumbed to a miserable 90 all out, okay I lied 85 all out... 81. I did however manage to get 50 odd runs to my name and 2 wickets.

The oppositions wicket keeper was amazing, he took 3 stumpings and 4 catches. He was probably 2 or 3 years my senior. short dark brown hair and multi-coloured braces. I could have sworn I'd seen him before. He struck a magnificent 64 not out. There was an old geezer standing all alone at the poor excuse for a pavilion and he would clap every time this wonder-keeper did something good. He also applauded me when I achieved a minor success in my innings which left me puzzled and I couldn't stop wondering who he was. I eventually came to the conclusion that the elderly gentleman was most likely the wicket keepers dad.

I walked home lugging a very heavy bag full of my cricket equipment. The sun was setting over the Hong Kong sky. the light reflected off of the glass high rise buildings. It was quite a sight.

As soon as I got home I shrugged the bag off which made a loud thump as it hit the wooden floor. marched up stairs to my room to do my very complicated mathematics homework. 20 minutes into it I heard the phone ring loudly but didn't bother picking it up and by the sound of it, it seemed that my mother had managed to get to it in time. For some reason I tried to listen into the conversation between my mother and the anonymous person on the other line however she was downstairs and I was upstairs so I could only hear mumbles.

Dinner was the Sunday night usual, stir fried rice accompanied by an assortment of vegetables.

"Oh by the way, somebody called for you, sounded like an elderly man." Mum announced halfway through.
"Oh yeah, what'd you say?" I replied curiously
"Don't worry, I just said you were busy with your homework and couldn't talk right now."
"Did they leave a name?"
"Yes but I don't remember."
"That's a shame."

We continued to eat our meal in silence until suddenly towards the end after I'd just finished my last mouthful of rice my mum burst out,

"ATKINSON!" She paused and my eyes widened.
"That's was it yes, Steven Atkinson."
"Are you joking?" I exclaimed
"No, no, that was his name, Steven Atkinson, mentioned something about coming along to the nets tomorrow, is he somebody from your cricket club?" In a mix of shock and excitement. spat water out of my mouth and it went all over my empty plate.
"Well d'you want to ring him back? he left his number, 2321-5123."

I raced upstairs without taking my plate up to the counter. literally dived for the phone as if it could be suddenly taken away and rapidly dialled away.

7 rings it took before Steve Atkinson answered, with each ring I worried more and more that he wouldn't answer.

"Hello" a man said, his voice calm and soothing.
"Uh, Hi-Hello," I stuttered
"How may I help you?"
"Are you Steven, Steven At-Atkinson?"
"Yes, yes I am." I couldn't believe I was on the phone to the Hong Kong cricket coach.
"Um hi, my name, my name is Drake Thor-"
"Ah yes, I know who you are. I phoned earlier but I believe you weren't available."
"Yes, but I am now."
"Terrific, well I just called to say that I saw your impressive innings today and I wanted to no if you'd like to come and train with the Hong Kong squad in the nets tomorrow. Their at Diamond Hill in Kowlon. Meet us there at 11 O'clock." He paused. "That is if you can make it of course."
"Oh of course, of course I can make it."
"Well look forward to seeing you there."

I hung up the phone slowly and the only though in my head was "I'm gonna play for Hong Kong"

TGS

Thanks for all of the feedback guys and sorry I've given you this lengthy block of text without one single picture, I'll make sure I add some in future parts.

 

[MaD]

Excellent writing, I already know that this story is gonna be great, hopefully it continues all the way, one of the better stories already

 

[riz7khan12]

man, your story's great:banana2

 

[TheGreemSim]

CHAPTER 1: THE CALL UP: PART 3​

"Good Luck boy!" My dad said proudly as I forcefully opened the car door open and walked around to the boot to grab my overwhelmingly large cricket bag. In the distance I could see a group of varied aged men in red and blue sports shirts. I stopped momentarily and pulled a cheap Chinese equivalent of lucozade out of my bag, called, heilikade, which I think meant enerygyade or possibly strengthade. The hot Asian sun was baking my pale Northern European skin and I was incredibly thirsty.

I felt nervous as I got closer to the training nets as people began to stop what they were doing and stared at me. I approached a man who had balding hair that was rapidly going from black to grey. I assumed he was the coach as he looked similar to the man who came to watch me play earlier this week. I shrugged my bag off of my shoulder and I was under the impression that the strap had left a bright red mark.

"Drake Thorpe is it?" he said and opened up his hand in front of me intending for me to shake it, I would've too had I not been so nervous at the time all I could stutter out was a,
"Er um, yes, yes I think so, sir." A few of the younger players giggled loudly. He took his hand back and seemed rather offended.
"Well this here is Courtney, Courtney Kruger, watch out for him, he's South African, can't be trusted." He was pointing at a young curly blond haired guy who had laughed at me before. It wasn't the fact that he was a foreigner playing for Hong Kong that intrigued me, it was the fact that the person standing next to him was the same wicket-keeper who absolutely caned us in the match against Kennedy Town CC.
"Next to him is my son, Jamie." Steve Atkinson said pointing a long outstretched finger at him.

And at last I realised who this astounding keeper was. He went to the same school as me, I remember when he left aged 15 there was a big award ceremony for him in assembly because he was leaving to play international cricket for Hong Kong in the ACC trophy against Pakistan and United Arab Emirates. Rumour had it he had somehow gotten into university at Durham in England.

I was told to go and train with both of them in the nets, they groaned but I didn't let it get me down. As we approached the nets Courtney and Jamie kept looking at me whilst whispering and laughing before Courtney finally said.

"I'll ped up, end yew cen bowl, give it your werst shot, mate," in broken English.

Before I took my run up position I tried to form an acquaintanceship with Jamie by saying,

"You used to go to the same school as me,"
"That's great, sport, now hurry up and bowl" he replied sarcastically, what a douche. How dare he have the nerve to call me sport, I'm only 2 or 3 years his junior.

I ran up faster than usual and jumped to early. The ball hurtled in the air and didn't bounce it ploughed straight into Courtney's stomach. He moaned and collapsed to the floor instantly. Jamie, a few others, and a girl ran over to him.

"Sorry" I muttered quietly but nobody heard.

I saw Courtney's face it was red and if he wasn't winded he would've been shouting numerous absurd insults at me. Jamie and the girl attempted to lift Courtney up whilst the other players gathered around him glared at me evilly. I noticed Steve Atkinson was looking at me. I gave him a guilty look however he surprised me because instead of replying with an angry look he just simply shrugged.

Once he was able to breathe again he got into position to face another one of my hopefully-not so-deadly-this-time balls but I could tell I had psyched him out. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the girl standing behind me. I bowled it much slower this time and he swung it into the air but over my head unfortunately. I figured I'd now have to run and get it but he suddenly shook his head in disappointment which made me turn around to see the girl had caught the ball.

"Er um, nice catch" I said nervously.
"Tank you" she replied in a strong Chine accent.
"Believe it or not, Drake is it?" Jamie paused awaiting for me to confirm my name.
"Yeah" I said.
"Believe it or not, this young lady is the youngest ever woman to play international woman's cricket. She made or d?but in 2006 aged 12 for Hong Kong woman's." He explained.
"Seriously?!" I was amazed.
"Yeppers" Jamie said in a silly tone before slapping her on the bum and giving her a kiss on the forehead.
"Doesn't speak much English either," he continued, she giggled and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Bit young for you isn't she?" I said hoping to make him laugh.
"No such thing as too young in my opinion." He replied smoothly but disturbingly.

I spent the next 10 minutes bowling average balls at Courtney before Jamie exchanged his keeping pads for his batting pads. He was better than when I'd bowled to him earlier this week, and no matter how I bowled he smacked me away.

Everyone dispatched quickly but the coach asked me to stay behind. He made sure everybody had left before approaching me. I noticed he had a piece of important looking papaer sticking out of his shirt pocket.

"Well Drake," he said whilst swinging his arms from side to side, he sounded very negative and I was expecting the worst so I cut in quickly.
"Look, sir, I know my bowling wasn't very good and I'm sorry for injuring one of your players but I never got a chance to bat, If you'd just seen me bat-" he cut me off.
"Hey I saw you bowl, everybody has a bad day it's natural. Sure you had some loose balls but you showed you were mentally tough which is what I'm looking for in a player. You told to go off with a bunch of strangers then hurt one of them but still didn't get worried and it didn't affect your performance. This here in my pocket is a plane ticket to Tanzania where Division 3 will be held this year." He pulled a ticket out of his pocket and gave it to me. "It's yours if you want it."

I almost snatched the ticket out of his hands, I was so excited. My time had finally come.

"Listen kid" he continued. "You've got potential, I'm announcing the squad in a press conference tonight and I'm happy to say you'll be in it."

I shoved the ticket in my pocket slowly and the only thought in my head was "I'm definitely gonna play for Hong Kong.



TGS

The final part of Chapter 1 is a bit longer but some pictures in this one. Oh and yes all the players in this part are in fact all real. Thanks again for the encouraging comments.

 

[harrisb]

very nice tgs, can't wait to see more of this.

 

[TheGreemSim]

Once again thanks for all of the praise, Chapter 2: Tanzanian Trouble starts tomorrow.