Following its first Brazilian championship in 8 years the previous December, Carioca Cricket Club was determined to prove that this was not just a flash in the pan in the first of 2 proposed competitions in 2022. However, after the departures of several players in the interim, including previous captain Cam, this was a new look CCC Lions side under the leadership of Spike Strang. Furthermore, this edition of the John Landers Shield had 6 entrants, and strong-looking teams from São Paulo, São Paulo Brás, MGCC, and Poços de Caldas would surely provide strong competition to the Lions. Also representing the CCC was a second team, the All Stars, led by Greg and featuring many players making a return to the field after prolonged absences and even a few debutantes playing in their first competitive matches.

CCC Lions started off their defense with a game against the young guns from Poços, with CCC going into bat first. The going was tough during the first 10 overs with Poços’ bowlers bowling dry. Only Doug ‘Bez’ Berryman showed any fluency for CCC, but at the halfway point a useful-looking platform of 66 for 1 had been built. What followed was rather familiar for England fans, as a middle-order collapse left CCC looking at the prospect of an inadequate total. Only some late order fireworks from Rob Tuck, who hit 41 of 24 balls, took CCC to a respectable-ish total of 119-7. It was still a score that would take some defending, with the short square boundaries looking inviting. Wickets did fall at regular intervals, with Doug Bez taking 3 and Doug ‘The Head’ Hutchings taking 2, but the result was never in doubt with Poços’ middle-order regularly sending the ball over the square leg boundary. Michael Assunção top-scored with 46 of 23 balls as Poços reached the total in the 13th over.

The Lions now had a must-win game against MGCC, and again went into bat first once again. This time, however, openers Spike and a newly-promoted Rob got the CCC off to a great start, scoring at around 10-an-over. When they departed, new recruit Azmat Khan came to the crease and treated the spectators to a display of awesome hitting. No bowler was safe as he blazed 78 off 40 balls, and with able support from John Singleton and Justin Thornycroft, CCC posted an imposing-looking total of 214-5. MGCC knew they couldn’t hang around, and began promisingly recording 31-2 after 2 overs. Then followed a magical spell of bowling from CCC veteran Dale Smith, who had recently taken up leg-spin. This proved to be an inspired choice as his mix of big spinners and cunning faster deliveries was too much for Minas. Dale ended up with his maiden 5-wicket haul as MGCC fell short by 90 or so runs.

The Lions went into Sunday knowing that only a victory would give them a chance to play in the final. They faced SP Brás, who had won both games on Saturday. CCC won the toss and elected to field first. Doug TH and Azmat kept things tight during the powerplay, restricting SP Brás to just 35 off the first 6 overs, and Dale and Justin kept the pressure on. But a couple of dropped catches and a missed stumping meant that the SP Brás openers Khalid and Rahman were able to dig in, and after drinks they began to turn up the heat. Overs 13-16 saw the score rise from 91 to 162, during which Khalid completed his century. Khalil finally made the breakthrough with an excellent ball to dismiss Rahman, and a fine catch from Spike off Doug TH removed Rudy. A couple of well-executed run-outs sent batsmen 4 and 5 back to the pavilion. Thus, CCC tightened things up from overs 17-20, with SP Brás ending on 182.

183 was not an easy target, but CCC openers Rob and Khalil began positively, hitting 34 over the first 3 overs. However, two scorching balls from Amit removed both men in quick succession, and thereafter CCC found themselves on the backfoot, reaching just 69 at the halfway mark. After Azmat’s dismissal to the plumbest LBW this writer has ever seen, Spike and Justin came in to stop the rot. The captain made a solid 21 but was then caught and bowled by Rudy. Dale came in, and he and Justin took the game to SP Brás’ varied selection of bowlers (8 in total) with some aggressive batting. Despite their best efforts, the target was just too high, and CCC Lions finished their innings with 157, and with that the dream of defending the title was over.

First up was SP Bras, who batted first. The CCC All Star bowlers put up a good front, with Oliver taking 3 wickets for only 36 runs. The All-Stars took an additional 3 wickets, but SP Bras found the boundary an easy target racking up a total of 30 sixes. Opener M. Ilyas led the batting from the first ball making 134 before being bowled lbw by Ed. Ismat was starting to look comfortable until his wicket was taken LBW by Patrick. The target of 320 was daunting, as the All-Stars padded up, but the talk was of making use of the shorter boundary and working together for the singles. Afzal made the most of the pitch with 3 sixes and a few singles, to make 21 before being bowled out by Sikander. Patrick, Greg and Michael added runs to the total, with Dave left standing at 7 not out. However, the SP Bras bowlers proved too much for the All-Stars with Sikander leading the attack taking 3 wickets for 9 runs. The All-Stars were all out in 13 overs for 56.

Not down-hearted the All-Stars went out determined to bring some pride back to the team in their second match, which was against São Paulo. Batting first they played out 19 overs with Afzal again leading the batting making 27. He found the boundary several times before being bowled out by Yasar. The whole team contributed to the total of 105. with Oliver and Dave also finding the boundary, both making 13 runs each. Whilst this may be considered unlucky for some, they proved very useful to the team. The bowling of Yasar and Rohan proved most dangerous, taking 3 wickets a piece. It took Sao Paulo 8 overs to reach their target. Most of the leg work was done by Rohan, who hit 83 not out. Oliver was the only All-Stars bowler to take a wicket, keeping Nazmul to 4 runs before bowling him out. Out in the field, Michael found his position at silly mid-off/on stopping a number of singles. Whilst Ben, playing his first competitive game, proved that a good arm from the boundary can make batters think twice about running for 2.

The final game on Sunday against Minas Gerais CC found the team still smiling and enjoying their cricket despite the previous day’s results. A change in players saw Amit and Hugo swap in for Dave and Afzal. For the final time in the tournament the All-Stars batted first, but for the first time they battled for the whole 20 overs, scoring 97. Notable innings came from Greg with 26, including 4 boundaries, and Oliver with 17. However, the performance of the weekend came from Ed, who finished with 35 not out, having hit 4 boundaries and run several singles in the heat. He was supported by Hugo, Richard Fenning and Mike (who also finished not out). The leading MGCC bowler, Bernie took 2 wickets for 16 runs. The All-Stars took to the field, with the help of Hugo’s mum ensuring they could cover the whole pitch. The wicket proved difficult for bowlers on both sides with the ball keeping low and unpredictable wicketkeeper Sarah had her work cut out for her. Working to overcome this the bowlers started well removing both the opening batsmen for 9 runs. Oliver took his wicket tally for the tournament to 5 and Mike took his first-ever wicket in a match. For MGCC, Andrew and Struan went on to play out the match with Struan finishing the innings with a boundary and taking MGCC to 100.

It had to be admitted that results on the pitch for both CCC teams left something to be desired. However, everybody could reflect on some entertaining games and memorable performances, not to mention some amusing anecdotes arising from the Saturday night socialising! The Cariocas could now enjoy some much-needed R & R watching the final, another “classico” between São Paulo and SP Bras. With the trees’ shadows slowly lengthening across the outfield in the evening sun, spectators from all teams enjoyed some cold drinks and pleasant relaxation while a hard-fought, low-scoring game played out, SP Bras finally emerging as deserved victors. And as everybody packed up, said their goodbyes, and began their journeys home, a few cricket-obsessives turned their thoughts as to how the new champions could be unseated in the following Nationals in the autumn.