The coming weekend of 12th and 13th February will mark the 40th Anniversary of The British Club of Bangkok playing cricket against The Chiengmai Gymkhana Club at the historic Chiengmai Gymkhana Club grounds. The British Club will be playing a warm-up match on the Saturday and then will contest the Dick Wood Cup against Gymkhana Club Cricket Section on Sunday from 10.30 am.
Players from cricket and other sports (tennis, squash, golf) at Gymkhana will also take part in the celebrations that will include a party on Saturday evening and a presentation on Sunday from 4.30 pm as the combined teams compete to win the Chairman’s Cup. The British Club of Bangkok made their first visit to Chiang Mai to play cricket against Gymkhana Club in April 1982 and Dick Wood, son of one of the founder members of Chiengmai Gymkhana Sports Club, was so pleased with the cricket he saw that he gave his name to a trophy which the two teams could play for each year and the Dick Wood Cup was contested for the first time in 1983.
Jack Dunford was on the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai with his team-mates in 1982 and has been part of the Bangkok Club touring party ever since, and has been giving a speech at the end of match presentation for many years, paying tribute to Dick Wood who lies buried in the cemetery just beyond the boundary. Even Covid-19 that has disrupted the world for the past few years could not stop the contest for the Dick Wood Cup taking place in 2021 and British Club have now won the last two matches to end a long sequence of success for Gymkhana Club which had ended on nine successive victories.
The Dick Wood Cup is one of the most prestigious fixtures of the year in Chiang Mai sport and the British Club always look exceptionally smart in their blazers and the day on Sunday may well start with them posing with the trophy they retained last year. Gymkhana Club will be looking to reclaim the Dick Wood Cup and also the Chairman’s Cup which was also won by British Club last year. There will be a bar in operation during the event.
