Saturday 30 March 2013

No Joy of Six as Indoor title hopes flop with semi loss

Easter weekend it is and more misery caused by a Cross - this time the 6 Men of the Holy Cross Cricket team!

Forrester High School was the venue for the Finals Night of the ESCA Indoor 6s tournament, with HX taking on Marchmont in the opening semi and Edinburgh Accies going into battle against Musselburgh.

So, after a call to arms, Sixes Skipper KF took his men, actually, Shannon was there on time and he done the coin toss, with the Cross fielding first.

Jimmy McOscar, took an early scalp and Shannon was on fire too, sending the bails in opposite directions.  Unfortunately, the Marchmont men had racked up a few hits off the walls, as you do in this version of the game, and they'd raced to 67-2 after 5 overs.


Balls bounced off walls as KF et al tried to mash Marchmont however it wasn't to be until the final over when McOscar had the easiest of run-outs to contend with. 


A further wicked fell when the big South African Corne van Jaarsveld tried to puncture a hole in the roof however the ball dropped from the rafters into the path of that man McOscar who whipped the bails off again.  Our opponents finished on 131-4, a pretty meaty total....

A low scoring attack to start off meant an extra special effort would be required to pull this one out the fire. Raja was stumped as he tried to whip up a haymaker, Jimmy was cleaned out and that meant KF came in to pull this all together.  The big hitter lashed out and his 6 & 4 in quick succession gave hope - until he was caught by Corne.....


It went from 57-2 to 57-3 then Shannon came along to add a few runs to the scoreboard before succumbing to a Chippy catch after the ball hit the roof before plummeting like a stone into his hands.

It was all over shortly after when, erm, 'Nightwatchman' Alex Candlish lost his wicket and with that, Cross lost their semi final.

In the Final, Marchmont swept aside Musselburgh, who could only hit 42 in their innings, and for the 2nd year in a row, the Indoor 6s trophy plus prize money went to Marchmont.  Well done guys.

Saturday 23 March 2013

New pavilion on its way as Council rubber-stamp StewMel lease plans.

Following Thursday's (21st March) meeting of the Edinburgh Council Finance & Budget Committee at the City Chambers, we are delighted to announce that the plans to grant a 60 year lease to Erskine Stewart’s Melville Governing Council re the Arboretum Road pavilion and playing field have been rubber stamped.

A Partnership Agreement (maybe we could call it The Arbo Agreement?!) will see Inverleith Rugby Club, Holy Cross Academicals Cricket Club & Standard Life Cricket Club, St Thomas of Aquin’s & Trinity Academy Schools and Spartans Youth FC as tenants.

Key elements of the plans, which we have been played an integral part in shaping, will see Stew Mel paying for the refurbishment of the presently derelict and iconic pavilion.  Costs are expected to be in the region of £500,000.  Initial drawings are pleasant with a balcony feature likely to be popular on a day where the mercury hits double figures!
 
 
 
This will of course see the dreadful portacabins (which cost the Council £10k pa over the best part of a decade) removed! 

When will this all happen? The timescales are to be finalised however it is hoped that everything could be ready mid-2014.  Fear not though fellow Crossers, the Green Room is safe! The existing Clubhouse will remain in situ and hopefully we'll be able to hand the biscuit tin around at both the Cricket and Rugby AGMs to buy a tin of paint to spruce it up inside!
 
Our thanks go to all key stakeholders who have worked together in the most impressive fashion to get this from a discussion in the Green Room to Council sign-off in less than 12 months.
 
The full report can be downloaded here

Sunday 3 March 2013

Activcity ESCA Indoor 6's

We won both of our games on Friday night and accumulated just enough bonus points to edge out Edinburgh South meaning we have qualified for the semi final on Friday 29th March (Easter Friday). Some more details can be found on the ESCA website.

Our team was

J McOscar
K Fraser
S McOscar (c)
S Bonfield
R Bainbridge
R Worsnop

Winning the toss in the first game and asking Edinburgh South to bat allowed us to set the tone for the evening by keeping it tight and picking up wickets with regularity. With a low target, we were able to pass their total without any scoreboard pressure for the loss of one wicket.

In the second game we bowled first, again our bowlers produced some gems keeping the pressure on Tranent and keeping their total down. Once more we were able to bat within ourselves. One short of their total Jimmy reached 25 and retired and we went past their score without losing any wickets.

Qualification would be calculated taking run rate into account. However in both games the skipper decided to ensure the win first and foremost and let the rest take care of itself. And maybe a little bit because none of us really knew the rules. As it turned out, this worked perfectly.

C'mon the Cross!!!