McGill's 70th.

Bunch of ugly crossers @HXCricket @beefrazor @vikgaware pic.twitter.com/RVYqcY52r4
— andy graham (@crosstastic) December 11, 2014

A Fond Farewell...

It was a fond farewell to this pair of long standing servants at Arbo earlier this week. #goodriddance pic.twitter.com/VPqffpSEvB
— Holy Cross Cricket (@HXCricket) October 3, 2014

Almost There....

With 4 changing rooms, a tea room & staff accommodation, the new Arbo Pavilion has it's formal opening next Saturday. pic.twitter.com/XBcDjXYRq0
— Holy Cross Cricket (@HXCricket) August 31, 2014

Season ends in the darkness at Grange Loan

Holy X 1st XI v Carlton 2's

Saturday dawned fine enough and looked like we’d get to at least start the final league match of the season, although some heavy downpours had been predicted from mid-afternoon onwards.

This fixture had little on the line for Holy Cross as we could finish no lower than 6^th or possibly 7^th if we got absolutely gubbed and Penicuik managed to do the unthinkable and beat Glenrothes.

For Carlton on the other hand, this game had huge importance, in terms of their hopes of avoiding automatic relegation, as they were about 1% behind West Lothian in 8th place!

It was an unusual start to the match, as I lost the toss for only the 2^nd time this season! Brad elected to bowl and have us set them a target to chase down.

We got off to almost the perfect start, with Saideep playing an exquisite lofted straight drive over mid-off for 4 runs, from a rather bewildered looking Ahmed Shah. Unfortunately Saideep missed his third ball, a straight delivery that hit middle pin, reducing the Cross to 4-1 off just 3 balls.

Raja and myself then built a handy partnership reaching 53-1 off 13 overs, when I somehow managed to hit a straight drive to a diving Aslam at mid-wicket who took a tidy catch. Charlie and Raja added 19 runs for the 3^rd wicket, before Charlie repeated my dismissal, of which CoCo took great joy in reminding me of that fact!

In came the master blaster Owais and he had Raja took to their typical  style, singles + 4’s or 6’s and started building a nice total. At drinks we were 97-3 with both guys looking comfortable. After another 10 overs had passed we were on 135-3 when the predicted afternoon rain dumped a large amount of water in the space of about 20 minutes.

Early tea was taken and play resumed at 4:02pm, however the break in play really halted our momentum. We lost Raja for a fine 83, who was looking well set to easily pass 3 figures with 12 overs still remaining.

Then Dougie was run out for just 2, 3 overs later.

Owais fell a couple of overs after for a solid 30 and Holy X had slumped to 158-6 off 42.

Jimmy’s stay at the crease was short lived, getting bowled round his legs by a fine bit of leg-spin bowling from Aslam. Which sparked scenes that will surely lead Jimmy to take home the award for Hissy Fit of the season and reduced another of his bats to firewood!

As usual, Julius provided some entertainment with some lovely hockey shots, scoring 24 runs in pretty reasonable time. He and Bonfield had put on 20 runs in 5 overs, before Newman hitt a catch high in the air off McKay in the final over, which left Bacon to stand at the non-strikers end for the final delivery of our innings.

Holy Cross finishing 189-8 off 50.

A decent and defendable total, but possibly 20-30 runs short considering we were 135-3 off 35 overs!

After a quick turn-around, the plan was to try and restrict Carlton in terms of runs and pick up the odd wicket. With one eye on the weather, I was hoping we’d get to the 20 over mark before the rain arrived again and hopefully be ahead using the trusty ESCA Rain Calculator.

There was plenty of banter in the changing shed as Shannon and Charlie were only separated by 1 wicket for their season tallies, so I decided to let them go head to head and open the bowling in partnership for what I believe was the first time this season.

Both bowled extremely well and gave away very few runs, Shannon typically being too good to get the much needed edge and Charlie working away to bore the batsmen into a loose shot. Bonfield made the breakthrough in the 9^th over Bowling MacPherson for just 5, reducing Carlton to 16-1.

I had already made the decision to take Shannon off and bring on Bacon, to try and race through some overs, but the rain beat me to it! Off for another delay after 11.5 overs, however we were able to get back on after only 20 minutes off the field.

At the end of 12^th, Carlton were 19-1 and Charlie had bowled 6 overs and only conceded 3 runs! Which included 3 maidens, 1 wide and 1 no-ball!

The introduction of Bacon saw him pick up wickets in his first and fourth overs, which was also followed by Charlie taking a wicket in his final over.

Carlton now really struggling at 46-4 off 20 and Holy Cross in total control, particularly with the light now starting to fade and another large group of black clouds about to swallow up any sunlight that could potentially see us get through the final 30 overs.

Ali Shah and Atkin then put on a useful 50 run partnership for the 5^th wicket, which was aided by the odd loose ball here and there. But in general, Raja and Newman both bowled some good lines and we were still pretty sharp in the field. So at the 30 over mark Holy Cross were still ahead in my mind, having restricted Carlton to 90-4.

After Shah departed for a well compiled 42, although he was given a couple of chance in Bonfield’s final over, with a dropped catch by Spickers and a very close LBW shout turned down. Newman then managed to capture the wicket of big hitting Atkin for 26 a few overs later – Carlton now 116-6 off 37 overs and 189 looked a long way off in the impending darkness.

With our main guns bowled out already, the ball was tossed back to Bacon and Dougie was introduced at the 42 over mark with Wells and F. Allardice already having added 28 off their last 5 overs.

These 2 batted extremely well, both patiently waited for and also put away any bad balls, as well as ran between the wickets with a spritely nature that is sadly lacking at the Cross.

Bacon who bowled very well, was taken for 10 runs from his 7^th over, the 45^th of the innings (which unfortunately including 2 overthrows). This took the equation for Carlton down to needing 26 runs off 30 balls.

With Bonfiled, Ellis and Javed all having completed their 10 overs, I decided to roll the arm over, which initially paid dividends for Carlton. I made the error of moving Dougie back up to a regulation Square Leg, then Wells delightfully clipped the very next ball past Dougie for 4.

Carlton now needing just 21 runs off 28 balls.

With the light fading rapidly and the umpires having a quick chat, but deciding to keep going, Carlton only needed 7 runs from the final 12 balls to take out what seemed like a very unlikely victory at several different points of the game.

I bowled the 49 over and the first 4 delivery went for 3 runs, so 4 required off 9 ball, surely Carlton were in sight of an important victory, which would see them leap above West Lothian and out of the final automatic relegation spot on the league table.

By this time, even I was struggling to see Wells taking his guard at the other end of the pitch. With the 5^th ball of the over, I managed to pick up an inside edge which was held by Spickers and a huge appeal, somewhat belatedly saw Umpire Smith raise his finger and send Wells back to the hut with 46 next to his name in the book.

He’d taken Carlton to the brink of victory, 186-7 with 7 balls remaining!

With no further runs coming off the last ball of the 49^th, Dougie stepped up to bowl the last over in now near darkness. 4 runs required off 6 balls.

Dougie’s first 2 balls saw 2 dots and then a single, which seemingly swung the pendulum back towards the Cross. With his 3^rd ball of the over, he clean bowled R. Allardice with a well-pitched full delivery.

Carlton now 187-8.

In marched the Carlton Skipper MacKay, who with 2 balls remaining needed to somehow score 3 runs in what was almost complete darkness. Dougie darted one in sharp and yet another dot ball.

Carlton now requiring 3 runs off the final ball to win.

In moved Dougie to deliver the final ball, MacKay took a swipe at the ball and made a pretty decent connection straight down the ground to Raja left at mid-on. Young Allardice had taken off out of the non-strikers crease like Usain Bolt and had rapidly turned for the second, before Raja had made it to the ball.

The throw came in, but Allardice was well home taking Carlton to an identical score of 189-8 and game tied.

It was a fitting end to a game that both sides will feel they probably should have won at various points in the second innings.

Looking back you will always see moments which could have changed the outcome in your favour, such as one less wide, one less miss-field, or a dropped catch being taken etc etc etc.

Walking off and shaking hands with the Carlton lads, they were visibly disappointed that they hadn’t done enough to win the game and ensure they jumped over West Lothian.

Not long after getting off the park, after some furious calculations, an almighty roar emerged from the Carlton changing rooms. The 15 points from the drawn game was enough to move them up in to 7^th place and out of automatic relegation.

The draw saw us move back in to 5^th place in the Championship. I had targeted a top 5 finish at the start of the season, so am pretty happy to have ticked that off and guaranteed our place in the 2015 edition of the ESCA Championship.

Many thanks to all the guys who played for the 1^st XI in the league and other competitions this season. We used a total of 29 players in the Championship, which is quite impressive for a small club like Holy Cross.

I’d particularly like to thank the chaps that stepped in and took over the Skipper duties in my absence and also the guys from the 2’s and 3’s, who played a major part in several games. Which included a very important victory over Penicuik, in which we played 5 guys from our 2/3’s!

So all in all a good season for the 1^st XI in my eyes and looking forward to the awards evening on the 30^th!

League Weekend 18

Saturday -

• 1sts vs Carlton 2nds, away.
• 2nds vs Selkirk at Arbo.

Sunday -

• Presidents Plate final vs Tranent at Arbo.

The 3rds' last game of the season is at Inverleith Park next Saturday and will be followed by a barbecue and Awards Night.

WAMMO - Fantasy Cricket

We generally enjoy our visits to Fettes to play Grange, though we generally enjoy the off-field activities more than the on-field. There's the annual search for CJ Barker's name on the College honours board in the historic pavilion with its historic/fetid (Fettid?) loos. There's the annual wondering why N Webb and the pool team don't have a board of their own. Towards the end there's the annual boundary golf. And in between there's the annual defeat.

Best name ever? WAMMO Montgomery-Cuninghame.

This year's defeat was less crushing than some, and certainly less crushing than our earlier meeting this season, but only for strange reasons that we'll come to later.

The game started quite well as Ross took a tumbling catch in the covers to dismiss Metcalfe and optimism began to spread as Collister (hotfoot, or rather hot-tyred, along with Andy G from a Grange hockey match on the other side of the vast Fettes sports campus) scored all his early runs with aerial shots sliced through the covers while Bray played and missed. But positivity was as ill-judged as the shorts worn by three of our number on the coldest and windiest afternoon of the season and Collister (112) and Bray (78) built a fine 200 run stand. Gerry Lohan and Matt Henton in particular bowled well early on and there was a flurry of wickets in the last few overs, but this stand was the basis of a formidable 238 for 6.

Any tea to which Aqeel Aslam has contributed is a fine tea, but sadly it didn't fortify the Cross batting much. When the rain that had been threatening all afternoon finally arrived to put paid to the game we were 84 for 5 in the 22nd over, thanks in no small part to a fine spell from Tomar (6-1-9-2).

It was, therefore, with some surprise that we found a few days later that we had only lost by 52 runs according to the ESCA Rain Calculator. The Rain Calculator is a mysterious beast. Earlier this season it decided that Stirling County 3rds, 77 for 7 against us when the game was abandoned after 25 overs, would have gone on to make 134. Now it peered into the future and opined that our last five wickets would have added a further 102 runs at over 4 an over.

Of course, Andy G was 16 not out at the end and already biffing merrily (and oddly straight and offsidedly), so perhaps the Rain Calculator saw another Graham ton on the way. Or maybe it thought Gerry and Smudge were set to sweep and scamper the runs? Or perhaps Andy Donaldson was going to open his mighty shoulders and spank some sixes? We hear that the ESCA boffins will be working through the winter to upgrade the system to produce extrapolated scorecards, but for now, sadly, we will never know.

Gone With the Wind - 3rds' Promotion Hopes Blown Away in St Andrews

Alex Candlish reports -

On a blustery afternoon in St Andrews 11 brave Crossers (there were only 8 four weeks earlier) rocked up with a sense of optimism that two successive promotions could be achieved. What a difference four hours of blustery cricket makes.

Captain Carnage (or MS Candlish) won the toss and chose to bat in what was a 50/50 call on whether to bat or bowl first. You may be told differently by 10 other Crossers but with our chasing record I will stick up for myself in this instance.

Mahmood and Ken opened the batting with their typical watchful play as HX made it to the 10 over mark with no wickets down but with only 15 or so on the  board. Ken's wicket in the 11th over brought El Pres to the crease only to be bowled first ball. Mike Nevin survived the hat-trick ball but he and Mahmood were soon gone and others followed in a flurry of wickets as Largo continued to bowl well. Kappy Gilmore looked to steady the ship for a while with some solid forward defensives but, after agreeing that we was going to block out a few more, Elmo attempted to smash a 6 back to Arbo into the wind and was caught on the boundary. A classic HX batting collapse - all out for 53 in about 27 overs. Savage amusement as my father says.

Despite having an excellent bowling line-up, 53 was just never going to be enough and the much sought after victory eluded us as Largo passed out total in around 22 overs.

1st XI Secure Championship Status

A bit better... with the 1sts ensuring they will (barring another league reconstruction!) definitely play in the ESCA Championship in 2015 with a solid win over Penicuik. Though the pitch had some mixed bounce, 125 was always likely to be comfortable total to chase. It certainly was after Saideep Kc & Raja's early onslaught - 60 off the 1st 6 overs! 4 wickets from Shannon (should have been a five-for...) and a perfect 'spell' by Rob Bainbridge were the highlights of the bowling effort. It also featured one of the slowest opening bowlers in ESCA history... The match may also have featured GT's retirement-but we hope not. 

Scorecard here:
http://www.cricketstats.org.uk/esca/2014/1/0509.html


Meanwhile the 2's lost (by a margin) on D/L as driving rain brought their match with Grange 3's at Fettes to an early conclusion. Despite some nice driving from JB & some biffing from Andy Graham, Grange's 238 always looked beyond the HX 2's.
The 3rds' promotion chances ended with a bad loss at St Andrews vs Largo. We believe it was bad... Alex Candlish wasn't prepared to divulge any details...

League Weekend 17

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Penicuik at Arbo.
• 2nds vs Grange 3rds at Fettes.
• 3rds vs Largo 3rds at St Andrews.

Sunday -

• Presidents Plate semi-final vs Preston Village at Arbo.

Cor! Stuffing. 2s Mauled by Lions.

Another sterling effort by the selectors had just about scraped together 11 for the game against high-flying RH Corstorphine 2nds. But at 1pm there were only ten Crossers present. Who was missing?

Not Bainbro, who had driven back from Manchester, powered by Red Bull and indignation over the Old Trafford authorities' squeamishness over a damp patch in the outfield. (It wouldn't happen at Arbo - the squeamishness, that is, rather than the damp patch). Nor any of the drivers who had been forced by the foodie gathering in Inverleith Park to dump their cars so far from the ground that frankly they might as well have left them at the Lions' HQ in Barnton. No. It was Willie Lytle, marooned on Inchcolm island in the middle of the Forth by a late-returning boat - easily the best Cross excuse since Norrie was "detained" for the trip to Prestonpans two years ago.

I'm labouring all this introductory stuff because, sadly, an account of the game itself has little to offer the average Cross-fanatic reader of this blog. We lost too many early wickets to over-ambitious attack against disciplined bowling on a wicket that occasionally offered surprising bounce and so found ourselves 48 for 4 and 67 for 5 before rallying to 159 for 8. The rally was almost entirely down to an entertaining stand of 60 between Quinny (46) and Vik (29) who showed the application the top order, with the partial exception of BAF, hadn't. Vik's knock finished 4-4-4-out and finally messed up Gibson's otherwise excellent figures of 8-1-40-4. How Abid (9-4-13-0) didn't take a wicket or three is anyone's guess and West (9-5-14-1) and Dutia (9-2-36-2) offered excellent support for the openers with nagging accuracy and flighted leg-spin respectively.

We had an early breakthrough as BAF pulled off another run-out (rather less slow-mo than the one against Watsonians) to dismiss the dangerous Sathiy. Praveen (7-2-22-0) and Bainbro (9-2-32-0) produced tight and threatening opening spells. But then it all went downhill fairly quickly as Gus Hoffman (113 no) took charge. JB, who was bowling like a drain (straight and full of sh*t), suffered the most as Hoffman peppered the short legside boundary. A Corstorphine win by 8 wickets with 14 overs to spare was a fair reflection of the gulf - they should do very well next year in Division 3.

Fuds' Fielding is the Highlight of the Weekend of Woe!

[Andy G reports on the match between HX 3's & Glenrothes 3's]

The 3rd X trucked to Glens on Saturday morning full of beans and arrived early. Yes that's right, 9 of 10 arrived at 12.15!! Unheard of! So in order to not embarrass ourselves with any sort of warm up we hung out in the changing room until 1250 mostly chatting about how good England are and what would Dhoni do against Coco's pace?!

Naturally Mahmood rocked up at 5 to 1 ...and to the wrong car park.

We were told that we'd be playing on the big pitch! That would have been great!! Unfortunately, it was really wet after the night before - the groundsman had said it needed watered so didn't put the covers on overnight! We would have played if there was no alternative but thought it would be a much better game if we played on the arti!

We assembled the nets around the outfield (though this didn't help as we still lost 6 balls - don't worry Jon only 1 new one was lost!) and tossed up. I won the toss and decided to bat, mostly cause I was a bit tired after hockey pre-season fitness and didn't want to field until I'd had tea! It's the finer details that determines decisions of what way the captain will elect to start the game when he wins the toss...

So Mahmood and Mike kitted up and sauntered in! The first ball; Mike hits it straight to a fielder and shouts YES! in true Nevin style. Mahmood sprints 2 paces then falls over in the middle of the crease. The Glenrothes fielder launches the ball in and the wickety was haulted by their skipper from taking the bails, very sporting !! Mahmood reciprocated by not scoring a run off the next 19 balls he faced - good coastal erosion!

Nevin hit 3 and was bowled bringing the Parker to the crease. He had gone to his brother's for tea the night before so was full of good red wine and brandy - unfortunately this wasn't a winning combination! It needs to be rum before a cricket game Ross, you know that!!
Ross went to hit one and it went high - their skippa made up some  ground to take it at mid on!

So I pop in at the 16th over. I'd been scoring since the start and really needed a wazz but couldn't leave scoring cause i'd been next in since the 12th! I decided I just had to see off 4 overs before scuttling off behind a container!! After 19 overs we had 44 runs (only 14 off 4 with me and Mahmood so pretty slow!) Mahmood then gets bowled!! This brought in the powerhouse - Fraser Buchanan. We had drinks - and I excused myself - and this brought a lease of life to the Cross!

It also made the wicket keeper a bit chattier - after i'd scratched around a bit for the last 4 overs he was getting chirpier (asking if I knew that we were playing cricket? did I know I needed to try and hit the rope? Were we trying to get 70 to get 1 batting point? Did my shorts and sock combination come in white cause the blue looks a bit village?)

I enjoyed this chat ... A lot! It was really good - I had a chat with him after and said if he ever moved to Edinburgh he should come to the cross. I asked him if he would like to put someone on the rope at cow corner and he said that because I hadn't hit a shot past short mid on. So I gave Butchy the wink ...

We proceeded to smack the ball around all corners of the ground.
After the 20th over (having hit a 6 and 2 4s to cow / long mid on) I asked the wickey the same question- they then had 3 on that boundary! Butchy and I hit 90 off 9 overs before I played across a straight one and was bowled for 68! Disaster, I didn't think and was punished! Bit silly but I made it to 400 for the season, only 20 odd short of Ross last season so I'll take that!

Butchy shortly followed me back to the rope on 26 a good but short lived partnership!
Dom and Elmondt were in next. Dom 'the new Mike Nevin' McMonagle played technically well but couldn't get the ball off the square. He then calamitously ran Elmondt out ... He still thinks there was a run straight to a lad in the covers!

There was a little wagging of the tail with Andy Donaldson striking a good 6 and losing a ball. But we were done-168 all out! Not a terrible score but with that short boundary we probably needed more than 200.

Delicious tea - someone had clearly been watching the Bake Off as there was a rather delightful carrot cake sitting out! Scrumptious !

Elmondt and Dom opened the bowling. Both bowled really well, Elmondt cracked open the wickets with a chap trying to hit him and Butchy back peddling in to take it at short mid wicket! Unfortunately we didn't take any more early wickets and although we limited them to 35 off 16, it wasn't quite enough - Elmo went for 4 runs and Dom 31.

Ross, in his second over picked up a wicket! He bowled an absolute howler of a ball - so bad that he'd already turned his back so he didn't have to look at it go over the rope. But never fear bucket hands McGonagle had it covers a great diving catch on the boundary bundling himself forward to not allow it over the rope! Great catch - catch of the season for me!

This opened them up a little bit with Coco taking one at the other end. A shot from their no. 4 getting scooped high in the air, spinning like mad off the edge - only for Gareth Howlett to get himself in a really good position to take the catch! Really good catch again! Coco bowled another; the spin, pace and flight confused the young keeper!
The last wicket we took was from Andy Donaldson -again another of these catch things! Elmondt at deep mid off! Excellent catching display; 4 of 4 taken on the day!

Although it was too little. They dispatched our short deliveries for 4s and 6s with one chap making 97*. If we had one more player either a bat to score 30 more runs or a bowler to get a couple more tight overs then we would have had a bit more of a chance.
A really commendable effort from the troops, everyone contributed with either a run, a catch or a wicket! Couldn't ask for much more against the league champs.

So it's not in our hands to go up any more but I tell you something selection's looking rosy for Saturday and our match away to Largo!!

Sunday Match OFF-

Today's track. @HXCricket pic.twitter.com/Q4EaJ03WeP
— Brian Adam Fraser (@beefrazor) August 10, 2014

Some might say...a shame the rain didn't arrive 24 hrs earlier

League Weekend 18 - Our 1000th Post

Saturday's League fixtures -

• 1sts vs Grange 2nds, away.
• 2nds vs RH Corstorphine 2nds at Arbo.
• 3rds vs Glenrothes 3rds, away.

Sunday -

• Presidents Plate semi-final vs Preston Village at Arbo, 1pm start.

This is our 1000th blog post. So far it's almost as dull as the first, the thrillingly titled AGM News, from April 2009. That one deservedly got a duck according to the Google Blogger stattos with precisely zero page views. We've got a little better at finding an audience as things have gone on, with a total of just under 130,000 page views over the last five years and six seasons.

The top posts? A Ziggy match rant report? A KF essay on the Ashes or sermon on the evils of warming up? Something lavishly illustrated with Broon's superb photos?  No. The toppest, oddly, is Last Trophy of 2011. First Trophy of 2012, Charlie's telegraphic account of our Presidents Trophy triumph over Fauldhouse, with well over 4000 views. Strangely this is more than a hundred times as many readers as bothered to look up KF's excellent later photo-essay on the same game, Cup Final Pics.

Charlie obviously has a populist touch as the number two post with over 1500 views is Coaching Corner (part 2 of a continuing series) an essay on the importance of the long barrier technique and CA Smith's failure to deploy it correctly (although it was all, of course, EC Smith's fault). [Part 1, for those interested, was an essay on the forward defensive and Ellis Senior's failure to deploy it correctly .....]

In third place, with over 500 views, is Bainbro's Saturday Night Entertainment, outlining plans for the 2011 club arm-wrestling tournament. Bainbro was also responsible in a sense for number 4, JB's pulsating account of the 2nds' tie with Preston Village earlier this season, Saideep Stars as Twos Tie. Its 538 views were almost entirely down to Bainbro posting a link on Saideep's Facebook account - few Crossers past or present can have had so many digital fans, although KF's recent account of our complete humping by Glenrothes looked on course for a similar readership after an umpire circulated a link to his colleagues. Thankfully JB edited out all the interesting comments in that one before it could attract an even wider readership, or it might have displaced some of KF's finest work from the top five, namely his remarkable dissection of the Norrie Webb myth, Webb Posting, which mystified 299 readers including FFS (remember him?).

Meadows Mayhem.

Andy G reports on a 3rd XI victory at the Meadows. A Shame the '1sts' couldn't do the same on Wednesday.

After negotiating the start of a pre season hockey match on Thursday night the #fuds managed to gather 11 for Saturday’s epic tie against Watsonians.

After much emailing on Friday morning we obtained the crucial information that vegetarians were not  allowed in Watsonians which meant we could crack on with the inspired idea of a BBQ and beer cricket day at the Meadows. Elmo became available late which meant we had a real south African braai!

Anyway, after organising folk to bring meat, some of the highlights - Parker with his lemon and pepper marinated chicken wings, Elmondt had procured a large south African sausage and Mark and I brought our chipolatas as well as soya sauce pork chops. I must admit it was a pretty impressive feast!

So whilst Parker’s chicken was marinading overnight we decided the thing to do was go for a few drinks – in order to be able to bat well the following day. Parker, me, Henton, Elmondt, Mark and Alex were all out – therefore guaranteeing runs and wickets according to the Holy Cross 3^rd XI laws of cricket.

We ended up in Garibaldis till 2.30am – with my girlfriend’s dad who is 62.

Great night out …

The next day, with some sore heads, we descended on the Meadows to find an unmarked, unprepared wicket. Watsons were happy to play which was great. Fag buts were used to mark out a crease and some plastic cutlery was pulled out of the stump holes and we were good to go.

I went out for the toss – hoping to bat second so we could finish off the beer and eat what remained of the BBQ but the Watson’s skip won and stuck us in. Alex opened with Mr Hopkinson. It seemed like a good idea, Alex would get some good time at the crease and Greg is the classiest bat to feature for the 3s since Richard Ellis. 

Unfortunately the partnership was a short one. Two balls into Alex's innings he was bowled by a 12 yr old. At first he proclaimed that the young man was swinging it both ways, then cutting it in at a 45 degree angle, save to say the only thing that was at 45 degrees was Cruickshank who was bent over laughing at Alex's shot!

That brought Dave 'the bin-raker' Coaton out of the traps. A drive through extra cover started his scoring and it was looking good. Greg then fell for 19 ... Bowled

I then came in to bat with Dave, this could be an exciting partnership – led by general banter and captain 3 runs. It started really well, 21 runs off 3 overs but it was over when Dave nicked it into the keeper’s gloves.

This brought Parkie out to the green green wicket. Watsons brought on a young off spinner at the Marchmont end – this made the leg side boundary about 3 feet away from the square and the off side boundary about 100 ft away – not the smartest end to choose from the young lad against 2 hockey players. Fair to say we capitalised on this … our partnership was 62 off 7 overs then Parkie was bowled.

This was the second funniest wicket of the day. Pitching just outside leg and travelling further down leg Parker tried to defend it but missed, it then hit his pad, his foot and rolled slowly onto the stumps tickling the bails off. He stood for a few seconds, gave a look of bemusement and disgust... then walked off.

Cruicky came in as cheery as ever, in the first three balls we ran 8 runs, at which point the garibaldi’s specials caught up with us and mark exclaimed that those would be the last of the 3s. The next shot was definitely a 3 but Mark refused to run them at all.

The partnership flourished, Mark played some actual cricket shots and I even got a 4 through the covers with a back foot drive! Unbelievable.

With Mark and me trotting along nicely I got my ton  and was given permission from Mark to have a swing! Not that I was going slowly before we were going at 8 an over! At the 28^th over they decided to bring on their 9^th bowler, 4, 2, top edge straight up – 4 12 year olds look like they are about to collide but a booming voice of the old boy who was the 9^th bowler got shot of them pretty quickly. He clutched it and I was gone. Out trotted Craig Wright – duck! 2^nd in 2 competitive games for the Cross.(he did score a few mid week against Grange cricket in the hockey v cricket game).

Jamie Johnstone have never scored a run in competitive cricket then hit 16 – including a huge 6 over to Jawbone Walk! Elmo finished not out and the funniest dismissal of the day was Matt Henton at no 11.  He took middle, took a good stance then preceded to leave a ball that pitched in line and hit the middle of middle stump!

Hiliarious and a good finish to a cracking innings 291 all out with 2 overs to spare!

We then had a cracking BBQ and then it started to rain … boooo!

So we took to the field and mucked about a bit as the ball got more and more out of shape – after 5 overs it looked like smudge’s dog had had his way with it!

Coco opened well but with no reward getting 0-13 off 8. Henton opened at the other end but because we thought we better tie up the 20 overs quickly to get a result he ended 3-16 after 4. Parker came on at the other end getting an lbw with his first ball – inspired captaining! 

We held 1 catch through Craigy Wright at point, pretty tough one too!

Craig ‘im a batsman’ Wright replaced Parker at the 20^th over he bowled darts – very similar to shifty – and was rewarded with the last wicket – coco did drop one and parker another!

Elmo was superb – 4 wickets for 2 runs – would have had 5 wickets for 0 if Coco could catch!

Anyway onwards and upwards – smellies will be difficult no doubt! But with captain Mcmonagle at the helm im sure we’ll be fine!

League Weekend 15

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs RH Corstorphine at Arbo.
• 2nds vs Largo 2nds, away.
• 3rds vs SMRH 4ths, (not very far) away.

Midweek cricket is now over for the 2014 season.

Subdued but Significant Seconds' Success

After our early season run of three wins and a tie, things haven't been going so well lately. So we approached the return match with Preston Village slightly nervously: three of our remaining five fixtures were against the top three; PV had been struggling themselves and would be looking for a win; and availability was poor.

But if our availability was poor, PV's was worse and they arrived with just nine men. Smudger won the toss and, with rain forecast for later, had no hesitation in doing what he always does anyway and deciding to bowl. Vik (6-1-9-2) and Popey (5-1-8-1) opened up in such a tight, aggressive fashion that it was a surprise when the first wicket fell to a run-out as Vik pulled off a good stop in the gully and, with Popey's assistance, ran out Dobie who couldn't make it back to the non-striker's end.

The key moment, though, came with the wicket of Shiraz Ramzan. Shiraz has feasted on our bowling in recent seasons and it was a huge bonus when James yorked him first ball. Popey, moonlighting from helping out at some minor sporting event in Glasgow, has put on a good deal of pace since he last played for us and this was a fitting reward for a fine spell.



Popey (on the left) at his Scottish day job.

The other incident of note in the innings came when Davie King collapsed in agony setting off for a run. Davie, who's had more than his fair share of injuries in recent seasons, immediately self-diagnosed ruptured tendons, but a later x-ray found a broken bone as well. It was naturally all a bit subdued after that and only a looming storm cloud seemed to induce a bit more urgency in the HX attack as Dan (3.4-4-5-2) nipped in for his almost obligatory cheap wickets and Vik returned to bowl Black who had compiled a dogged 20. The Village People all out for 54 in the 28th over, just in time for the rain to put paid to hopes of a quick turnaround.

After tea the end came fairly quickly with JB (23 no) hitting three boundaries in the eleventh over as PV, gambling on a second bowling point, deployed an Aussie-style umbrella slip field, or as near as you can with only nine men.

Umbrella field - not Arbo on Saturday.

Thanks to Popey for helping out and to PV for another game played in good spirits and some black humour. We hope that availability and Davie recover well and soon.

League Weekend 14 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Murrayfield DAFS, away at Leith Academy.
• 2nds vs Preston Village at Arbo.
• 3rds vs Watsonians 4ths, "home" at the Meadows.

Sunday -

• Martin Flynn Memorial Trophy game vs Carlton at Arbo, 2pm start.

Midweek -

• Wednesday, Activcity Trophy QF vs Morton at the Meadows (reserve day Thursday).

Silverware returns to Arbo!

Holy Cross v Marchmont 23^rd July 2014 Parks Trophy final

On a warm sunny Edinburgh evening, Newfield hosted the 2014 Parks Trophy final between Holy Cross and Marchmont.

Yet another toss won by the Holy Cross skippa, saw McOscar elect to bat first in the hope of setting a good total on a wicket that looked hard and fast, with a lopsided boundary.  In typical Holy Cross fashion, tardy timekeeping meant a slightly different opening duo strode to the wicket than I had planned.




Parks Trophy winners - Standing: Julius Newman, Dougie Russell, Kevin Marsh, John Bacon, Simon Pickering. Kneeling: Simon McOscar, Charlie Ellis, Saideep Kachodi, Rob Bainbridge, Raja Javed, Shannon Bonfield. Photo: Broon.

 

Some tight early bowling from Rees and Sheikh, saw Holy Cross get off to a measured start. McOscar broke the shackles with a big 6 over wide mid-wicket off Rees in the 3^rd over, which was comically signalled 4 by the umpire. However the next 2 overs only conceded 2 runs and the Cross were 0-17 after 5 overs.

The openers continued to work the ball around and set a platform, with Javed clubbing 14 runs off Sheikh’s 4^th over that took us to 0-42 off 8. After frustratingly finding the fielder with regularity, McOscar decided to ‘hit out or get out’ at the start of the 10^th over and provided a high but regulation catch to Rees, off the bowling of the Marchmont skipper Maksimcyzk. McOscar departing for 15 and leaving the Cross 1-49 off 9.1 overs, slightly behind what you’d expect as a par score on this ground.

Vijay was next at the bowling crease for Marchmont, conceded 10 off his first over, with Saideep quickly moving to 7 runs off 7 balls. Maksimcyzk repeating his first ball of the over theatrics, bowling Saideep, which brought Newman out to bat. Given a free licence, Mr Hockey aka Jules, plundered a big 4, but then missed the last ball of Maksimcyzk’s 2^nd over, out for 5 off 4 balls. The Marchmont skipper now with figure of 3-8 off 2 overs!

Javed continued his dominant display, smashing 34 runs in boundaries on his way to an impressive 50 that was greeted with rapturous applause by the magnificent Holy Cross supporters. Trying to chase another boundary in the 16^th over, Raja mistimed a straight drive and was well caught at deep long-off. A superb innings that laid a good platform for Holy Cross, which picked up the run rate to just under 6 an over.

A now settled Ellis and new man at the crease Bacon built a solid 21 run 5^th wicket partnership, before Ellis was called through for what turned out to be a suicidal run, out for 11, the Cross now 5-99.

Bacon who had also scored 11 then tried to pick up the pace, but was bowled by Vijay at the start of the 17^th over, leaving the Cross 6-112 and in need of a couple of good final overs to set a decent total. Dougie 4* and Shan 9* put on 13 runs off the last 13 balls to take us through to a total of 6-120. Marchmont captain Maksimcyzk  returning figures of 3-24 off his 4 overs.

A solid total to defend, but one that would leave plenty of work to do in the second half of the game for Holy Cross.

A close run thing - Navan scrambles home. Photo: Broon.

Marchmont got off to a flyer with the first ball of their innings getting dispatched high over the short square-leg boundary by Vijay for 6 off Bonfield. A tight first over for Newman, saw only 3 runs and Marchmont keeping slightly ahead of the pace at 0-13 off 2.

With both Vijay and Ahmed throwing the willow at the ball and seeing rewards for their shots, they moved steadily to 24 off 4 overs. A solid start with neither batsman looking in any real trouble, saw Ahmed dispatching a Bonfield slower ball in the 5^th over for a huge 6 straight down the ground. Marchmont now slightly ahead of the required run rate at 32 off 5.

Newman continued his fine season, coming in off a shortened run-up that also saw success v MDAFS in the semi-final. Off the second ball of Newman’s 3^rd over, Bainbridge misjudged a pull shot from Ahmed and shelled what could have been a critical chance. Finally some reward, Newman taking the vital first wicket off the last ball of his 3^rd over. A caught and bowled, seeing him with figures of 1-11 of 3 overs. Marchmont were now 1-38 off 6 and keeping their noses just in front of the required run rate.

Time for a change in bowling and McOscar opted to take some pace off and introduced Bacon at the Ferry Rd end, which paid immediate dividends. A sharp stumping taken by a somewhat slimmer and trimmer Spickers, seeing Vijay depart for 16, leaving Marchmont 2-40 off 7 overs.

A double change, with Charlie ‘the glory hunter’ Ellis taking over from Newman and taking a wicket maiden in his second over, keeping the pressure on Marchmont and slowing turning the ledger back in the Corss’ favour, as Bainbridge was offered an opportunity at redemption and took a fine catch.

It must be said that all 11 men were performing well in the field, with some excellent and most unlike Holy Cross fielding. Of note, Spickers was seen diving to horizontal to save what could easily have been 4 byes and Dougie racing around the boundary like a spring chicken, diving to save 2 runs and surprisingly leaping up uninjured!

The large Holy Cross crowd were now starting to believe that the tide was turning in our favour and the screws were tightening on Marchmont, as some tight bowling saw the pressure mounting.

In Ellis’s final over, Newman bobbled but held on to a catch that was hit straight down his throat at long-off to dispatch Rees, who had moved to a run a ball 16. Reducing Marchmont to 4-68 at the start of 14^th over.

Both Bacon and Ellis bowled extremely well and pulled the game slightly back in our favour, with figures of 1-18 and 2-19 respectively off their 4 overs and left Marchmont needing 35 off the last 30 deliveries.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man!

After his fine knock with the bat, Javed was introduced in to the attack to bowl the 15^th over. He quickly settled in to a good line and length and took the critical wicket of Collier in his first over and conceded only 2 runs. The task now starting to look more challenging for Marchmont, 42 required of 30 balls, but more importantly for Holy Cross they now had the opposition 5 down.

After an absolute pie of a loosener from Marsh that was dutifully smashed behind square for 4 by the Marchmont skipper Maksimcyzk, he then proceeded to hit the very next ball straight to Newman at deep mid-off, who easily took his 3^rd catch of the day.

Marchmont now reduced to 6-82 and by the end of the over, needing 35 off the last 24 balls. Still some work to do for Holy Cross, but the vocal crowd now starting to believe a win might be on the cards.

Javed took his second wicket in his 2^nd over, a tidy catch taken by Kachodi and conceded 6 runs. The task looking a tough one, as Marchmont were now 7-91 at the end of the 17^th over.

Javed then singlehandedly accounted for the final 3 wickets of the Marchmont innings in the next 5 deliveries of the 19^th over. As well as skittling Chetty and Sheikh, he also completed a tidy run out, after fielding a straight drive and taking the bails off, leaving Wilson high and dry after backing up too far. Javed finished with the figures of the day and probably the best of the tournament, taking 4-8 off 3.5 overs!

The final wicket with the 5^th ball of the 19^th over sparked jubilant celebrations for the crowd and the men on the field.

Raja celebrates the final wicket. Photo: Broon.

In the end, our total of 119 was just too much for a valiant Marchmont to obtain. Despite Raja deservingly picking up the ‘man of the match’ award; this was really a win for the whole team. A superb victory for Holy Cross, which returns the Parks Trophy to Arboretum Rd after an absence of 2 years.

Raja and Si - Man of the Match and Captain. Photo: Broon.

As Skip of the 1’s, I would sincerely like to thank everyone that played in the early rounds of the Parks Trophy. As I mentioned in my speech, this win was not just to the credit to the 11 men on the field last night. If my memory serves me right we had 15 or 16 guys play in the 3 games that it took to win the Trophy.

Many thanks for PVB and McGill for doing the book yesterday as well and it was also great to see so many supporters down at Newfield cheering us on.

A number of hardy punters partied on long in to the wee hours, with the Parks Trophy taking in some of Edinburgh’s err ‘finest’ drinking establishments.

Next in line is the Presidents Plate semi-final for the 2’s and 3’s and the Activcity quarter-final for the 1’s.

Rainy, Rainy go away!

Holy X 1st XI v Feruchie – Arbo 19^th July

The morning dawned quite nice in Edinburgh, but a rather menacing afternoon weather report saw an early txt from the Feruchie skip looking for any potential of early call off.

11:30am arrived and with the clouds gathering, Arbo was warm and very muggy.  For the first time in a long time, McOscar lost a toss and Holy Cross were put in to bat. Strange decision as Feruchie only had 10 men and a number of their 1^st XI not playing.

We started poorly with Saideep playing over the top of a slow in-swinging yorker on the first ball of the second over, gone for a duck! Holy Cross 4-1 off 1.1 – perhaps not such a silly move to make us bat first….

There were comical scenes with Charlie’s first ball, as he played a dead bat forward defence off Gourlay, who would be classed as a military medium swing bowler. To his shock, the bottom half of his new Bubble bat (provided by Holy X’s new Del-boy Jimmy McOscar) exploded on impact with the ball and one chunk narrowly missed taking out his off stump!

McOscar and Ellis set about rebuilding, against some very good bowling by the Freuchie Pro Akbar and Gourlay. It was slow going, with very few poor deliveries and we managed to tick it over at 2’s an over, until spin was introduced at the Ferry Road end in the 9^th over.

The clouds were getting heavier and some light rain started falling with a second spinner introduced at the clubhouse end, McOscar then nibbled at a ball on a good line and length and gifted a catch to the keeper, who must have been watching MS Dhoni’s tactic of standing 4 foot back for a spinner!

The Cross now 31-2.

Raja was the next man to go, after bludgeoning 10 runs off 2 scoring strokes. Looking for a third boundary, he was struck in front, with the umpire hardly needing to lift his finger as Raja was so plumb he pretty much turned his back and walked off!

OK, so the Feruchie decision to bowl first now looking a good one with HX 42-3!

Jules and Charlie then started taking advantage of the spin bowlers struggling to grip a now wet ball and put on 50 runs in 21 minutes, all while the rain started falling heavier and heavier.

We’d progressed through to 92-3 off 21.2, when the wet stuff just got too heavy to stay out in the middle.

An early tea was taken, more to watch what was happening in the British Open, but time was called on the day’s cricket at 2:30pm with Charlie 34* and Jules on 24*.

A frustrating way to end what was shaping as a very promising innings

Let's hope for better weather next weekend for our critical clash v MDAFS!

Cross Comedy Combos

As the boundary golfers started to get lost in the haar on Saturday evening, it was noted that their party contained a comedy duo Vikram & Rob: Vik & Bob..

Which other comedy duos does the club contain...


TJ & Gerry: Tom & Gerry

John Bacon & Jon Bates: The Two Jonnies

GT & Nozzer: Michele & Webb

Spickers & Coastal Ken: Si & Lawrie

Shifty & David Craig: Mark and Lard

Willie Lytle & David Craig: 
-->Lytle  & Large. 
surely there are many more....

League Weekend 13 and the Week Ahead

The forecast doesn't look too good but here are Saturday's games -

• 1sts vs Freuchie at Arbo, 12 noon start.
• 2nds vs Watsonians 3rds, away at Craiglockhart, 1pm start.
• 3rds vs Glenrothes 3rds "at home" at the Meadows, 1pm start.

Midweek -

• Tuesday friendly vs Woodcutters at Arbo.
• Wednesday Parks Trophy final vs Marchmont at Newfield, Kinnear Road.

Holy Cross progress to Parks Trophy final

Holy X vs MDAFS 16^th July @ Roseburn

Firstly a big thank you to Elmondt, who stepped in to help us out at the 11^th hour, after yet another last minute call off. He played a big part in this win, covering a lot of ground in the field and I’m sure had we only had 10 men, the result would have been different!

After the heavens opened at 4:30pm, it looked unlikely that the game would take place. The MDAFS lads had the super-sopper out, in an attempt to suck as much moisture out of the astro. After a quick inspection it was deemed playable.

Yet another toss won, by stand in skipper S.McOscar who chose to bat first, despite Raja and Saturday’s centurion Bimbo having not arrived yet.

Yet another virgin opening partnership of J.McOscar and Mr Hockey ‘J.Newman’ trudged to the middle, with McOscar facing a maiden first over from the MDAFS skipper Muhammed. A slow start saw some pressure starting to build and Newman looking to accelerate the scoring was well caught on the boundary for 3, the Cross now 7-1.

Raja never settled after his late arrival and hurry to pad up and was soon caught in the deep for just 6. He was quickly followed by J.McOscar, who in an attempt to play a wide ball with a leg glance, had the ball ricochet off his foot and cannon in to the stumps, some would say unluckily, others would say he just should have hit the ball! The Cross now struggling at 20-3 and Skippers choice to bat first was not looking a good one.

Dougie was next to go, out for a 2 ball quacker, which brought to the wicket our other Mr Hockey aka Andy G. Who upon facing his 3^rd ball oddly tried to play one straight down the ground and got clean bowled for 1, you should have tried to smash it to cow corner my son!

The Cross in dire straits now at 34-5 in the 9^th over.

The departure of Andy G bought in the Baconator to join Skipper McOscar who’d witnessed the majority of the carnage beforehand from the other end. The 2 set about resurrecting the innings and trying to get the Cross through to the 20 over mark and build some form of total.

With a very damp outfield, good shots were largely unrewarded unless they went over the boundary or close to it. Plenty of singles kept the scoreboard ticking over with both putting away the odd bad ball, with Bacon hitting one huge 6 into Murrayfield stadium and McOscar almost taking out a cyclist, a lady walking her dog and a couple of football lads wandering past the pitch.

The pair took 12 runs off the 19^th over, moving the score to 106 and leaving McOscar to face the start of the last over.

The first ball of the 20^th was dispatched high towards long-off towards Fergusson, who had a chance to catch the Holy Cross Skipper, but saw the ball dropped and bouncing over the boundary for 4. The next delivery was deposited well over the head of long-on for 6, bringing up the Skippers second consecutive 50 in Parks Trophy innings.

A single was taken off the 3^rd ball, leaving Bacon now on 38 to try and repeat his last scoring stroke an almighty 6. Unfortunately he was clean bowled by Muhammed, a fine innings and a valuable contribution towards a 6^th wicket partnership of 83, with the Cross having progressed to 117-6.

2 balls remaining saw Bonfield come and Bonfield go first ball, out to a sharp caught and bowled.

The weekends centurion Bimbo strode confidently to the crease and just a quickly walked off for another golden duck, kindly completing a hat-trick for the MDAFS Skipper Muhhamed.

Holy Cross all out for 117, leaving S.McOscar 51*.

After a quick change of innings, Bonfield and Newman set us off on the right foot in an attempt to defend 117. Both bowlers coming in of shortened run-up in an attempt to handle the still slippery astro wicket.

Newman bowled a particularly good line and had the dangerous Hayes caught out for 9 a mid-on by J.McOscar, who finally managed to hold a catch for the Cross this season! Not wanting Newman to have all the fun, Bonfield took wickets with the last 2 balls of his 3^rd over, both well delivered slow balls that cut back and took the top of off stump. I should mention he tried a slow ball at the start of the over that was dispatched to the boundary for 4, so it was a brave move to try again.

MDAFS now 20-3 off 5 and Bonfield having to wait for an opportunity snare a potential hat-trick, could he take the second during this match?

With the first ball of the 6^th over, Newman trapped Jaffrey LBW to complete a team hat-trick and at the end of his over had figures of 3 overs, 2 wickets for just 8 runs.

A number of men were brought in to catching positions for Bonfield’s hat-trick delivery. He charged in and sent down an absolute peach of a ball that pitched on off stump, cut away and had the batsman just barely missing the ball. Which no doubt would have provided a regulation edge and catch. Yet again, a ball that was just too good to get a wicket!

At the end of the first 8 overs MDAFS had been reduced to 29-5, with Bonfield taking 3-15 and Newman 2-13.

Javed and Marsh took over with the ball, Marshy unlucky not to pick up a wicket after gloving the batsman and the ball fell just short of a forward diving S.McOscar at keeper.

Bacon was the next man to step up, bowling his usual mix of flight and skidders. MDAFS had started to get a partnership going with Batman and Hawkins batting very well and picking up the run rate. In the 15^th over Hawkins drove a Bacon delivery hard and straight, Bacon fielding then dropping the ball on to the wickets, leaving the non-striker who had been backing up too far short of his ground, Venkatesh run out for a fine 23.

MDAFS were now 76-7 off 15 overs, with Hawkins well set and still a lot of work to do for the Cross to secure a place in the final.

Bacon delivered an absolute gem of an arm ball in his next over, to clean bowl Chengapra for 4. With his next ball to the new man Zarkoob, he managed to hit the poor lad right in the supds, sending him crashing to the floor in a lot of pain. In his next over, he also bowled possibly the quickest ball of the day that bounced sharply off a length, flicked the batsman in the arm and then crashed into the helmet of keeper S.McOscar, some would say lucky he was wearing a helmet, others wouldn’t!

Dougie was also in the action, bowling the last 2 overs from the Murrayfield end and was involved in a run out in the 19^th over, which saw MDAFS reduced to 98-9 and effectively killed off nay chance they had of reaching 118 and victory.

Dougie taking the final wicket with the last ball of the 20^th over, leaving MDAFS all out for 103 and a fine win for Holy Cross!

I’m still waiting on confirmation, but the final of the Parks Trophy looks to be on Wednesday 23^rd of July v 'ye old foe' Marchmont, venue TBC.

Parks Progress

@HXCricket 117-8 SMcOscar 51*, JBacon 38, FMuhammed 4-24 (Inc hat-trick) bt @MDAFS 103 a.o. PHawkins 32, SBonfield 3-15 to advance Parks T
— Simon McOscar (@sifly28) July 16, 2014

1st XI v Glenrothes

A seeming lack of 1st XI match reports amidst my intermittent availability prompts me to concoct something to share some details from yesterdays game. Very grim reading, not enjoyable to write and I'll try to avoid the inclusion of anything the censors might want redacted.

You would think that being asked to captain in the league would be something to look forward to. You would think that giving myself a bowl and getting the best batsman in the league out would be a high point of the season or maybe even my bowling 'career'. You would think that 1st v 5th in the league might be a reasonable contest with some sort of doubt over the outcome. You would think that when up against the best team in the league, we'd pick our best available XI. You would be wrong on every count.

Glenrothes completely annihilated HX1's as we visited Gilvenbank Park for the first time.

Unfortunately, this match can be filed away as another perfect example of the stupidity of the 'professional' rules in Scottish cricket. Any good that comes from a player (or players) playing miles below the level they should be is undone when club games are turned into such monumental mismatches.

Quite frankly I have better things to do with my time than provide cannon fodder to much better players than myself. This is not how I or I'm sure, any of the other 10 who had to suffer this indignity, want to spend Saturday afternoons.

But lets be clear, The eleven men of Glenrothes were completely and utterly deserving of their win. Indeed, an argument could be made HX did well to restrict them to just 350 as former pro's Greaves and Reddy were dismissed for just 3 between them while Beghin succumbed to one of the worst balls he'll ever face in my first and only league over in a decade. Unfortunately he had made 181 by this point.

We used 8 bowlers with only 2 first team bowlers 'available' (missing S McO, Raja, Robin, Bimbo, Vik, Marsh, Newman, Trewartha etc...). Ellis emerged from the carnage with 4-51 from 10. If I tell you our 2nd and 3rd best bowlers/only other wicket takers were Robertson with 2-57 and me with 1-10 (did I mention I got Beghin out?), maybe we can pick our best available bowlers next week?

Glen's - big favourites for the Championship this season - won the toss and elected to bat. With the forecast promising rain from mid-afternoon followed by thunderstorms, this appeared to simply mean a bit of batting practice for the hosts. The visitors missing the usual myriad of players including their first 4 choices as skipper (Si McO, Michelle, JMcO, Raja,), rolled out a throwback Cross line-up including names like Ellis, Pickering, Bonfield, Fraser, Quinn, Russell and also found slots for leg-ends El Presidente (aka Reg Pending) and Lord Admin himself. With PVB in the scorehut/burger van at least we'd take our pasting with good Cross grace.

Some good running got Glens off to a quick start before Davies tweaked something, handing the impetus to Beghin who made his way to 181 with few mishaps. Beghin just survived Bonfields 1st ball and he nearly nicked Dan's 1st ball. That aside, a couple in the air fell tantalisingly close to fielders, but these were scant crumbs of encouragement in a comprehensive dismantling of the makeshift Cross attack. Any chinks of light, barely registered. I.e. Getting Greaves for 2 meant they were 159-2 and Beghin was still going like a train at the other end. The next wicket fell with the total on 308.

After a turbo tea break we were quickly threatening our lowest ever total. I'll commend Dan, batting at 10 who top scored with 10, but for the rest of the 'batting' report, read this:

1-4
2-4
3-8
4-13
5-17
6-19
7-19
8-22
9-39
10-44

I am available next week, but only for our under 8 girls XI.

Rare Ist Team Report: Record Breaking Performance

A number of Crossers have complained about the lack of reports on 1xst team matches.

Well, here's a full report from the match yesterday vs Glenrothes:


We got gubbed

there are many other words that would be appropriate

But at least those who took part can say they played when several club records were broken....

League Weekend 12 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Glenrothes, away.
• 2nds vs Stirling County 3rds at Arbo.
• 3rds vs Leith FAB 2nds, away.

Midweek -

• Wednesday, Parks trophy semi-final vs Murrayfield DAFS, away on the Roseburn artificial.
• Thursday, Presidents Plate quarter-final vs Leith FAB 2nds at Arbo.

Sadly, given this glut of cup cricket, we have had to cancel Tuesday's friendly vs Tranent.

Going South - 2s Lose Again

We were without a recognised wicketkeeper, the team rock star or any idea where the fifth set of nine overs might come from, but we had Vik (or Sachin as the South lads call him - apparently it's his real name, not a comment on his batting) back and we'd beaten the Club Formerly Known as Mitre fairly comfortably earlier in the season, so there were still grounds for optimism.

Misplaced as, while HX again won the triple-header 2-1, we were the 1 this time. South were a far stronger side than earlier in the season and racked up 246 for 5, led by Welsh (75 no) in an innings full of well-timed legside shots, but with almost all the batsmen making a contribution. Of course as ever there were things to enjoy and admire in our performance in the field. Smudger as our second stand-in keeper took an excellent stumping to get rid of the usually obdurate Rupani; Vik (9-2-31-1), as usual at this level, bowled too well to get the wickets he deserved, if you see what I mean; and Andy Donaldson in his first bowl for the club and Moneeb Shazhad (the lesser known youngest brother) in his first game both performed splendidly. But we conceded five runs to a hat-hit for the second time this year and dropped several catches for what seems like the umpteenth (I originally typed "numpteenth" there - appropriate). Not good.

Which leads me nicely on to our batting. Ziggy (32) looked in good touch even after he pulled a muscle and required the "running" assistance of JB who had earlier made 20-odd. Elmondt and Andy wagged the tail a bit with some healthy biffing. But, finishing on 126 all out, we only just managed to pass half our opponents' score and again missed out on batting points that may prove important at the end of the season.

Congratulations to South on a comprehensive victory and especially to Farhan Sheikh (8.2-2-20-6) for his career-best bowling figures, the second year running that a South bowler has taken a sixfer at Arbo. Thanks to them too for a game played in good spirits and good humour.

As for us - must do better, starting on Saturday.