League Weekend 6 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Marchmont, at Arbo.
• 2nds vs Grange 3rds, at Goldenacre.
• 3rds vs Tranent 2nds, at Meadowmill.

Midweek - Tuesday night nets are now finished as our midweek friendly season kicks off. Contact Alex Candlish if you're interested in playing.

• Tuesday - Isobar at Arbo.

Cupdates

Sadly, our Masterton campaign ended last night in a narrow defeat. We wish Penicuik well in the

semi-final and, hopefully, beyond.

There are, however, two further chances for cup glory this season and our opening ties in the Parks and Active Edinburgh trophies are now arranged -

• Thursday 11th June, Parks Trophy 2nd round vs Scottish Widows, away at Campbell Park.
• Thursday 18th June, Active Edinburgh Trophy vs Edinburgh South at Arbo.

Peni Dreadful - 2s Lose at Blustery Kirkhill

On a very blustery day with the odd sharp shower the ten men of the HX 2nds travelled to Kirkhill to take on Penicuik 2nds.

Having been skittled for 57 the week before, it was no surprise that we were put in. It was a surprise, however, when 'cuik opened with Hafiz's off-spin. He bowled an excellent spell (9-3-16-3) to leave us in trouble at 17 for 3, although both JB and BAF will feel they strangled themselves down the legside. Shifty rescued the innings with a very good 36 and Elmondt, recovering quickly from last week's dislocated finger, and Andy Donaldson biffed merrily. At 74 for 4 we began to dream of 140+, but good spells from Kingsbury (9-2-16-2) and Thomson (9-3-12-3) left us 104 all out.

Life after Strangulation - BAF and JB in the Kirkhill scorebox. Photo: Broon.

Gerry (9-5-17-3) and Elmondt (9-3-16-0) bowled very well and, with the help of a direct hit run out from Andy D to remove Hafiz without scoring, we had the opposition 15 for 3 and 26 for 4. There were a couple of tough early chances for another wicket, but by the time the 5th came Penicuik were almost two-thirds of the way home and Liddle (42 no) was settling in to a fine captain's knock. Smudger and, especially, JB failed to find the consistent line and length of the openers and Penicuik cantered home to win by 5 wickets with 17 overs remaining.

Thanks to Penicuik for a game played in the usual good spirits and for an excellent tea - hot pizza and sausage rolls were particularly welcome in the Arctic conditions that, if they don't stop soon, will come to define the 2015 season, but there were also some very fine cakes.

League Weekend 5 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Grange 2nds, away at Raeburn Place, 12 noon start.
• 2nds vs Glenrothes 2nds, at Arbo, 1pm start.
• 3rds vs RHC Lions 3rds, home at Inverleith Park, 1pm start.

Midweek -

• Tuesday - Nets at Arbo. New players welcome.
• Thursday - Murgitroyd Masterton QF vs S&S Penicuik at Arbo.

Collapse of Stout Party - 2nds Crash to Defeat as Duddingston Men Duff up Arbo Duds. Sightscreen Follows.

Before the game .....

Saturday saw Marchmont 2nds visit Arbo. For Crossers of my generation, Marchmont are our oldest cricketing friends and rivals. The links between the two clubs are strong from Sardesais and Chettys to Stevie Mathers and Fraser Buchanan (now a Crosser for the second time, but still the holder of the record for Marchmont's highest ever individual score). Friendships formed over decades of sporting rivalry were most poignantly illustrated by the large Cross turnout ten years ago at the funeral of Roger Sardesai, Marchmont's founding father and among the nicest and best men any of us will ever meet.

But many more games like this one and I could go off them rapidly. Don't get me wrong - Marchmont are just as sporting and nice as ever. How could a team with Navan Chetty in it be anything else? But fresh from successive promotions their well-balanced unit handed us a proper cuffing.

With the run-ups muddy from overnight and early morning rain we delayed the start by half an hour and reduced the game to 40 overs a side. Even after the extra drying time, it was a good toss to win and we lost it. Ken and Dom showed admirable restraint early on against the accuracy of Clayton (6-2-7-1) and Marr (6-3-5-0) - so much so in fact that it wasn't until a flurry of runs in the eleventh over that the run rate touched one an over.

Sadly that over also brought the first wicket and, soon after, Manzoor's left arm spin mystified us into a middle order collapse as he took 4 for 18 from his full 8 overs. Dom dug in for 17, Dan played some lovely shots for his 12 and at 40 for 4 there was still some hope, but the second change pair of Sheikh (4.4-1-11-2) and Granger (3-3-0-2) quickly mopped up the tail. All out for 57 with the final wicket a suicidal run-out, following a practice attempt the ball before.

Our first boundary had come off the 150th ball of the innings. Marchmont's came off the first of theirs. 115 balls later it was all over with just two wickets down - both falling lbw to Gerry (8-2-15-2).

..... and afterwards - shocked bystander collapses.

League Weekend 4 and The Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Glenrothes at Arbo, 1 pm start.
• 2nds vs Penicuik 2nds, away, 1 pm start.
• 3rds vs Morton 3rds, away at the Meadows, 1 pm start.

For those not playing (who? why?), Glens will be trying to stream the game at Arbo live here.

Midweek -

• Tuesday night, nets at Arbo. New players welcome as ever.

Masterton T20 tie scorecard and report vs Royal High Corstorphine

Many thanks to PVB for again putting a report together on this outstanding result, after a tough start to the League season for the 1's XI!

Holy Cross v RHCorstorphine May 13 2015

Masterton Round 1

Arbo skies - Photo: RHC Lions

 

RHC won the toss and batted.

M Yellowlees c Pervez b Worsnop     9

O Malik b Worsnop                            2
D Payne b ul Hamid                           25
A Sathiy lbw Russell                          4
R Taylor run out (Millington)             14
S Stibbs c&b Javed                             13
S Malik c Ul-Haq b Ul Hamid            10
L Cox not out                                      1
Extras                                                  12       
Total    (20 overs)                                91-7

 

R Worsnop      4-0-21-2

R Javed           4-1-18-1
J D Russell      4-0-11-1
K Pervez         4-1-16-1
A Ul Hamid    4-0-17-2
 

12-1, 12-2, 30-3, 50-4, 67-5, 84-6, 90-7

 

Holy Cross

 
R Javed c Payne b S Malik                 19       

S Pickering run out                              1        
J D Russell b Hugill                            13       
Z Ul-Haq not out                                40        (42 balls)
A Millington c Stibbs b Taylor           0        
K Pervez lbw Hugill                           7        
A Ul Hamid not out                             4        
J Bates
T Jordan         
R Worsnop
A Candlish
Extras                                                  8
Total (19 overs)                                   92-5

 

S Malik                        4-0-26-1

J Kinghorn-Gray         2-0-3-0
D Payne                      4-0-17-0
M Yellowlees              1-0-8-0
R Hugill                      4-0-20-2
R Taylor                      3-0-12-0
P Steindl                     1-0-2-0

 

13-1, 23-2, 49-3, 50-4, 76-5

 

We may have lost our three league games, but I told the team they had played really well on Saturday, and that a win would not be far away. One of the key factors is the way players step up to the plate, and Simon and Raja have shown how grateful they are to players for helping out. Last year it was Elmont throwing himself all over Roseburn in a Parks trophy match; this year Jon, Andrew and Alex all fielded excellently, with Jon sliding to field the ball on the boundary, and Milly achieving a run out from 55 yards with just one stump to aim at; Robin broke his glasses in his determination to stop a four ( which he did). Well done too the various Crossers who travelled miles to play. Good to see support from Butchie, Elmondt and Sandy as well as nail-biting twitterers in the warmth of their homes keeping tabs on our progress. And always good to see the Maliks, including Faisal, back at Arboretum.

After Robin took 2 wickets in the second over, RHC were on the back foot, and the spinners  tightened the grip. Dougie is in the form of his life having bowled 16 consecutive dot balls on Saturday, and 14 more today, with no fours in his ten overs (just a six). Kashif is wonderful – 45 of his 60 balls in the last two games have been dot balls. The well-placed field stopped everything that came their way. 91 was not a dreadful score on a cold and windy night.

Raja showed respect for Suli Malik who bowled well but Raja will not let the bad ball go by and scored four 4s off Suli which was decisive as fours were hard to come by (8 for HX / 6 for RHC). Zia then batted brilliantly – showing patience against some accurate bowling but exhibiting a range of classy shots when the ball was a fraction short/ overpitched.  Ziggy’s old acquaintance, RHC captain Pete Steindl, took a back seat, did not bat and bowled just an over.

RHC were several players short but so were we. Interestingly with Edinburgh CC having defeated the mighty Carlton, there are no Premier league teams in our half of the league. We are at home to Penicuik or Accies in the next round (they play on Thursday). The winners of that are away to SMRH or Edinburgh CC. Grange, Watsonians and Heriots are in the other half of the draw.

Holy Cross 1's vs Penicuik

Match report kindly authored by PVB or should that be Nostradamus, given his comment at the end regarding RHC;

We may have lost to S&S Penicuik, but I was so proud of the team's performance yesterday; it was full of positives - on both sides, and Penicuik scraped through with 3 balls to spare. Penicuik did a fine job to make it playable - the picture of a pond on the square at 8am was remarkable.

Penicuik felt that winning the toss was a big factor in this 30 over match. Their opening bowlers were very accurate indeed and Tom batted well even though he managed only 3 in 36 balls. They bowled their 6 overs max each right through leaving us 22-4 after 12 overs including 7 maidens. Julius led us on the road to recovery with a superb 43 off 29 balls including eight fours. Zia and Kashif gave valuable support (14 & 16), hitting 3 sixes between them. It was great to see how our batsmen could put away the bad ball. Then Shifty (12), all-rounder Robin (10) and Brian (5*) kept us going, to achieve maximum batting points - wonderful how players step up to the task - Brian faced 5 balls and scored from them all. 28 extras were valuable additions to the score. We had no umpires and we did not shirk our duty in giving decisions, however painful - well done!

Penicuik went much faster than us early on but they were taking chances. Robin demolished Sean Taylor's stumps spectacularly, and at the 14th over they pushed along to 63-1. Then Shifty very niftily stumped Chris Cash off Dougie, who bowled excellently taking a wicket for a single in his first 3 overs. Kashif was brilliant in conceding just 14 from his 6 overs, and Zia too showed the value of slow stuff. The problem was that both Kris Steel and Stuart Chalmers are class batsmen and despite falling behind on the run rate, they had the patience to wait till the final few overs. We didn't drop catches, fielded very well, and we bowled very few wides, and Raja captained excellently, motivate the team well and put the fielders in the right places.

So a loss, yes, but a brilliant match, an advert for Championship cricket - just a pity they had the experience to pace it right. We will surprise someone soon, and it could well be Glenrothes next week who were given the fright of their life yesterday when Grange 2 were 55-0 chasing 89 and lost...or the surprise may be Tuesday against RHC who are really struggling without Cameron Leeder.

Inch Parky. Frozen 2nds Win at Edinburgh South Pole.

There must be nice days at Inch Park. I dimly remember warm, sunny evening games on the old square there fifteen or so years ago (although I also remember, rather less dimly, swarms of midges). There are some nice trees and a grand view of Arthur's Seat. But of late the 2nds only ever seem to go there right at the start of the season and in late April, early May Edinburgh South's HQ is a bleak, damp, windswept place.

We only had 10 but at the toss South only had 8. With South opting to put us in, Gerry immediately announced that he was off somewhere warmer needed to visit a friend - "Call me if you need me. Don't need me." BAF and Shifty opened up but, despite South's fielder shortage, runs were hard to come by - the pitch seemed hard but was quite dead; the outfield was slow; and skipper Irving (9-1-45-3), ex-Village-Person Adam Smith (9-0-37-0) and Varshney (9-1-32-2) all bowled tight opening spells. At 35-2 and with the South ranks slowly reaching the full eleven we weren't that well placed. But JB (84) and Ziggy (38) dug in for a 101 run partnership (including 5 penalty runs when a fielder landed his throw on his own cast-off sweater) and then Smudger (20 no) and Elmo (28 no) put on a rapid, unbeaten 52 for the last wicket. 215 for 6 looked like a winning score. Gerry, returning, declared that "For once the bloody batsmen have done their job."

There was tea. It was indoors. There was quite a lot of chocolate cake. Treble bliss. We lingered.

But joy was short-lived as any thoughts of a quick victory were thwarted by some obdurate South batting, increasingly frozen bowlers and, as it started drizzling after 6, an increasingly damp ball. De Silva set off at a fair lick before becoming the first of Elmo's two victims in a fine spell (9-3-23-2); Ross, who had turned up very late only after failing to get into a pub to celebrate Hearts' championship, played some attractive shots for his 26; and Goti (41 no) and Smith (19) did a very passable impression of our own Kapp-Smith partnership in adding 32 for the final wicket. 151 all out in 40 overs.

In general it wasn't the good balls that took the wickets and, just like last week at Arbo, the half-tracker-cum-double-bounce-yorker was the deadliest ball of all. Ten of the fifteen wickets to fall in the match were bowled. Dan (9-1-44-3) bowled a lot of good balls for his wickets and JB (6.2-1-24-3) bowled almost none for his.

Thanks to South for a game played in the usual excellent spirits despite the cold. We look forward to the return and pray earnestly that the weather will be better in July.

League Weekend 3 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Stuart & Stuart Penicuik, away - 12 noon start.
• 2nds vs Marchmont 2nds, at Arbo - 1pm start.
• 3rds vs Glenrothes 4ths, away - Conceded, unable to field a team.

Midweek -

• Tuesday - rearranged Masterton Trophy round 1 vs RH Corstorphine at Arbo.
• Tuesday - nets at Arbo for anyone not playing in the Masterton. New players welcome.

Arbo Improvements

Thanks to Erskine Stewarts Melville Schools there's already been plenty of change at Arbo over the last nearly two years - a much improved outfield, secure fencing, a new scoreboard and, most strikingly, extended and fully refurbished changing rooms. (The place is beginning to look so good that the local Greens have been featuring it in their election propaganda).

Now it was our turn to contribute to the ground improvements, prompted by the ESCA requirement that Championship clubs have sightscreens.

Many thanks to the assembly work party: Commissar Smudger, Two Dogs (and Oscar), Elmo, Buchie, Candles, Quinny and JB. Thanks also to Ziggy for volunteering to help unload the truck at an ungodly hour and to all those who had been ready to help out last week when we first planned to do the work. A great club effort.


 

From this ......

...... via this ......

 

...... to this. But will we be able to move them?

 

Yes!
 

Phew! Key (Flukey?) Freuchie Victory for 2nds

On a sunny/freezing day that was far nicer than Friday's forecast had suggested, the 2s kicked off their Div 4 campaign with a squeaky bum win over visiting Freuchie 2nds.

After being put in by Smudge, Freuchie's openers started well enough against Dom (6-0-16-1) and Gerry (9-2-20-2), until Coastal Ken pulled off a fantastic diving catch in the gully to get rid of Horsburgh. Two further wickets fell soon after to leave 10-man Freuchie 33-3 and we seemed well on top.

A mere fourteen months after first turning up for nets, Matty Tantum bowled his first overs for the Cross and took his first wicket, our fourth. Dom then contrived an extraordinary one-handed catch off the bowling of former flatmate Dan for the fifth, although it's only proper to mention that it was a rebound from a perfectly straightforward two-hander. There were a couple of other early season drops, but Ziggy naturally pouched both the chances that came his way.

But, even as wickets fell at the other end, former Scotland player Scott Gourlay (50*), driving elegantly and pulling productively, was playing a fine innings and found some stout support from Russell. Freuchie reached 106-6 with 15 overs remaining and the game seemed to have swung back towards the Fifers until a generous lbw decision against Russell in JB's second over precipitated a mini collapse to 122 all out in 32 overs with JB taking the last three wickets for just four runs.

Our own innings was a bit of a grind. Gourlay (9-1-22-1), Wilkinson (9-2-13-1) and Russell (9-4-12-0) bowled very tight spells and are probably still wondering how none of them managed to get Coastal out. Meanwhile young Bridgeford took a couple of wickets at the other end and so at the half-way point we were struggling at 44 for 4.

The game turned, though, with a splendid partnership between Coastal and Shifty. Ken was all inside edges and gloves at first, but later the drive, cut and sweep all came out. 32 may well be his highest score for the 2nds, but with just a little more luck (Freuchie will say that "a little" should be "even") it could have been a maiden 50. At the other end Shifty was in vintage form, defending stoutly and blootering anything overpitched or legside-ish to the boundary (seven 4s in his 37). At 104-4 in the 40th over and with the first four bowlers all bowled out we seemed well on top again. But we are the Cross and so there was bound to be some late comedy - we lost a further five wickets, three to run-outs and two with the scores tied, before the 30th wide of the day finally pushed us over the line with 8 balls to spare.

Thanks to Freuchie for a game played in great spirits and with plenty of good chat - we look forward to the return fixture. Thanks too to their charming scoring team. Thanks finally to Erskine Stewarts Melville Schools - the renovated changing rooms are fantastic. (In fact they look so good that the local Greens have been using them in their propaganda.) It is a great joy finally to be able to offer visiting teams proper facilities. Just one tiny gripe, firmly in the #firstworldproblems category - my shower was a tad on the hot side .......

League Weekend 2 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures. All 1pm starts -

• 1sts vs Carlton 2nds at Arbo, 1pm start.
• 2nds vs Edinburgh South 2nds, away at Inch Park, 1pm start.
• 3rds vs Edinburgh South 3rds, home at Inverleith Park (artificial strip).

Good luck to all. Sadly, due to the rugby club being on tour, the bar will not be open on Saturday evening.

Midweek -

• Monday evening, sightscreen assembly work party at Arbo. All volunteers welcome.
• Tuesday evening, Masterton 1st round vs RHC Corstorphine at Arbo.
• Tuesday evening, nets at Arbo for anyone not playing in the Masterton. New players always welcome.