1st XI v Grange II @ Fettes - 28/07/2012

Whilst some of the cricket wasn't the most picturesque, the setting wasn't too bad and it was a fantastic toss to lose. These are taken in the last 10 overs.

Bonfield playing in the V

Skipper square cuts

Bonfield defends.

Bonfield v ex Warwickshire captain Mike Powell

Russell showing off his technique

McOscar bats, bowls, keeps wicket and even does the scorebook.

Bonfield tickles one round the corner

Note the game on the pitch next to us had exited stage left and the covers were on whilst we soldiered on.

A familiar site at cricket grounds this summer - puddles.

Cross Crushed by Carlton, 2nds lose at soggy Arbo but 3's win (!!!)

Saturday Results Digest:

1sts
Carlton 2s 255 for 5 (B Lockie 106, R Bhopal 55*)
beat Holy Cross CC 87 all out (M Habib 4 for 11, J Walker 3 for 17)

An understrength 1st XI were well beaten by a strong Carlton side.

2nds:

Div 5 HX2 111 : Falkland 113-3

3rds

Division 8

At Campbell Park

Musselburgh 3rd IX 104-8 (all out)

lost to

Holy Cross 3rd XI 105-4

**just to set the results in some context:
of the 71 players we had registered at the start of the season, 47 were unavailable this weekend...

1st and 2nds Rained off.

Lacking the moral fibre/ idiocy of the 3rd XI, the 1st XI match (Home to Glenrothes) and 2nd XI match (away to Leith FAB) were cancelled without a ball being bowled.

Heavily delayed match report 1st vs Watsonians 2s

Holy Cross travelled to Craiglockhart on Saturday to take on league leaders Watsonians who had been unbeaten since the opening game of season. Actually this isn't strictly true as some of our number travelled to Myreside although knew they were in the wrong place when two teams were seen warming up.

Seeing as how it's now Wednesday I can't remember if Watsons chose to bat or were put in. Either way they batted first on a wicket that looked like it had the potential to be interesting. In he absence of our regular opening bowlers Andy Killey and your author got the game underway. Killey looked particularly dangerous on the Craiglockhart deck, beating the bat on several occasions and was eventually rewarded with the wicket of Flannigan, one of several Sonians batsmen to have been a thorn in Cross sides in the past.

Fox was next to fall to a superb catch from Andy Quinn and, with both bowlers keeping things tight, after 20 overs Watsons were 64 - 2. However after witnessing Crosbie the No4 deposit the ball out of Arbo on several occasions in the return fixture Cross knew there was still plenty do despite the good start. A change of bowling brought Doctor Astley to the fore and in line with my early morning premonition he was the man to remove the dangerous Crosbie. Around the same time Saisubramanian was beginning to look dangerous hitting a succession of boundaries. Buoyed by compliments from the previous weekend's touring party's key batsman Damo, the skipper thought he was due a bowl and how right he proved to be, removing Saisubramanian with his first ball to another good catch from KF.

From here on Watsons wickets fell regularly with Charlie amazingly picking up his first senior 5 for (amazing that it was his first not that he did it). Watsonians ended all out in the 46th over (I think) for 174.

With the pitch becoming more unpredictable it was a total we should have chased down but by no means for certain. When Charlie fell for 2 Sonians' mood changed; however 23 from Spickers and 28 from EC around another good knock of 46 KF (thankfully the selectors are still ignoring his form) got us close. When Calum fell for 9 a few nerves might have began to flutter in Cross stomachs.

No need however, with Dougie and Psycho at the wicket the remaining runs were swiftly knocked off. Bates was in a particularly savage mood hitting a quickfire 25* to close out a good victory. With both sides missing players this was a good win for HX with every single player contributing and an excellent effort in the field. It was particularly pleasing to see how the fielding had improved from the game against Accies where it was the difference between the sides.

Patel Partnership rescues 1sts

Saturday Scores digest:

1st XI - Boroughmuir v Holy Cross at Meggetland

Holy Cross (20pts) 238ao, C Ellis 124, M Patel 61, R Boyapati 3 for 55
beat
Boroughmuir (10pts) 150ao, S McGrath 67

A 111 run partnership (club record? - club stattos will check) for the 8th wicket between the returning Manon and cje was the basis of the above-par total; rescuing us from 104-7. We completed a satisfying victory via a controlled bowling and fielding display.

EN report here (!):
http://sport.scotsman.com/cricket/Ellis-declares-Holy-war-on.6374097.jp

the 2nds beat Mufs 3rds
Runs for Mr Admin (74) and Nippun (84) and solid contributions from Ziggy and Andy Q helped them to 270-4, Mufs falling 70-odd short.

3rds
Leith FAB 3 1st Innings 152/7 Closed (Overs 40)
J Williams 39* N Wilson 25 Naseem Khan 22 J Ray 1/23 K Geddes 2/25 R Ellis 2/29 C McGill 1/27 Holy Cross 3 1st Innings 133/7 Closed (Overs 40)
R Ellis 32 J Watt 1/6 Naseem Khan 1/20 S Jameson 1/26 M Watt 2/43 G Fisher 2/23

1sts back on track with win against Largo

Holy Cross sought to arrest a run of recent loses by entertaining Largo on Saturday, on what Charlie had a earlier declared a good track to bat on. EC duly won the toss and opted for a knock.

We started well with Chuckie and Spickers hitting regular boundaries assisted by a few extras. Going against KF's pre match prediction of three, Si was only dropped twice this week but didn't quite capitalise as he has done previously this season and was eventually caught, bringing the skipper to the crease. To their credit Largo's youngsters came on, tightened up the bowling and proved difficult to get away. Charles fell next after scoring a 54 of classy shots, bringing KF to the fore in about the 35th over, (no book I'm afraid) too late to break club records but he added a good 21 followed up by a quick 19* from Dougster. When the skip fell for a gritty, nuggety, determined 58 the late flourish failed to appear thanks in no large part to a hat trick from Thomason. A change of ends worked wonders for the Largo OA producing three good deliveries to remove EC, Bonfield and Bainbridge. After our quick start certain commentators thought 215 might have been a touch light but the skipper's view that the pitch was a bit tricky and that 215 should be fine proved to be true.

Shanton and Charlie were the pick of the bowlers with Bonfield producing some superb deliveries and Chuckster on the spot for 10 overs. Both were rewarded with 2 wickets. The match was finely poised for quite some time but the required run rate gradually increased and when Spickering removed Thomason with a quickfire stumping things appeared to be going our way. Kinnear batted through with a good 66* and despite a good few catches going down ourselves Largo wickets fell and tight bowling from Dougie, Andy K, The Doctor and occasionally from Bainbridge left the Fifers needing 8 - 10 an over from the last 10 overs. It wasn't to be and we ran out victors.

I haven't got the figures but between the wides and no balls there must have been a huge amount of extras in the game. Credit to Largo for a good game played in the right spirit and some tight bowling from their youngsters (a couple of 16/17 year olds). It's always enjoyable to play against them and I'm sure we look forward to our visit to the Kingdom later in season.

Steadyish 1sts overcome hatrick but are the only winners

1st XI
Holy Cross 215/7
E. C. Smith 58, C. Ellis 54, K. Fraser 21, D. Russell 19*
Thomasen 3/43

Largo 183/ 5
C. Kinnear 66*, C. Barclay 20, A. Warrender 29.
S. Bonfield 2/20 (10 overs), C. Ellis 2/26 (off 10)

2nd XI
Stirling 3rds 297/4
G. Taylor 105, G. Gardner, Morton 31

Holy Cross 142ao
A. Quinn 49, T. Wright 20.

3rd XI
Murrayfield/Dafs 4ths 146 for 7
R Mehta 48, C. Richardson 25

Holy Cross 3rds 124
C. McGill 24, R. Ellis 17
E. McDonald 3 for 13; R Kneebone 2 for 15.

Fraser Flourish Can't Prevent Triple Loss for Cross

Given poor availability, 3 losses is not a major surprise - though still disappointing. 2nds were very unlucky with the infamous rain rule.

1sts
Holy Cross 141ao
D. Russell 55, R. Bainbridge 30, R. Worsnop 27.

Fauldhouse 144-3
D.J. Allan 50odd.

partial scorecard here

For the 2nd successive occasion, the 1sts failed in their attempt to beat Fauldhouse with less than 2/3rds of the 1st team. After an early collapse, Dougie and Bainbro put together a fluent partnership of 60 odd and got us back into the game. But despite Robin's efforts, the absence of our usual batting depth meant we were unable to get the near a competitive total. Hopefully availability will pick up next week and beyond.

2nds
PVB reports that:

Holy Cross probably lost to Edinburgh Accies by 0.002 of a run. Holy Cross scored 188 all out; their run rate is 4.17778. Accies scored 117-5 after 27.4 overs; their run rate is 4.17857. By multiplying the Holy Cross run rate of 4.1778 by 28 overs you get 116.98.

Is the target 117 or is it 118 if Holy Cross' score is rounded up to 117? Can you win by 0.002 of a run? Your views please!

There was no argument after the game - it was played in the most sporting manner possible. It does highlight the fact the old rule of a game counting after 24/27/30 overs of a second innings was made when we had the draw - without the draw it is a win/lose situation and unfair.

Ziggy will give his reaction at 3.17am.

3rds
Lost to Dalgety Bay by about 5 wickets - details below from Broonster.

Win, Lose or...Tie

1st XI
at Arboretum
Holy Cross 245/6 (50 overs) (20 pts)
C. Ellis 49, S. Pickering 47, E. C. Smith 42, S. Bonfield 39,
R. Dannreuther 36; B. Powell 3/32

Grange 2 181ao (50 overs)(8pts)
B. Parkinson 82; R. Bainbridge 4/ 29, S. Bonfield 3/22

further details to follow...
brief newspaper mention here

2nds tied with SMRH 2nds
91 for J. Bates
5 wickets Andy Killey
Believe we needed 1 to win off the last ball but a (direct hit) run out denied us. Fully story from Ziggy at about 3.34am

3rds had a narrow loss vs Teuchters
5 wickets for Gavin Morcom

details from? (bit of a lack of 3rd team reports-can someone volunteer-sounds like a good match)

Winning Streak Ends as 1sts and 2nds Collapse

Two fairly dismal batting performances ended the club's run of success.

Don't have details for the 2nds but believe they made 95ao chasing just 125 to beat Falkland 2nds on a testing artificial wicket-Ziggy will provide details once he's finished his Kebab...believe the returning Andy Killey took 6 wickets.

At Arbo the 1sts were below par against some aggressive Carlton batting. A few slices of fortune went in Carlton's favour; but though we kept taking wickets we never stemmed the flow of runs. 183 was a decent score on a wicket that (having been waterlogged the day before) lacked pace and bounce but we should have at least got close. The final partnership of 39 between the two Andys showed what could have been achieved.

Carton 2nds 183ao off 41.2 overs (P. Swan 60, A. Majunder 33, F. Boyd 31; A. Millington 3/42, S.Bonfield 2/22)

Holy Cross 131 ao off 44.2 overs (A. Millington 23, C. Ellis 20; O. Ahmed 3/11, T. Clarke 3/38)

Carlton's view of proceedings here

Scotsman report here

Casual Cross 1sts Claim 2nd Win

The lack of the promised umpires and then the lack of stumps (!) set the scene for a slightly sluggish start to the match. The pitch was shaved low and firm on top but it was clear from Shannon’s first short ball that bounce would be slow and a bit low. With Simon delayed, it was fortunate that Shifty could take over behind the stumps; doing well and leaving EC with a Clegg-like choice: go with the slightly grumpy incumbent or choose the younger man. Shifty's injured thumb relieved the skipper from taking this tricky decision.

Despite a couple of early wickets, the Cross were rather passive in the early stages as Hopcroft and the experienced Dale put together a solid partnership. A missed chance and some other misfields didn’t help and though Dougie trapped Dale lbw (and - following the Dr's example - injuring himself whilst celebrating!), this only brought in the dangerous Farooq.

He smacked 5 big sixes in his 35 and Glens were soon in the ascendancy. Andy got him with a short one that kept a little low and his skiddy bounce helped him gain figures of 5-41 (a week after taking 5 for the 2nds…hope he’s in your fantasy side). Among his wickets were two good c & b’s. Hopcroft finally fell for an excellent 73, mixing good defence with strong cuts and his trademark lofted drives. 189 was a competitive score and perhaps 40 more than would have been achieved against a tighter bowling and fielding display.

Openers Ellis and Pickering were given some gifts by some erratic Glens bowling and were soon on top. Pickering in particular was busy and ran well until running out of puff and falling for 51 out of an opening stand of 90. Charlie lost a bit of concentration and fell to a good nut from Hopcroft.

As the ball got softer and the Glens bowling got tighter, the Cross batsmen started to struggle and the run-rate fell to a trickle. Shannon lofted one to mid-off and Euan and Praveen were dismissed by Khan, returning with a good spell from the top end. Amid this collapse Calum played brightly and scored at a good rate. But, after missing with the same shot twice in the over, he tried to pull a short ball from Khan and was lb - at least he took it in good grace (I hope repairing the crater in the Glenrothes’ square won’t take too many hours…C. A. Smith clearly the early leader in the 'race' for the Bradley Trophy). The Cross run-rate declined to a trickle before specialist tonker Vikram joined the action and struck his 4th ball for a big straight 6 to complete victory.

Some good play from Cross but far too much sloppy stuff. A better standard of play (especially in the field) will be needed this Saturday at home to Carlton 2nds.

scorecard here

brief mention for Spick here

3 wins..again!

Despite sustaining a suspected broken thumb, President Robertson was a contented man, gurgling with delight in the green room as all three sides won (yes even the 2nds!!) for a 2nd week in succession.

1sts beat Glenrothes by 3 wickets at Riverside Park.
Glenrothes 189/9 (G. Hopcroft 73, F. Khan 35, A. Millington 5-41)
Holy Cross 193/7 (S. Pickering 51, C. Ellis 48, C. A. Smith 43, F. Khan 3/25, G. Hopcroft 3/36)

2nds beat Leith FAB by 74 runs at Arbo
Holy Cross 206/9 (N. Metha 69, A. Cydzik 44, P. V. Bailey 20, Saeed 4/22)
Leith FAB 132 ao (McKean 69, Lohan 4/25, C. O. Smith 3/25).

3rds beat Preston Village at Polwarth Oval.Don't have full details
Think they made 170 odd (50 for Scott, 37* for Ellis Snr.....)
Bowling PV out for about 105 (4 wickets for Astley, 3 for Ellis Snr)

Rare Threesome for Cross on opening Saturday

All three sides gained victories on the opening Saturday of the season (though the thirds had begun in week 0).

1st XI
At Arboretum.
Holy Cross 204-7 (S. Bonfield 59, C. A. Smith 34, A Fleming 3/52)
Watsonians 2nds 160ao (R. Crosby 58, D, Breach 32, R. Worsnop 4/34, C. Ellis 4/19).

2nd XI beat Watsonians 3rds by 5 wickets at Craiglockhart.
see Ziggy's match report above.

3rd XI beat Kirkbrae 2nds by about 120 runs at Inverleith.
(with Coastal absent, can we have a guest match reporter? Scott, Smudger?-you have permission to mention your 3 wickets in 4 balls...or was it the other way round?).

3rds Lose Opening League Match. 1sts Lose Friendly.

The 3rds narrowly failed to defend 137 at Inverleith Park against DT 2nds (Norrie make 49 on debut and also - I hear - being the pick of the bowlers - and fielders!). 65 odd from one of the DT batsman made the difference. No doubt Coastal will fill in the details. Report by DT here; in which the Thirds are described as having several 'tedious slow bowlers'-is this a description of their bowling or their personalities.

At Arbo, the 1sts played out an enjoyable friendly vs Marchmont, Cross making 151 on their 40 overs, with Shannon making a good 50. Batting was difficult early on against some fine bowling from Marchmont's openers but there was some fairly fluent batting in the middle overs before a late collapse. Not a bad score given the soft wicket (it was an end strip) and the long grass in the outfield.

Despite generally tight bowling, a few expensive overs got Marchmont back into it and a flurry of boundaries helped them pass the total with a couple of overs to spare. Marchmont's Kiwi Matt Loeffen impressed with bat and ball (including a hatrick).

Holy Cross: 151 for 8 (40 overs) - S. Bonfield 62, D. Russell 35, C. Ellis 20, K. Fraser 14;
M Loeffen 4-9 (incl. Hattrick)
Marchmont: 152 for 7 (38 overs) - M Loeffen 52, N Chetty 34, N Ghandi 31*
S Bonfield 7-2-14-1
A Graham 4-0-14-0
P Kumar 8-3-19-2
C Ellis 8-2-20-1
A Millington 3-0-21-0
Co Smith 4-0-32-0
D Russell 4-0-26-2
Most importantly, after last week's wash-out, several 1st teamers had some 'middle time' and got through some overs. As could be expected, fielding was rusty....... The 1st XI will hopefully be up to full strength next Saturday when they take on Watsonians 2, at Arbo.Good luck to Marchmont for their 2010 season.

Breaking News...Cross to open with May Day Matches against Myreside Men

Leaked documents from ESCA seem to suggest that the 1st XI will begin their season at home to Watsonians 2nds (May 1st), while HX 2nds will be away to Watsonians 3rds (presumably at Craiglockhart).

The 3rds begin a week earlier (April 24th)-at home to Drummond/ Trinity.

Final Positions Published

The Final League Tables have now been published on the ESCA site.

1st team: http://tinyurl.com/nrc6zh

2nd team: http://tinyurl.com/lb2uje

3rds: http://tinyurl.com/kmn5ut

A few Crossers also appear in the 'Top Performers' section:

Div 1: http://tinyurl.com/l4a5to

Div 5:http://tinyurl.com/kkekr2

Div 8 (yet to be finalised): http://tinyurl.com/ktob8y

Gloomy Finish for 1sts

In a game which finished in near darkness at Myreside, the 1sts ended their Division 1 campaign with a heavy loss vs Watsonians 2.

Watsonians 227-9
4 wickets for Bonfield

Holy Cross about 155-9
Ellis 35, Pickering 32.

After a good start with the ball, our bowling and fielding dropped off badly against some good batting from Learmonth and Fox. At about 80-2 we were in a the game before a fine spell of quick outswingers by Learmonth (3/13) helped settle the game. Combined with Carlton 2's comprehensive win over Glenrothes, the 1sts will (I think) finish in 4th place-equal to our perfomance in 2005.

...3 wins...yes, even the 2nds

a great day for Ziggy and Coastal

1sts beat Largo (keeping them 3rd)

Holy Cross 184/7
E. Smith 72, S. Bonfield 60*
C. Barclay 3/29

Largo 117ao (6 points)
S. Bonfield 3/14, C. Ellis 4/ 24.

A solid victory built upon a partnership of 103 between Euan 'one shot'**
Smith and Shannon 'back playing like the pro' Bonfield which helped give
us an above-par score on a soft track.
Our strong bowling unit then squeezed their batting line-up (Shannon
taking the key wicket of Stinson) and forcing into them into some
over-ambitious shots on this type of surface.

2nds beat Falkland 2's (which may well have secured their Div 5 status)

Holy Cross 2nd XI beat Falkland 3rd XI by 6 wickets
Falkland 138-9 :(Biswas 4/24)
Holy Cross 2nd XI 142-6 ( A Quinn 50odd*, A Graham 36*) (having been 15-5, all to Alistair Melville whose 1st spell was 5-5)

3rds beat Edin South 2's (putting them 2nd)
Holy Cross 3rd XI beat Edinburgh South 2nd XI by about 65 runs scores- HX3 about 164-6 (R Ellis 67*, S. Russell 38) ; Edin South 2 about 99.

**most unfair- he only scored 87.5 % of his runs with a pull.

further details to follow

Spickers and Bainbro the Key Men in Final Victory

The winning team.

Back row: Michael (12th Man), N. Shazad, S. Bonfield, C. A. Smith, J. Bates, R. Bainbridge, C. Ellis, C. McGill (Scorer).
Seated on Bench: K. Fraser (Vice-Captain), S. Pickering (Wkt), E. C. Smith (Captain), I. Astley.
Seated on Grass: V. Gaware.

Presidents Trophy Final at Myreside
Holy Cross won the toss and elected to bat

Holy Cross 172-10 from 40 overs
Pickering 73, C Smith 39, J. Bates 13,
Bhardwaj 5 for 32, Anderson 2 for 15.

defeated

Musselburgh 145-10 from 38.1 overs
A Tufail 49, Tucker 30, Anderson 19*,
Bonfield, 7 overs, 1/29
Bainbridge, 8 overs, 4/36
Ellis, 8 overs, 2/16
Gaware, 8 overs, 0/30
Astley, 7.2 overs, 2/30

2 catches for E. C. Smith, 1 for V. Gaware.

Champagne moment: Bainbro's slower ball to dismiss their hard-hitting No. 9.

More details to follow but it was an excellent game against a good Musselburgh side in a superb setting. Many thanks to the many Crossers (past and present) and our lucky mascot (Michael) who came along to support.

Press report here:
http://sport.scotsman.com/cricket/Cricket-Holy-Cross-in-.5559513.jp

3rds the only winners

I believe that the 1sts lost:
All out for 90 odd chasing the 230ish made by Boroughmuir.
Bates and Bonfield the only batsmen with significant scores.
Dougie apparently the pick of the bowlers, taking 3/25.

2nds also lost:
Peebles 190+ all out: Holy Cross 2nd XI 64.

3rds won:
Holy Cross III 191-6 (20 points)
Largo IV 182-8 (9 points)

Further info to follow.