Crisis taIks

Word has reached me that two Crossers have become so concerned abut HX's recent run of poor results/ performances that they will be meeting up in order to put together an action plan

Without naming the two individuals, it is likely that 'standards' and the bowling of bouncers at 15-year-olds may crop up

CA's memorable moments

To commemorate CA's departure, it has been suggested that a list of his finest performances be placed on the HX blog. However another Crosser Bainbro has insisted that the focus should be on those moments which others will remember more vividly. As EC once commented, when CA is dismissed he looks completely baffled...as if the laws of physics had momentarily been suspended (something to do with Higgs boson??) or as if he'd had a black-out at the key moment. Some of the moments that Bainbro insisted I list include:

*On the Tour of 2000: getting dismissed lbw at Powerstock (was smacking it to all parts at the time after 1 hr in the nets with the Dr) then taking a trip to the local church-1/2 mile away- to reflect on the justice or otherwise of the decision.

*Making a 3ft by 2ft divot in the Glenrothes square after being dismissed in 2010-as recounted in the match report: '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/months…C. A. Smith clearly the early leader in the 'race' for the Bradley Trophy).'

* Blame the umpire! Ranting after nicking a very wide delivery in a cup match in 2011. The previous delivery had been slightly wide (but correctly not wided by umpire Pickering)...CA went off complaining about Spick's umpiring: "you forced me to play at that one".. Spicker's reply: "No, but that one really was a wide".

*D'oh! Playing like Ian Bell on steroids at Freuchie, getting himself to 40 odd with a series of superb attacking strokes-holing out to a deep square leg who CA hadn't spotted being deployed....at the rate he was going he might well have broken the 1st XI record (132) in about 80 balls...

*CA misfields on the mid wicket boundary (turning a single into 4...)...who does he blame?...his brother for disturbing his concentration!

* Telling Robin off for not giving him NOT out lbw at Glenrothes in 2011.

* Berating the umpire at Carlton in 2011 regarding a run out decision..the umpire was at least 13..

Feel free to add your own CA memories.

STOP PRESS:
Another senior HX player KF insists this be mentioned:

'There was one, maybe v Fauldhouse at home when I was captain. KF/CA opened the batting and I got hit on the toe and was manfully persevering, hardly able to walk. I inside edge/padded one straight at square leg in the same over. As I tapped my bat down behind the crease I was startled as CA suddenly appeared by my side, all red faced and screaming YES!!! I replied 'no' and he made off for his second run to try to make it back, but, despite his obligatory full length dive, he didn't make it (I've watched Dougie try to run me out in this exact way too). I made sure I was well out his way as he walked off before getting myself out next over. The sensible thing, with hindsight, would have been to leave my crease once he arrived and sacrifice me, the injured player but I wasn't sure if the ump knew I'd nicked it or if it might have been given as a leg bye to extras so I stayed put'. 

Farewell to CA

As you'll be aware, Calum is heading off to Australia this month.

To bid him farewell, the soc sec has suggested that Crossers convene at St Vincents on St. Vincent Street on Friday 13th Jan - from 7pm onwards.

Reminder from Bimbo

 

Brother Crossers!

A gentle reminder that tonight (Friday 9th) is Quiz Night/Festive celebrations at Arbo.

Gates open at 6.30 for a 7pm start, looking forward to seeing you all there!

Fair play to the 2's and 3's...1sts...er

The table for the 2011 Fair Play awards have been released. Full league tables available here

The 2's and 3's are also near the top of the 'all divs' table here. 

Congrats to the 2nds and 3rds. The 1sts may need to have a think about why we slipped so far from our placings in previous seasons. 

Top Runs

In response to public demand, here is a list of top 1st XI run makers (league). Do check for possible errors.

Those wondering about the absence of CA Smith...he's currently 10 short of the 1000 mark! (990 at 17.68) -if only he'd turned some of those 2's into 3's....

Minotaur vs McEldrey

Crossers may be aware that the Australian selectors have been searching far and wide for prospective test cricketers and have been made aware of the our long term success of Shannon and more recently Pat. As a result they have demanded either their return or Cross provide an equal replacement.

A straw poll revealed one CA Smith to be our most "Australianesque" member and we have opted to ship him off for an initial two year tenure. He'll be working as a doctor to augment any potential lack of runs.

As a result CA is determined to end 16 years of hurt and finally overall his twin in the run scoring stakes. Rumours that his initial goal of outscoring The Prince (CJE) was quickly downgraded to out-scoring EC have been denied by his "people".

As it stands there is 1 league game and one cup final left

League runs:

EC Smith: 223
CA Smith: 165

Non League runs:

EC Smith: 83

CA Smith: 187

EC - 306

CA - 352

I'm unsure which carries more weight, league runs? Cup runs are still "first class" so do they all count?

Either way it's game on for the next two matches.......................SMITH OFF!!!!

Cross beat the rain...and their opponents as Psycho goes on the rampage!

Div 1 (Grange Loan)

Holy Cross 1st XI 144ao (S. Bonfield 45, C. Ellis 38; H. Aslam 4-26)
Carlton 2s 121 (N. Pietsch 48, Majumder 30).
Worsnop 7-1-20-2
Bonfield 8-1-20-1
Lynch 10-3-22-2
Russell 10-1-18-1
Ellis 6-0-21-2
Bainbridge 6.2-1-15-0

On a tricky wicket we were soon 16-3 as Owais (after starting nicely) played across an straight one and the two Smiths were undone by extra bounce from Mackay. Bonfield and Ellis put together a solid partnership of 62 before (just as he found some fluency against the Carlton spinners) Ellis tried to cut one too close to him. The lower middle order failed to build on this decent platform, with only Dougie (a v nice 18) and Lynch (10) getting past 1. When Bonfield fell for a very handy 45 the innings rather subsided with several ill-advised lofted strokes against Aslam's well-flighted leggies; we were all out in the 44th over about 30 short of a good score.

Carlton also started badly in the face of testing opening bursts from Bonfield & Worsnop. Shannon getting McPherson ct behind for 0 for the 2nd time in 13 days (6 balls in total) and Robin getting Barrett (who was unable to take advantage of a horror drop by Pat in Shannon's 1st over) and then Hunt. But Carlton had depth in batting and Majumder and Duerden played some fine shots as a few looser deliveries were sent down. They put on 48 before Pat had Duerden lbw and this sparked a collapse: from 57-3 to 66-7. Pat was in the middle of a hostile spell: the highlight the bouncer that Well's gloved behind. However our momentum was somewhat checked by the frequent interruptions for rain-thankfully none of the showers lasted too long and the covers kept the pitch and footholds in a playable condition.

Dougie also bowled very nicely, including a fine c & b off Majumber who had seemingly targeted him. However Pietsch (who had scored a good 60-odd in similar conditions/ circumstances at Arbo recently) remained. Bimbo bowled a good late spell to ensure that the required run rate remained high-a late maiden by Shannon also helped in this regard. Only Aslam offered him much support, but once they were 9 down Pietsch found another gear and he put on 24 with Mackay (1*) before a mix up left Pietsch scrambling in the mud just short of his ground (the equation at this point was 24 req of 4). Hardly a perfect performance (as well as a disappointing batting performance, there were 2 v bad drops that might have cost us badly on another day) but a good game to win versus able opponents.

Div 5 (Arboretum)
Morton 229-8 (Nathan 64) lost to Holy Cross 2nds 230-3 (J Bates 129*)

Div 8 (Station Road, St Andrews)
Holy Cross 3rds 122 : Largo 3rds 116.

further details to follow....

Parks Progress

Parks Trophy 2nd Round (at Arboretum)

Holy Cross 179-3
C. Ellis 58* (25balls), C. A. Smith 42 (32), S. Bonfield 41* (24), E. C. Smith 22 (25)

Casuals 113/9
Logan 29, Crow 18
Worsnop 3 overs/2-4
Bainbridge 3 overs/ 0-11
Millington 3 overs/ 1-21
Russell 3 overs/ 3-17
U. Shazad 4 overs/ 2-33
Webb 2 overs/ 0-17
Bonfield 2 overs/ 1-7

The efforts made in getting out a strong side were rewarded with a good solid win in a highly enjoyable game versus a spirited Casuals side. Efficient dispatching of the bad/ hittable deliveries took us to a good 179-3 on a decent but slightly 'dead' track. Though we shared the bowling around, the very tight opening spells by the two Rob's (14 off the first 6 overs) meant that the HX total was never under threat. Cheers to Casuals for playing the game in a great spirit (even when the ball was disappearing to the boundary fairly regularly)-and also well done for batting so well in the final overs when the light was pretty terrible.

breaking news.... PVB informs me that.....we will play Edinburgh South (at Arbo) in the next round.

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