Thursday Game OFF

HX vs Edinburgh CC in the @ESCACricket President's Trophy on Thursday is OFF
for obvious reasons

Arbo at 7pm on Thurs  -pic by A Quinn

The Sun DID always shine..

Given the current period of poor weather, it's tempting to believe that we are experiencing a uniquely wet cricket season.  One senior Crosser has posited that since 1996 the summers weather in the Edinburgh area have become decidedly wetter-more like Glasgow.  Is he right? 

The weather was always like this

The figures below suggest that -as with popular music-things really were better in the past...  Or are there other reasons why more fixtures were completed? Tougher men? Were cancelled games resheduled?

Number of HX Ist XI league fixtures completed (from Hugh K's stats):
note 1984!!

1975 11 out of 12
1976 10 out of 12
1977 13 out of 14
1978 13 out of 14
1979 12 out of 14
1980 12 out of 14
1981 12 out of 14
1982 10 out of 14
1983 12 out of 14
1984 18 out of 18
1985 13 out of 18
1986 16 out of 18
1987-14 out of 18
1988-12 out of 18
1989-16 out of 18
1990-16 out of 18
1991 17 out of 18
1992 16 out of 18
1993 16 out of 18
1994 14 out of 16 

1995 17 out of 18
1996 16 out of 18
1997 14 out of 18
1998 15 out of 18
1999-13 out of 18
2000-13 out of 18
2001 15 out of 18
2002 11 out of 18
2003 15 out of 18
2004 13 out of 18
2005 16 out of 18
2006 16 out of 18
2007 12 out of 18
2008  9  out of 18
2009 15 out of 18
2010 17 out of 19
2011 12 out of 19
2012  6  out of 10

Post-season maintenance

[The Grounds Commissar writes]

It's that time of year where we need to do some post-season maintenance on the Arbo square. This involves spreading 80 x 20 kg bags of loam over the square. This year, there is an added complication, because the loam has been delivered to Peffermill and not Arbo. Therefore we need:

1) People with cars (and even better, trailers) to transport the bags up to Arbo.
2) Volunteers to carry the loam to the Arbo square and spread it.

Weather permitting, we're want to do this on Saturday afternoon, with the bags of loam being picked at Peffermill from 12.00 onwards. Depending on reasonable numbers, we should be able to transport the material up to Arbo by 1.00, with the loam spreading finished about 4.00.

This is an important job. The Arbo square has improved greatly in recent years and we want to carry on that improvement. So, if you can spare an hour or two on Saturday, please do this important thing for the club. If, due to bad weather, the operation is cancelled, an all points e mail will be sent out.

Don't leave it to others, get stuck in.
Looking forward to seeing many of you on Saturday,

Smudger
Grounds Commissar.

1st XI v Boroughmuir (including full match highlights)

On the way to Arbo on Saturday I was surprised my canoe wasn't inundated as I negotiated the Morningside rapids, however by the time I reached Loch Tollcross the monsoon had subsided a little and I could see where I was going again. As I pulled my vessel ashore at Arboretum Island I was incredulous to see the top of some stumps just above the waterline where the square once was.  Assured that the pitch was "hard underneath" we decided not to let a little bit of surface water put us off. Also, with various bowlers trying to break into our West Indian pace quartet, it would also have been handy to injure at least one, if not both of two of the present quartet, Lynch & Bainbridge, to ease future selection issues.

Despite the horrific batting conditions, the slow outfield and the idea that the pitch could only improve as the day wore on, skipper Smith still decided to put the oppo in when he won the toss, a u-turn on his previous double-bluff policy of insisting on the hardest course of action for his battle hardened team.


Promising youngster Lynch opened up at the Harbour End and using a dark red rubber duck, like some prehistoric God, he managed to extract some life from the bog of primordial soup. One mistimed hook shot was skyed, landing just short of fine leg, there was a great appeal for LBW and young Pat was looking forward to his second over.


Alack, Australians it seems are made of sterner stuff than their Anglo forefathers (or at least, their boots are).  Bambi (shurely Bimbo?) skited in from the Castle End managing two deliveries with relative assurance before the third ended in near tragedy.


Like Ronaldo running past an outstretched boot, Bainbro began a protracted and motion-heavy descent to the deck. The resulting wave shook boats loose from their moorings at Rosyth, but the Bimbo refused to stay down (because he would have drowned) and swam straight back to his feet.


As usual, the batsmen were coping fine in the conditions, but the bowlers, the poor delicate precious bowlers had to be protected. The skippers had a quick discussion and to abate any further high pitched whinging from Dougie et al, it was decided that with nine balls bowled, eight runs, nay wickets, the game was up the bogey.


Full match highlights here

Annual Holy Cross BBQ - Early Warning!!

In a blatant and gratuitous attempt to grab your attention I'm taking the bold effort of announcing the date for the annual club BBQ early as opposed to the traditional 3 days beforehand.

It seems the fixture list has declared 30th of July to be the auspicious date when all teams play in closest proximity to each other.

As always it is an open event and with this much notice there no excuses for not bringing your partner, kids or friends along. *

* The club accepts no responsibility for the fallout of your partner discovering how and with who you spend so much of your precious summers weekends.

Washout Woe

....All three Saturday games called off without a ball bowled.

perhaps we'll have better luck tomorrow-Pres trophy vs Stenhousemuir.

Another record falls as Cross blow Irvine away in Scottish Cup.

Scottish Cup 1st round.

Holy Cross beat Irvine by 175 runs
Holy Cross 331-7 (50 overs, K Fraser 38, C Ellis 83, S Bonfield 60, C Smith 58*, S Singh 5-73)
Irvine 156 all out (S Butt 46, C Ellis 4-27)

full scorecard here

Holy Cross completed a successful and record-breaking weekend with a dominant batting display vs Irvine in the 1^st round of the Scottish Cup. Their 331-7 is believed to be a 1^st team record. The game was played in very strong wind, which not only caused bails to be dispensed with but also blew away caps, unattended helmets and even boundary markers! Scorers were forced to take shelter in the container. and the scoreboard had to be sheltered behind one of the buttresses of the clubhouse.

Well done to the Irvine guys for putting up with these conditions for 50 overs - we fortunately only needed to stay our there for 30.

Though not easy to bat (it wasn’t easy maintaining your balance at the crease), the bowlers certainly had the more difficult task, especially with the umpires under instruction from CS to be VERY tight on wides - there were 44 (15 as ‘5’ wides) in the HX innings.

Some highlights:

* EC successfully worked out how to set up the fielding circles!

* KF’s supercharged opening assault made full use of the 1^st powerplay and (with EC) helped take us to 79-1 off 12, allowing the middle order time to play themselves in.

* CE and Shannon were able to continue the controlled type of partnership they put together vs Grange 2s, with efficient dispatching of the loose deliveries.

* CA continued from were he left off on Saturday with a very fluent 58* including a BIG six over long on.

* Despite limited bowling resources, Cross started particularly well with Roshan and Shannon putting the opposition well behind the required run rate from an early stage.

* Though some part time bowlers were pressed into action they all did a decent job - CA picking up two wickets.

* Cross fielded enthusiastically (top marks to new boy Craig, PVB and Norrie) and supported each other in difficult conditions.

* Surprisingly both captains were able to keep up with the powerplays and other fielding conditions.

* Remind cje that he's on a hatrick next time he bowls (or just if he bowls again in the Scottish Cup??).

* Mandy again did a great job with the teas.
* McGill seemed to injure himself whilst scoring....

* cje's efforts to smuggle some leaf tea into the pot didn't prove too controversial.

Holy Cross will play Kelburne (away) in round 2 next Sunday (June 5^th). Draw here

Cross lose in Midweek Mudbath Madness

According to Bimbo a reliable source, the insane Midweekers' match against Tranent went ahead this evening, despite the torrential rain...

HX making 93 in their 16 overs (runs for Vikram I believe) and Tranent passing that total with 1 over to spare (34* for returning ex-Crosser Judas Suli Malik).

Arbo "a bit damp but playable"

Broonster has just passed by Arbo and taken this photo of McGill inspecting the square.

When shown the photo, Smudger said: "the 2nds won't be prevented from playing by a foot or two of water."

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.

Academy game cancelled

1sts vs East Regional Academy

Cancelled due to inclement weather.
A break in the weather at 11.30 ish allowed a start to be attempted.
2 overs played (HX 6/0) before rain became too heavy.
Further very heavy bursts left the pitch waterlogged.

Macabi Midweek Match off

Tonight's (Tues 8th) friendly game vs Macabi has been called off - pitch already too wet and little prospect of drying weather before 6pm.

Rearranged for Thursday 1st July.

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.

Seasonal Shifts?

Broonster and other Crossers with rugby connections may wish to comment on this; given the possible implications for Holy Cross and other
Scottish Cricket clubs:

http://sport.scotsman.com/rugby/David-Ferguson-Seasonal-shift-needed.5968865.jp

'Start by scrapping winter rugby for all youth and club levels'.....

KF on Scottish Cricket (part 2 of a continuing series)

With the Ashes now over and the South Africa vs South Africa 2nd XI test series yet to start, in his latest posting KF turns to one of the er ..... burning issues of the day.

Climate change !!! Is it really happening? As I'm about 99% unqualified to judge (with a 1% error margin), I feel I must waffle on this contentious topic immediately. Is it colder now than a month ago ? Yes. Is it warmer than it was last night ? Yes. Seems like a no brainer to this no brainer. Indeed, if the climate didn't change it would surely be time to worry.

But what has this got to do with the East League fixture schedule, I hear you ask ? The ESCA website has announced that the fixtures for next season "will run from Saturday 1st May until Saturday 28th August inclusive". Meaning the usual pre-season friendlies will be on the 17th and 24th April. You may see where I'm going with this now. Indeed, I could say you are already getting warmer (or colder).

I don't recall any "t-shirt weather" during this early period of the season and my memories of playing cricket at that time primarily involve at least two jumpers. Come the end of August and into September, once the season has ended for most folk, its flip flop and barbecue time. Cricket doesn't necessarily require the players to be warm, but it does require the best of weather conditions to get a decent or at least playable pitch. I believe it's time to look at adjusting the season as I believe it starts and ends too early.

Squinting briefly at Scottish football, there is often talk of a winter shutdown. The obvious problem with this being that our winter can last about 8 months, so which 2-4 week period do you close down for ? Trying to nail down exactly when, or even if, we have our summer isn't much less difficult.

A serious look must be had at historical temperature records, rainfall charts and anything else of use. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there's been no cricket played on the 3rd of July for 120 years or something similar, but I'm sure those records would back up my intuition that the open and close of the season require amendment. As the days shorten in September the kick-off times might have to be brought forward an hour.

In the meantime, I'm sure Jon B will take orders for club fleeces or maybe for long johns (with embroidered badges ???? fnarr).

It is now time for you to shout down my simplistic idealism with unfortunate realities like overlaps with the rugby season or pitch availability or whatever ......

Ludicrous weather (part 3 of a continuing series)

surely we're not considering cricket in this....





Grange Loan earlier this evening




Breaking news: 2nds match vs Largo is OFF

Also the 1st's match vs Carlton is OFF
no news yet re the thirds, though I doubt that the Meadows will be in a playable condition (unless someone's pinched a tent from a festival venue and put it over the square...)

Lucky 13 for Muddy Midweekers

If Steve Rouse reckons that the Edgbaston test pitch is currently like 'Jelly', then we played on one resembling a custard coated biscuit (this was no fault of the groundstaff at Peffermill; just the weather)

In a match shortened to 13 overs per side:

Holy Cross 97/3
K. Fraser 33*, A. Quinn 30 *

Edinburgh University Staff 66/6
C. McGill 2/9 (3 overs)
U. Shazad 2/11 (3 overs)
C. O. Smith 1/15 (3 overs)

HX total built round a good partnership between Fraser and Quinn after early wickets, featuring some good back foot play. Usama was the pick of the bowlers, showing good control given the slippery footholds and sodden ball.

Ludicrous weather

Can we really be seriously considering playing cricket tomorrow??

Breaking news (at 10.15am).....Some degree of sanity has prevailed-the 1st XI game at Glenrothes is OFF

3rds game at Broomhall is still ON

As Andy G and Ziggy have reported the pitch at Arbo seems playable and is being rolled... (don't wreck it for Sunday's game lads...)