Holy Cross Ignite Despite Absence of Bonfire!

 The newish look Holy Cross first team was missing cup final hero Bonfield but secured a well deserved victory against a rusty looking Watsonians.  The writer (EC Smith) was making unusually good time, aided by his father's car, and arrived at arboretum a full five minutes before play commenced!  Big hitting opening batsman Owais Mazher followed ten minutes later having, ingeniously, arrived fully clothed in his whites in order to 'save time'!  Flawed logic or genius, I'll leave it up to you to decide!

This question aside, play commenced on schedule and the firsts appeared to have pulled off their customary psychological trick of appearing like a bunch of reprobates while still starting the game strongly.  GT, buoyed by his promotion to vice-captain in the absence of the injured Keith Fraser, took on the responsibility of 'pack-leader' and performed with gusto in the opening overs.  Veteran Flannigan looked in determined mood but, after shaping a couple away, GT had him shoudering arms to one that nipped back and the middle and off bail went flying!  Queue high fives and celebrations coupled with cautionary warnings that the gritty Fox was arriving at the crease, no doubt wishing to continue his good record against the Cross.

Fox nudged and nurdled, along with Yellowless , in relatively benign early season conditions and skipper Russell shrewdly resisted the temptation to over attack at this point.  After ten overs, GT and Raja made way for McCoscar and Ellis, as the Cross looked to stifle the opposition in what was a slightly hesitant looking 2nd wicket partnership.  The skipper's patience was rewarded in the fifteenth over when Ellis teased Fox down the wicket and Shifty took a smart stumping chance to spark further celebrations.  At around 35-2 Holy Cross were amongst the wickets and had also kept things tight resulting in a sense of anticipation as to how Watson's would respond. 

However, apart from a couple of enterprising strokes from new batsman Fleming, the visitors continued to creep along at a fairly slow rate.  It must be said though, that this was largely to do with the quality of the bowling, as McCoscar and Ellis bowled with real control and intelligence throughout this period.  As a result, this sense of anticipation had started to give way to a sense of inevitability, as The Cross secured their third wicket when McCoscar trapped Yellowless lbw.  Holy Cross then pushed home their advantage, with McOscar grabbing two further wickets, to leave the visitors in real trouble at 60-5 during drinks. 

Having taken his match total to three wickets, McCoscar looked to be tiring slightly as he made way for a Raja 'blast' after drinks.  Holy Cross's new 'tough man' repaid the skipper's faith in him as he got rid of the dangerous looking number 7, after inducing a leading edge.  Raja then turned on the style in his next over when a well disguised slower ball, which would have done for many a batsman, was edged to gully.  A slightly unnecessary run-out of Fleming later, who probably represented the visitors last hope of posting a competitive total, meant the visitors were lurching badly.

At around 80-8, the vice-captain then demonstrated an innate understanding of the privileges which can come with power, promptly 'finding' himself back in the attack.  No one was complaining of Machiavellian methods, however, as GT burst through the tail to leave Watson's with a substantially under par total of 83 off 34 overs.

After a tea notable for both its quantity and quality, The Cross then set about their total in earnest...  However, after a couple of sound shots through cover, McOscar nicked one off Leggett and departed early on for just 4 runs.  Only one more run than wicket for the kiwi but, for those who have witnessed him in pre-season nets, one suspects it is only a matter of time before he gets to grips with the Scottish wickets and puts runs on the board. 

This wicket brought CJ Ellis to the crease to join the ever ready Mazher and the scoreboard soon started to tick over at a comfortable rate.  Progress was relatively serene, although Watson's should have seen Mazher depart on around 25, when he was dropped after miscuing a trademark stroke over the wide mid-on region.  However, a huge 6 from Mazher and some fluent stroke-play from Ellis saw Holy Cross complete a surprisingly straightforward 9 wicket victory, with Mazher finishing on 44* and Ellis 30*.

There will be greater tests for the first team, including (no doubt) Watson's themselves later in the season, but this continued a good start for The Cross under the stewardship of Dougie.  

         
EC Smith;

1sts v Watsons 2's - Skipper Arrives Early For Next Seasons Match

Quick Quiz Question (answer at end of report):

Which letters are missing? A, B, D, F, G, J, K, L, N, O, P, Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.



The skipper at around 1pm on Saturday???

The first sign that things weren’t all they should be was when I received a text from Bainbridge at 12.57 saying “Starting, I won the toss”. Worrying. The skipper had asked me during the week if I could keep wicket, so I knew vice-skip Simon wasn’t playing, but where was The Skip?

One minute later, when I arrived, I discovered I was one of the lucky few to keep my place after the Parks Trophy victory three days earlier. Out went Pickering, Webb, Gaware & Lynch in a Romanov style cull. In were Morcom, Jones, Killey & Trewartha. Nick Jones, who I’d never met before, had his pads and gloves on ready to keep. So I assumed he was a Watsonian and thought we must be batting. That we only had 10 men and no match ball, batting would be the only sensible choice really. Until introductions were made and I realised my assumptions of normality were going to be tested to the max. Our 12^th game of the season and our 4^th keeper in the ongoing mass rotational experiment that we call Selection. And we were bowling.

Bimbo, now with a 100% record of winning tosses, immediately ceded control of proceedings to Frazerio. A dumb move. Any fool (or uncle Jo) knows that as soon as you get a sniff of power, you hang onto it and begin plotting the downfall (or preferably death) of any close rivals. If he’d held on to the mantle of power, he could have been opening the bowling for years to come. But as soon as I resumed the role, all the old insecurities of high office came flooding back. Immediately spotting the threat of Bainbridge to my acting position of command, I had to put him in his place (deepest fine leg and not opening the bowling).

With Lynch and Warsnap somewhere else and Bimbo in purdah (definition; the seclusion of women from the sight of men) on the boundary, I chucked our ‘borrowed’ ball (for we had none of our own) to Bonfire and asked Gary ThreeforFourforFiveforWartha (a name of Cornish origin apparently) to take the second over.

Papa Bonfield, suffering a bit from writers block struck with his very first ball (is that too obscure a cross-reference from last Saturday’s report?) enticing a snick that Jones happily snaffled and the Cross juggernaut was on the road again. Bonf proclaimed the virtues of the very short lived innings as, usually, the East League hackers aren’t good enough to nick his pearlers. About time somebody was good enough to do so!!!

Our favourite Watsonian now entered the fray and struggled against Trewartha, edging a couple through the burgeoning slip cordon before tickling one to your vice-vice-skipper at gully. Flannigan was next to go, tied down by Trewartha, he had a flail at one and missed, before losing his off stump next ball.

Er, still no skipper at this point. Brian ‘the one-armed bandit’ Fraser was in attendance in spectator mode and offered to do sub fielding duties. However this just reminded me of an old family story. My Grandad once told me, over a Werthers Original, that during the Second World War, one of his brothers was late back to his barracks after a period of leave. His CO had uttered the immortal words “I’d rather go into battle a man down than take Fraser”. The regiment then went off and were almost wiped out in one of those glorious futile gestures. So Brian was given a Coms role as we requested he found out where the F the skipper was. Difficult as he wasn’t answering his phone (/awake yet).

On the battlefield, the carnage continued. Yellowlees was next up. Looking good, he became ‘engaged’ in some ‘chat’ with a simmering Bainbridge (the ghost of the Bish alive and well?). When the Bimbo replaced Bonners, he thought long and hard about which of his arsenal of deliveries he’d deploy to dismiss his verbal nemesis. He decided on a hybrid of the half tracker and the long hop. A gleeful Yellowlees threw his bat at it, but could only chop it onto his timbers and off he went wondering if there were better ways to spend a Saturday.

The wireless operator reported at 1345 that contact had been made with the skipper and he sounded “groggy”. He was at his folks and would be going to Arbo to get his car and kit and should be half an hour.

Gary T scalped another in the meantime and the hosts were 41 for 5 against our charging one man Light Brigade.

After 3.5 overs of mediocrity I decided to relieve Bainbro of his toil, before he produced the first good ball of his spell to end his fourth over. Cue the first Hissy Fit of the day when I thanked him for his contribution. The tiara was thrown to the ground as he wailed something or other about just having found his rhythm. Dabbing his tears away I agreed to allow him to continue while Killey replaced Trewartha at the other end.

Sim & Boorman had now began a counter offensive. Defying the evidence of what went before, although the ball was quickly losing its shine in the drizzle, they continued to play shots when they could and kept the score ticking along at a healthy rate. Hissy Fit #2 arrived in the form of young Ellis. Asked to bowl at the Colinton Rd end, he was inconsolable. So Dougie offered himself up instead allowing Precious Prince Charles to get his way. I’m going soft in my old age.

Drinks came and went, but still no Dear Leader, until, in the 27^th over, our spirits were lifted. Out of the drizzle appeared that small red fanny magnet (the MR2, not Euan) and our cup winning skipper, like Marty McFly emerging from the DeLorean (Back To The Present???), arrived pitchside. In the 28^th over we were a team again.

Scrabbling around looking for a partnership breaker, I decided to ask Morcom to bowl an over, but first tried Gary T who still had two overs left. Three wickets later (figures of 6-39 for Trewartha), Morcom’s brief was truly defunct, though he still got one over as consolation anyway. Watsons had made a more than useful 92 for their 6^th wicket.

A further change recalling Russell and Bonfield was enough to take the final two wickets in 9 balls and Watsonians were all out for 145 in the 38^th over. Considering we had 10 men for most of it, a changed team, no office bearers and the quality of the opposition, I thought we did pretty well, although there was a murmur or two that we should have got them for less. If only I’d brought myself on 1^st change eh…

A mightily splendid, but disappointingly meagre Tea was then taken at Myreside where the increasing rain chased their 1^st XI off at Myreside just as we settled down to watch some ‘proper’ cricket being played.

And that was it.

In summation, another great performance by Gary T, averaging less than 7 with the ball and a strike rate under 12 in all 1^st XI games this year (it also transpired that Gary scored his "first" hundred against Watsons, not bad for our number 11). Shannon getting a batsman to nick a ball also deserves a second mention. Good efforts in tough conditions by the other bowlers too. And yet again in the field, it doesn’t seem to matter who is playing, our fielding was excellent once more, the only drops were two toughies behind the stumps by a useful looking stand-in keeper. The total lack of nets seems to be paying off spectacularly!!!!

S. Bonfield     6.3-2-16-2

G. Trewartha 10-1-39-6

Bainbridge     7-1-25-1

Killey             3-0-23-0

Russell           5-1-17-1

Ellis               6-0-17-0

Morcom         1-0-7-0

Quick Quiz Answer: E.C.S.M.I.T.H.

"It was one of those nights that just gets away from you and you can't bring it back"

Breaking News....1sts beat leaders but 2nds and 3rds lose

Saturday Scores Digest:
1sts
Chased down Watsonians' 174 all out for the loss of 5 wickets on a very tricky wicket. KF led the way with 46; useful contributions from Spickers, EC, CA, Dougie and Psycho - and extras. In the first half Killer and Bimbo led off with disciplined opening spells, and the Doctor got rid of key man Crosby - cje was able mop things up with his 1st EVER 5-for, including their skip Breach who made a battling 83.

But ultimately it was all down to the skipper's inspired bowling change.... obviously...ask him about it....at least KF didn't start laughing till he took the catch.

Watsonians 2 174ao (D. Breach 85, V. Saisubramanian 19, C. Ellis 5/20)
Holy Cross 176-5 (K. Fraser 46, E. Smith 28, J. Bates 25*, S. Pickering 23).

brief mention here:
http://sport.scotsman.com/cricket/Cricket-Four-times-50-equals.6400172.jp

Watsonians' view of events here:

http://www.watsoniancricket.co.uk/seconds/second-loss-of-the-season-for-2s/#more-1237

2nds
pvb reports:
Watsonian 3rd XI beat Holy Cross 2nd XI by about 24 runs.

Watsonian 3rd XI scored 230-9 (Steve Lockhart an impressive 98* & Gareth Burnett 41 or so).
Holy Cross went along merrily to about 120-1 and 195-5 but were all out for about 206. James Budden batted stylishly for about 60, Norrie got 35. Alan Borthwick and a youngster Middleton got Watsonians back on track.

3rds
This week it was the turn of the 3s to be hit around by a young batsman:

Dunfermline 3rds 206 for 5 B Wilkinson 109no,T Lucas 35no
beat
Holy Cross 3rds 146 for 7 C McGill 64,R Ellis 31, T Lucas 3-20
by 60 runs
further details to follow....