The Smudger Chronicles continue

I always like to get something out on a Friday afternoon for those of you cooped up in offices awaiting when your numpty boss finally let's you go home at 5.

My new collaborator, The Loins of the Club, has been busy ploughing through more historical Ashes yarns so we can be regaled with some mirthsome miscellany. He's still on the chapter about the Big Ship era and sends me this. He also remembered to sign off properly this time without the need for me to add anything!!!

More about the Big Ship......
He captained Aus in 10 tests v England - won 8 drew 2 with one of the draws (at Manchester) an almost complete wash out.
On the voyage over, to keep to his fighting weight of 22 stone, he joined the crew in the engine room shovelling coal.
In one match, he caused a 'confabulation' when he thought Hobbs should have been given out and wasn't. Hobbs was out two balls later. Typically Surrey.
In another match, when Wooley was making his debut, he made the batsman wait for 15mins before bowling a ball. In those days, the bowler was allowed to warm up whenever he liked, so he went a few strips down and practiced bowling some balls. When they went to the fine leg boundary, the Aus fielders were in no hurry to retrieve and return the ball. Wooley made 8.
He was a good enough cricketer to do the 1000run - 100 wkt double on all 3 of his tours to England. In one, he made 2,000 runs & took 100wkts. The only tourist ever to have done so.
He was athletic enough to take 44 catches in tests, usually at mid off.
He wasn't a fan of the draw, believing that all tests should be played to a finish. In the drawn match at the Oval, he took himself out to the outfield and picked up a newspaper that had blown on to the field and started reading it. He said "wanted to know who we were playing".
When the England captain - the hon. Mr. A. Tennyson - declared, he stayed out on the pitch. The rules of the series stated that after rain, the batting side could not declare within 1hr 30 of the close. The hon. Tennyson was unaware of that, so everyone had to come out again. In doing so, he embarrassed the English establishment who were shocked that an uncouth, semi (state at that) educated colonial should know the rules better than their own chaps. The umpires further compounded the embarrassment by allowing him to resume bowling on restart. This meant he bowled two overs in a row.
On retiring he regularly wrote for the press, saying that Larwood and O'Reilly couldn't bowl and Bradman couldn't bat. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr

Bring back the draw and the back foot no ball.

If I don't see you before, have a Merry pinning a Jewish carpenter to a tree time and a Happy New hurtling 586, 920,000 miles or so around the sun.

Cross make Semi at Soggy Arbo.

HX made it through to the semi finals of the CS Challenge Cup with a win over Marchmont. As usual, Arbo had drained well and was playable after the deluge on Friday which had caused a mini-lake to form in the Ferry Road/ Arboretum Road corner. As could be expected the wicket was very soft - especially after a sharp shower that halted the match after just 4 balls.

A slight breakdown in communications/some people refusing to confirm till the last moment meant that an unprecedented 15 Crossers turned up. The 11 that were finally entered on the team sheet were the usual 'Sunday mix' of 1sts, 2nd and 3rd XI players.

Dougie was in a no-nonsense mood: Irfan & Abdul were dropped for turning up late... Then Sandy failed to impress with his fielding in the first 4 balls and was axed during the rain delay.

With most of the 'proper' 1st XI bowlers absent, HX's back-up bowlers did a decent job of keeping the ball in the right areas, aware that the soft pitch would make batting very tricky. Andy K taking a wicket with the 1st ball after the resumption - Si casually pouching the slip catch. Decent spells from the returning Andy K, Simon and cje helped keep the run-rate low before some slightly looser bowling/fielding and more enterprising batting from Gandhi and Chetty gave the Marchmont
innings some momentum and some power hitting from Van Jaarsveld (till well held by Ziggy in the deep) helped the visitors to a defendable 136.

New boy Fin opened with KF and they started solidly as Marchmont opened up with their slower bowlers. Fin got a good one from Collier and cje and KF put on a steady partnership before cje picked out the only man in the deep from a full-bunger. Simon continued his fine season with another display of fluent batting and took control of the game. He was well supported by KF and Dougie (hitting nicely over the top).

Though KF, Jon and Dougie also fell, HX completed a fairly comfortable victory.

p.s. a pair of Hunts 'Clipper' batting gloves were left in the HX changing room -they are now in the Green Room.

1st XI match OFF

The match vs Glenrothes is off. In fact the square is merely soft but about 60 % of the outfield is waterlogged-with two small ponds at the Ferry road end (within the boundary): some ducks were swimming in it yesterday evening. An inspection will be made later today (Saturday) regarding the possibility of play on Sunday.

Rain the only winner

Saturday scores digest.

1sts

Div 1 -At Craiglockhart.

Watsonian 2nds 145ao (38.3 overs)
A. Sim 54, T. Boorman 33

S. Bonfield 6.3/2/2/16
G. Trewartha 10/1/6/39
Bainbridge 7/1/1/25
Killey 3/0/0/23
Russell 5/1/1/17
Ellis 6/0/0/17
Morcom 1/0/0/7

match abandoned at Tea-persistent heavy rain.

2nds-at Arboretum

Murrayfield-Dafs 3rds 134ao
S. Tahir 24
C. Smith 3-30, N. Webb 4-20

3rds-at Double Hedges

Kirk Brae 2nds 199-9
G. Moss 49, T. Dodd 53, Tahir 26, A. Raja 25
A. Mohammed 4/36

McGill's youthful Midweekers Master Mud

As ever we had a close an enjoyable game vs C & B - despite the wet pitch and the gloomy evening
(not helped by some classic HX tardiness which delayed the start of the game unnecessarily by 15 minutes.......yes guys, you are free to put out flags, tables etc...). The HX XI featuring 5 players under the age of 25....though two of these were Corstorphine CC players.

Some solid batting - with some good boundaries also struck. Followed up by some good bowling (Osama and Suli the pick) and some lively fielding: Ossie, Osama and Nawaz constituting a rather more athletic cover field that usually seen at Arbo.. two good run outs resulting.

Good knocks from Halcrow and Anwar in the gloom (plus Michael's traditional 1 over spell) set up a tight finish-C & B needing 4 off the last ball to tie-was well struck by Daniel but straight at the fielder.

Holy Cross 126/6 (20 overs)
C. Ellis 45 (27), S. Malik 20 (22), V. Gaware 15 (12)
K. Crichton 2/26, Kaeside 2/30

Currie and Balerno 121/5 (20 overs)
G. Halcrow 50*, F. Anwar 30. Kirk Crichton...2nd ball duck..

President's Trophy match off

Arbo square waterlogged.

no news yet re 3rds at Dunfermline

Abandon all hope.

Breaking News ... All matches abandoned...

1sts
At Eastfield Park, Fauldhouse

Holy Cross 47 for 7 after 29 overs

Raja Sandhu 4 for 16 off 8
Alan McDonald 1 for 3 off 7

C. Ellis 22 not out

Early tea taken as rain got stronger...then it became a monsoon leaving an already soft pitch flooded.

2nds (Arboretum)
Watsonian 3's reached 159-4 then the heavens opened...

3rds (Roseburn-Artificial)
were 20-odd for one chasing 95 when it got too wet..

..further breaking news... Presidents Trophy match vs Stirling County 2's on Sunday-postponed.

2nd XI go down (Ooh missus) in a thriller at the Meadows.

[Nozzer's take on the match versus Morton 1st XI]

On the first Saturday in July the summer decided to make a welcome visit to the Meadows.

Norrie as usual elected to lose the toss and the Morton skipper perhaps learning lessons from the previous week decided to put the Cross into bat.

Irfan and Nipun were given the inevitable task of leading the charge at the Meadows on a pitch which historically can play tricks on the mind. Both seemed to find there feet in the early exchanges before Nipun -for the second week running -fell victim to the dreaded LBW rule. Smudger, umpiring took a bit of time before raising the finger which signalled the end of Nipun (on a footnote when asked later, why the hesitation –“I was thinking of anyway not to give him out however I could not find one”. Next up was JB the scourge of Morton the previous week however this week with 22 to his name a faint edge saw the keeper and everyone else in Morton go up in the air as did the finger of Mr Killey so back to the sidelines and the score was sitting at 25 for 2. Nawaz quickly followed, failing to trouble the scorers for the first time this season.

Norrie then came to the crease and after facing five deliveries an almighty shout went up for LBW. However, the skip had clearly hit even though it seemed he was the only man in the Meadows who was aware of this, after a short delay and to the total disbelief of the skip up went the finger OUT!!!!! Norrie made the point that he had hit it although it seemed to no avail. As the skip tripped off still protesting his bewilderment at the wrongdoing, in an act of great sportsmanship the Morton team beckoned him back to the crease and the decision was reversed. An act of fantastic sportsmanship which should be reflected on as this was a massive game for Morton; they showed competiveness throughout but mixed this with respect to both the game of cricket and to their opposition.

Irfan and Norrie then set about getting into the Morton attack and in the process Irfan reached his maiden fifty for the two’s. The score quickly got up to 120 + before Norrie was bowled for 33. Andy Millington arrived at the crease and he kept it safe [?] as Irfan kept finding the boundary at regular intervals. Two quick wickets fell -Millington and new man Trewartha following cheaply. This brought to the crease the inform Vikram, who was reminded that no sixes had been scored today. He promised the skip that this would not happen as it was playing ‘heavy’ today (????) A swashbuckling 29 then followed and you guessed it, it included two sixes, one of which- had it not hit the tree- may well have popped in for tea at Grange Loan. Irfan then fell, scoring a magnificent 83: batting beautifully in the process and cementing his place in the two’s - sorry Ken!!!, Vikram eventually went attempting another wee hit to the boundary!! Andy Killey and Smudger took us through to the end of our 45 overs (first time this season we have batted out) and giving us the grand total of 198 for 8 [one more than the 1sts score!].

All things considered, a very good score to defend.

Morton's openers came to the crease facing Gaware and Killey and they proved to be very hard to score off with Killey getting one of the previous week’s danger men caught sharply in the slips by Smudger. The bowling from the opening two was very tight especially from Vikram who was unfortunate to miss the bat more times than seemed possible. A couple of solid partnerships then swung the game in the favour of Morton: Karthick (39) and Veera (27) suddenly made 198 look a little vulnerable. Smudger was getting the ball to swing around and he got the scalps of Karthick and Veera both LBW. This brought Nathan to the crease.

After scoring 64 the previous week, we knew that he was the danger man and a very good bat. Unfortunately he did not let us his team down playing a series of well timed shots and scoring 48 in the process before falling to Vikram who at last got his rewards: edging through to the new keeper of the two’s our fourth in six weeks: Mr Millington [!!]. There is no misprint here Millington who in jest the skip thought offered to keep wicket and when realising the skip thought he was joking pleaded for the chance, when asked for his credentials to undertake such a mammoth task (ask Shifty or Spickers about that) gave the now famous answer for the Cross “I kept wicket at school".

The game was now getting to squeaky bum time as from cruising along at 116 for 4, quick wickets from Killey and one from Usama had the score sitting at 178 for 7: suddenly the game was in the balance and two wickets in two balls and Morton were 192 for 9 with 7 required. Try as we may we could not get the elusive last wicket despite several near misses and shout for a run out. Well played to Morton it was a very exciting spectacle where both teams gave it their all on a glorious summer’s day.

Special mentions go to Irfan for a fantastic knock, Andy Killey, Vikram for their aggressive and successful bowling and Gary T for a fantastic debut for the Cross and let’s not forget Mr Millington who took three catches behind the stumps.

Many plusses to take from the last two weeks where we have taken 30 points from 40 against a previously undefeated team who are top of the league lots to be positive on and that is what we should concentrate on for the rest of the season. A special mention and thanks to Nipun who returns to India this week before heading back to Aberdeen this may be his last game for the club for some time we wish him success for the future and thank him for all of the entertainment he has given us with the bat, good luck friend.

Batting:

Irfan 83

Nipun 4

JB 22

Nawaz 0

Norrie33

A. Millington 6

Gary 1

Vikram 29

AKilley 2

Smudger 1

Usama DNB

Bowling:

Vikram 9-2-17-1

A Killey 9-0-36-4

G. Trewwartha 9-3-29-1

JBates 4.4-0-33-0

Smudger 8-0-45-2

Usama 3-0-23-1

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....

Washout Woe

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

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

Vik's best ever not enough..

midweek friendly (at Arbo-7th June)

Holy Cross 142-6 (18 overs)
V. Gaware 75*

Macabi 143-4 (18 overs)
R. Javed 82

Despite the Thunderstorm 2 hours beforehand, we were able to play an enjoyable match versus Macabi-indeed the final overs were played in pleasant sunshine. Cross started strongly despite CA and cje getting run out (but note, no Matt Prior style tantrum) but it was Vik who dominated the innings with 75-his 2nd midweek 50 of the season-and his BEST EVER score!!. Our bowling was mixed though Dave Sharpe bowled a good opening spell and Matt C bowled some good deliveries. The others tended to find Raja's hitting zones too often and their deliveries threatened only those in the upper deck of the 27 buses! A few missed chances (Johnny almost getting Raja) but Johnny took a nice catch at mid on (but was the dive strictly necessary?).

...Breaking News...Scottish Cup match vs Irvine is OFF ......

...... due to waterlogged pitch.

Reserve date: May 29th -at Arbo.

http://www.cricketscotland.com/ScottishCup09

Norrie 2's gain opening win but are only winners as 3rds lose and 1sts undone by Lakshminarasimhaswamy

..... HX Saturday results digest...

1sts
Div 1-Meggetland

a good pitch helped create a good match.
Some rusty bowling and fielding (especially by us) on display but plenty good batting.
Key partnership was that of 80 for the 7th wicket between Hutchinson and Manam who looked like a VERY good no. 8.
HX were well in it until a very unfortunate run out
broke a promising 8th wicket partnership between EC and Bimbo who looked to be in good form.

Boroughmuir 271ao
M. Sachdeva 75, E. Hutchinson 83, M. Manam 43, S. McGrath 38.
S. Bonfield 4/37


Holy Cross
246ao
S. Pickering 43, E. Smith 43, S. Bonfield 32, K. Fraser 29.
M. Lakshminarasimhaswamy 4/37 [think that's the full version: never have I regretted asking 'BOWLER'S NAME' so much...]
M. Sachdeva 3/35

2nds and 3rds details from PVB...

2nds
Div 5 at Arboretum

Old Contemptibles 169-9 (8) : Holy Cross 170-7.

Lomax and Kumar transformed OC's score with a 7th wkt partnership of 80+ with spectacular striking of the ball. HX's runs were shared between Bates (23), Bailey (35), skipper Webb (47) and Cydzik (35?).

It was great to meet up with our friends from OC who have moved up to div 5 and will be a wonderful addition there. Neither side seemed interested in catching the ball; apart from 2 stumpings from Shifty (HX) and a caught behind for OC, no outfield catches were taken at all.

Both clubs were delighted with the debuts of Kumar (runs & wkts) for OC and Roshan (HX - 9 overs for 13 runs).

3rds
Div 8 at Campbell Park.

Kirk Brae 2nd XI about 170 beat Holy Cross 3rd XI by about 40. (no details other than a fine 63 for Matt Cunningham making his debut for HX)...I do hear that McGill's innings may have been a short one...though he did receive a jaffa...

KF on Scottish cricket (part 4 of a continuing series)

[The season may have finished but KF continues to do what he does best: smack balls over straight midwicket provide insightful commentary on the game].

For those of you who can't wait until the forthcoming Ashes commence for my insightful, innovative, thought-provoking and all round amazingly brilliant dissection of England's inevitable drubbing (the cricket media are doing the England football thing and declaring Ashes victory already, reality will bite by about lunch time on the first day of the First Test. Early prediction: panic call-up for Pietersen at 0-2), I'd like to take the opportunity of regurgitating a previous post from the soon to be if not already legendary 'KF on Scottish Cricket' series.

As I write this, I can hardly see the screen due to the sunlight beaming in through my window. The temperature outside is nearer 20 degrees, the breeze is light and, er, the cricket season has just finished.

Harking back to last December's scribble, here are some quotes.

"Come the end of August and into September, once the season has ended for most folk, its flip flop and barbecue time."

"I believe it's time to look at adjusting the season as I believe it starts and ends too early"

If cricket is played in the summer, and the season has just finished, and this is winter (humour me here please, there are no rules about internet posts having to be watertight), then I think we should begin playing Winter Cricket asap.

I'll leave it at that and will make sure I return to this subject every year at the same time. Now where did I put the suntan lotion (not in my effin cricket bag, that's for sure)?

......postcript by cje...

Lengthening the season is something I'd love to see happen - though those who share facilities with rugby/ football clubs would face difficulties.

Before Popey relates his stories of Yorshire cricket, I'll point out that the Sunday team I played for in Sheffield (Firvale CC) have their last fixture this season on Sept 19th.

From a groundsmanship point of view, one problem with playing into September would be the impact on post-season renovation of cricket squares (you need the new seed to germinate and establish itself before the temperature drops).

Quasi Traditional mid season BBQ!!

As we are just over the halfway stage of the season it seems a good time to ruin a perfectly good weekend's cricket by proposing the annual Holy Cross BBQ!

Looking at the fixtures I think next Saturday 31st seems like an excellent choice to invoke the rain gods and thus I declare it shall be held on said date.

As is becoming tradition of sorts the BBQ is a splendid opportunity to bring the other half along to see how you spend a quarter of your valuable weekend (although through bitter experience I would urge caution in doing so). Last year saw a 100% increase in the number of ladies in attendance so it would be great to see this topped in 2010, maybe to get into double figures!

With over 10 days advance notice this year there is little to no excuse to avoid attending on what is rare opportunity to bring all three teams together in orgy of Cross love......again of sorts.

Midweek Crossers Muffed

July 13th - at Roseburn.

Murrayfield Dafs 119/7ish (Adeel batting well again after his runs against us for Macabi).

Holy Cross 'limping' to 65/7 (R. Bainbridge 27* ['forcibly retired'], B. Fraser 19).

As ever an entertaining game with some er friendly bowling on offer. The end wicket providing plenty of life for the quicker bowlers. Ken getting carried away with getting a wicket with his 1st ball of the season and trying to bounce the Mufs' batsmen out... In contrast Andy K and Bimbo 'tuned up' nicely for Saturday with two good short spells.

Thanks to Mufs for an enjoyable game and for providing a sub fielder - one who took 2 good catches!