HX lose sixes war 11 -18...

At Arboretum.

Grange 2's 297-4

HX 185 all out

delayed start: match reduced to 45 overs per side.

scorecard HERE 

Superb batting from Stuart Moffat (76) and Iain Worth (103) took Grange to 297 for the loss of just 4 wickets. Too many loose balls but very efficiently 'put away'.  A number of near things in the field but also a couple of drops..

In reply, Raja struck a brilliant 99 but once he was dismissed the HX innings subsided to 185 all out.  At one stage we were 130-2 off  19 overs.. Gordon Allan taking 4-29 and Ed Abel-Smith 3-53.

On this form, Grange 2nds must be strong favourites for the Division 1 title.

Smudger's 2x30th In Photos

Father of the club

Smujinder 'Smudger' Smudgerjee celebrated graduation from the famous Holy Cross Youth Academy as he turned 3x20 at Arboretum Road's infamous Green Room Nightspot on Saturday night.

News had reached the capital that Lawrie's Third Army had defeated a Largo battalion in a stirring encounter at St Andrews in the only Cross game to reach a conclusion. Whilst Twitter reported that El Presidente had been hitting big 6's, there was also relief that after losing his only pair of cricket trousers, Coco had been forced to purchase a new pair and was therefore not playing in his golden budgie smugglers. It'd been mischievously suggested that his missing breeks had simply got up and scarpered of their own accord!!!

Golden Balls McGill back in '69

The 1st XI had returned early from Fettes after thrashing Grange 2's 204-0 in a one-sided affair where it would probably be fairer to mention that Grange never really got started in their innings. The 2's game, at the Fortress itself, also fell victim to this cantankerous jet stream silly bother we've been enduring of late. This ensured a prompt start to the binge drinking for both teams.

The distance of the 3's from the birthday shenanigans meant the party would have to wait for the dazzling social racontuerism of Messrs McGill & Robertson. In the meantime the legendary anecdotes were provided by the hippest swinger in the club, Mr G Lohan. The highlight was the discovery that "Paxman was my fag". Those of us educated by the council dared not ask for a layman's translation.

One of the things Gerry has smoked???

The 3's began to arrive back in instalments, generally in order of virility (I'll leave it to others to decide in which order). Their arrivals were interspersed with appearances by Honorary Legends such as Cartwright (senior) and Mair (available for selection, but not selected!!!).

Shifty - 5for in a break from filming

Eventually El Presidente and Coco joined proceedings and the real BS could begin. President Maradona was able to declare "this is finally the club I wished it to become" as young Gaware lit the presidential roll-up completely unrequested. It was made obvious that the drink was taking effect when Zggy Cydzk didn't even attempt to pronounce the name of a fellow cricketer - "that whotsisname" - also sporting a Polski surname.

It was also my pleasure (totally wasn't) to reunite McGill with his errant trews. They had been discovered earlier by poor Raja who had heard a low humming noise emitting from deep within his cricket bag. They had to be extracted at arms length and placed in a sealed container before immaturely falling into my possession as Dougie declared 'last bag packed has to take them', placing me at a distinct disadvantage being the only bag left unpacked.

All that remains to be divulged is this rather fetching snap taken anonymously at the end of the evening. Should any Smudger offspring be reading, I'd recommend going no further, or at the very least, scrolling down very slowly...

One for Mrs Smudger

Cross Scrape Trophy Win

President's Trophy 2nd Round (at Arboretum-switched due to Dresselrig being unplayable)
played as 20 over match on June 14th.

Holy Cross 131-7 (C. Ellis 50 (46), R. Javed 36 (29), M. Collings 3-19)
Livingston 119-8 (S. Kumar 37, R. Bowering 24)

A good tight game played on a rare nice dry evening (could be the last game for a while given the rain falling at present..) Livi did well to limit HX to a sub-par 131.

cje-after a shaky start- batted solidly enough and Raja found a bit of form but no batsmen really dominated and Collings' good spell and a late rash of run outs prevented us from reaching a par total (given the fast outfield and firm pitch) of 150-odd. Bimbo's stumping (by half the length of the pitch!!) may well receive a mention at the awards night.

Then the impressive Kumar well supported by Bowering took Livi to 72 off 11 before a run-out and then  a reckless shot from Kumar put the game in HX's favour. Good batting from Duvvuri helped Livi to 104 off 16 -at which point they were marginal favourites. His run out and tighter HX bowling helped the home side close out the game. Given that we had a strong bowling unit on display, we perhaps could have kept Livi quieter earlier-and not allowed so many boundaries. But an impressive performance from Livi's talented team and hopefully a 'wake-up call' for the 1sts.

Cross Cruise to Victory

ESCA Div 1-at Roseburn.

Holy Cross 1st XI 186-7 (McOscar 65, Fraser 38, Smith 37) J. Zarkoob 3-33

MDafs 1st XI 98ao (Akerkar 35) Bonfield 4-13, Russell 3-28.

full scorecard here

Dougie's rotation policy meant that Owais and GT were rested: Bimbo and Quinn coming in.
Thursday and Friday's rain left a soft Roseburn pitch but the weather was generally fine on the day-though few showers dampened things.

 HX's 186-7 was built upon a very solid platform: a patient 38 from KF and another classy, high tempo knock from Simon (65 off 73). 186 was a very good score given the slow pitch and outfield and the lengthy boundaries (no sixes and only 7 fours in the match despite some good hitting).

MDafs made it easy for Simon by bowling to him on a a different-far better pitch- than the others had to bat on... We reached a very healthy 100-1 at drinks but a good spell from Akerkar (conceding 7 from his 1st 8 overs) and McOscar's slightly tame dismissal (stumped off wheeler) slowed things down.
EC (37 off 40) -in his final innings before leaving for Manchester- added impetus to the innings and though we lost a few cheap wickets (hard luck Beezer! Hope the jet lag has worn off Andy!), he, Shannon (11*) and Bimbo (4* off 2 balls) [I better mention his contribution as he'll only complain..].

Parsimonious spells from Raja and Bimbo  (both 1-5 off 5) kept the MDafs top order under constant pressure as they limped to 24-3 off 16 overs.
Some positive batting from Jaffery and Sorrell gave the innings some momentum before the Akerkar (assisted by cje's long-hops) threatened to get MDafs into the game (72-4 off 29). Shannon dismissed Sorrell with a lovely slower ball before he got Akerkar for a classy 35 (nicely snaffled by KF)  before Dougie took 3 wickets (Simon taking a nice catch at Long on and Shannon one at slip-via KF's gloves..) to bring the contest to a conclusion. Shannon took the final wicket to finish with 4-13.
New boy Jack Beesley impressed with his superb fielding...if only we had 11 fielders like him and Tom... Cheers too to Sandy for stepping in at the last moment, scoring etc.

Another solid performance with bat and ball from HX Ists.

Soggy Success

 Pre-season Friendly (at Arboretum Playing Fields)

40 overs per side (later reduced-after rain delay- to 35 overs per side)

Edinburgh CC 173ao (31.4 overs)
Majeed 109
D. Russell 4/ 20, S. McOscar 2/32

Holy Cross 176/ 7 (33.5 overs)
R. Javed 59, E. Smith 31, K. Fraser 22*, O. Mahzer 16.
U. Farooq 2/17, Irshad  2/40

more details to follow...

Final over win for Keith's Codgers

Keith's Codgers
 199/ 3 (35 overs)

O. Mazher 50* (retired)
C. Ellis 52* (retired)
K. Fraser 38*
E. C. Smith 33

Raja: 8/1/33/1
G. Trewartha: 8/0/31/0
D. Russell: 6/0/58/0
J. Bates: 8/1/53/1
N. Webb: 5/0/19/0

Dougie's Dandies
191/ 8 (35 overs)
R. Javed 71
D. Russell 32
G. Trewartha 33

C. McGill 8/1/29/0
C. O. Smith: 8/0/44/2
C. Ellis: 8/0/47/5
E. Smith: 3/0/22/1
S. McCosker 8/0/35/0

Despite a wicket that looked decent but was a bit of a pudding and some
periods of cold weather, we managed a enjoyable inter-club match (I'll leave aside the abject standard of the tea bags bags we had to use: hopefully this will soon be rectified)  .
Everyone (bar Norrie) managed some valuable time in the middle and the bowlers got some overs under their belts. Good testing spells from Raja, GT & Simon, while Smudger and Coco did well to keep things tight against strong batting. Undoubtedly there was some friendly bowling on offer but some of the batting was impressive-Dougie getting some rough treatment from Owais and EC.
Raja got close to achieving the 25 needed of the last over...though cje may come under suspicion for his decision to bowl 'leg spin'.

Moment of the match:
 EC's dismissal of GT with a surprise (genuinely) good ball. No footage exists but EC insists that the dismissal at 3.17 in this video is a virtual replica.

Special mention: 2 stumpings for Smudger! Plus a 40 mins spell on the roller in heavy rain!

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?).