2010 Cup draws

• Masterton - Home vs Murrayfield-DAFS. Winner away to Stenhousemuir or Marchmont.


• Cow Corner - Away to Edinburgh Accies.


• Presidents Trophy - A bye in the 1st round and then away to Stenhousemuir or Westquarter.

ESCA AGM Highlights

The League's agm was held last night. Here are a few bits and bobs that may be of interest.

• All Divisions - The season will run from 1st May to 28th August. A proposal to change the points system which came within a whisker of being passed last year was convincingly defeated this time.


• Div 1 - The Eastern Regional Academy under 19s will play a Sunday away game against each of the Div 1 club sides during the first 12 weeks or so of next season. Full points will be up for grabs but the Academy side will not feature in the league table. ESCA will provide umpires and contribute £65 to each Div 1 side to defray expenses.


• Div 1 again - As the SNCL is leaning on its member clubs to provide at least one umpire next season, Sandy Scotland thinks it is likely that there will be more umpires available for East League games next season. I'll let you decide whether this is a good thing or not (especially as most of the newly available umpires are likely to be pretty inexperienced), but please try not to be too rude in any comments.


• Divs 5 & 8 - The standard starting time for the 2nds and 3rds has been brought forward to 1pm. While it will still be possible for clubs to agree a later start, you have been warned, especially you, Gerry.


• Div 8 - Musselburgh 3rds were admitted to the division.

SNCL reconstruction-proposal passed

http://sport.scotsman.com/cricket/Clubs-vote-for-league-split.5804268.jp
http://www.cricketscotland.com/DecisionTime

Given the way this will disrupt the fixtures for the latter part of the season, this is likely to impact on East League clubs - see the ESCA messageboard for discussion.

http://tinyurl.com/yfobgds

Two Dogs or Two Shots?

Apparently Mr Worsnop has (again) been the subject of attention in the Scottish press.

Given that he seems reluctant to associate his business with the HX blog (...), we won't link to it here.

But Crossers may be interested in this biographical article:

http://tinyurl.com/yz6ba8e

Those who played with him at Craigmillar Park may be surprised by his comment: 'I occasionally play golf very badly.' Seems like 'occasionally' he also plays it very well - especially when hitting a 4 iron uphill...

KF on the Ashes (Part 5).

A final set of reflections on the 2009 Ashes by KF.

Did you get your tackety boots on and join in the assault on the hopeless Aussie skipper? Hopefully those partaking didn’t get blood on their ‘Wenger must go’ t-shirts (circa April 2009). Great past achievements and a high likelihood of future glory (it took Ponting a few short weeks to slaughter England in the 1-dayers and win the ICC Trophy), are no buffer against populist braying. If Bradman and Grace were Ashes captains going head to head, they couldn’t both win. It wouldn’t mean one was godlike and the other needed dropped in the harbour with concrete slippers. However, if I was in Ponting’s position now, I suspect I’d be passing on the captaincy before the next but one Ashes back on these shores. Losing it once could be put down to bad luck. Losing it twice is very careless. Losing it for a third time would cast a permanent shadow over 5-0 Ashes wins and world cup triumph’s.

Sir Ian Botham had to slave away for a whole test match and also borrow an 8-for from Bob Willis to claim an Ashes Test to himself in 1981 at Headingley. Flintoff, even more economical than Botham with his movement, managed to claim his own glory in the decisive last Match of the series this time with one short burst of effort. I don’t recall ever seeing a batsman look so determined to stay in and so hellbent on winning a Test Match single-handedly than Ponting was in the crucial 2nd innings in the final test. I couldn’t see how England were going to get him out. He looked as invincible as Charlie does against Fauldhouse on a ploughed track. Then, with a bit of a wibble-wobble towards the ball, down stooped Sir Freddie on his disintegrating knees and the rest, as they say, is history. One for my new 100 Great Sporting Moments series. Great theatre, and all the more improbable that it was an Englander doing it to the Aussies and not the other way round.

Usually if a team wins a series you can look at the top run scorer or highest wicket taker and say that their efforts were the difference. But Australia dominated all the usual individual performance charts and still came up short. A lot of this was to do with England relying less on main men, with the likes of Flintoff & Pietersen not being fully fit and Bopara’s form being almost unsettling. While Australia as the touring side with less bodies to choose from maybe stuck with who they had a bit too much. I’m sure anyone who viewed Australia play Scotland at the Grange will wonder why Brett Lee played no part in the Ashes. Without him, can anyone argue Australia are at full strength? Seemed a pretty strange one.

And so, off into the sun (Dubai I believe) goes the new Botham. Legs now useless as far as international sport is concerned. Legs so criminally treated, allowing even more destruction and injury to already toiling joints. I’ve probably said enough on the bewildering and desperate treatment of Flintoff’s injuries in the past. So we move on and what do we ‘discover’ at the end of the Ashes. Woopeedoo, we have a ‘New Flintoff’. Read all about the injuries and injections cutting Stuart Broad’s career short here in about 7 years time.

Baffling Figures ?

The following mysterious figures have recently been circulated amongst selected Crossers.

RE (14) 33
SR (8) 28
CE (12) 32
SS (20) 37
MR(18) 39
EC (18) 27

What do they possibly refer to??

I presumed that they referred to some innocent activity till I picked them up* this afternoon on my wind-up short wave radio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

*to be honest reception was pretty fuzzy, so I might have imagined it.

More Trophies

2 HX players were amongst the recipients at the East League awards on Friday night.
Unfortunately Ellis Snr was on on tour, so had to accept his award via live satellite link-up. Though he was clearly audible, his 15 minute anecdote about life in the HX thirds didn't meet with universal approval.