The Coastal View

Another win for the 3rds - 9 out of 13! 81.51%, Third in the league and only 0.42% behind Edinburgh in 2nd!

Arrived at Kirkbrae - another 11 players (well done Andy), very reminiscent of last week's squad, with additions from the 2's (a welcome back to James!) We had a good, balanced strong team!

A very special mention (and heartfelt thanks) to Calum who came down to watch and score. It's magic to get some travelling support! Makes you feel like a big team when that happens!

Anyway the day - sunny, nice wind, very soft but drying pitch, great sporting Oppo, and good crack all round - good toss to win (duly did so, it's my saving grace as captain! won 8 lost 3)

Anyhow a good start - Keith G and Coco bowling well (early dismissal of their number one c&b to Coco), we (the royal that is) kept them both on for their 8, I dropped a hardish ( I would say that now wouldn't I!) chance off Coco at short Cover Point. Then bringing on Richard E (the Miserly one) and Dave (the Sharpe one) to pin them back once again! Wickets fell, a few hard chances dropped but all in all we were doing OK, apart from their no2 Raja who was scoring well! Eventually after a couple of practice efforts I got a lowish catch at point off Richard to dismiss him on 49!

James bowled well for little or no luck for his spell, before bringing on Dave bowling into the wind and the HX secret weapon Usama, who, remembering last week, bowled with the wind off only a few paces, hit a magnificent length, swung the ball both ways, bamboozled the oppo and before you knew it 3 for 3 off 3 with I think 2 wides which were a bit marginal! A stonking catch from Richard who took off on one of his (by now infamous) laps of honour around the ground! All out for 151!

(Fielding, once again everyone fielded their hearts out! The effort by the team in the field is key to the success we've had, well done guys!)

A good tea, some good chat followed by our innings, being loath to change things too much and with an eminently reachable score (God, I remember sinking hearts if the chase got much above 75, was a while ago though) Mike (the hitman) Nevin and Coastal to open (with Coastal trying to regain some respect for his name) we (nah Mike really) got us off to a good start opening partnership of 52 (Mike 39 Coastal 4) We saw off the opening pair, some excellent running, several 3s being of note, Mike falling the last ball of Raja's 8 overs, their other opener (Col?) bowling very well for no luck at all! Scotty next up followed very shortly thereafter by Coastal departing (for 9) trying to 'accelerate' (the unkind would say score! one 4 clipped off leg, well I did get the bat there!), Scotty now steering the ship ably (30 odd) before running himself out, Brian Fraser knocking some good runs and ticking everything over very nicely, Richard scoring well then getting run out (by himself). On comes Dave who proceded to drive the ball for boundaries again and again (and again) to take away their last hopes (didn't have the heart to tell them that the next 2 batsmen would likely do the same, Coco, Usama, Keith and James)

153 for 5 with a wee bit to spare - a real team effort!

A great game played in great spirit by both sides, good banter and back to Leslies with the oppo who treated us to sarnies and some great chat. Thanks Badgers you were a great oppo and it was a really good game, best of luck for the rest of the season! (PS if you could see your way to doing the biz against Broomhall and Edinburgh, I'd be ever so grateful!)

Coastal