Heavily delayed match report 1st vs Watsonians 2s

Holy Cross travelled to Craiglockhart on Saturday to take on league leaders Watsonians who had been unbeaten since the opening game of season. Actually this isn't strictly true as some of our number travelled to Myreside although knew they were in the wrong place when two teams were seen warming up.

Seeing as how it's now Wednesday I can't remember if Watsons chose to bat or were put in. Either way they batted first on a wicket that looked like it had the potential to be interesting. In he absence of our regular opening bowlers Andy Killey and your author got the game underway. Killey looked particularly dangerous on the Craiglockhart deck, beating the bat on several occasions and was eventually rewarded with the wicket of Flannigan, one of several Sonians batsmen to have been a thorn in Cross sides in the past.

Fox was next to fall to a superb catch from Andy Quinn and, with both bowlers keeping things tight, after 20 overs Watsons were 64 - 2. However after witnessing Crosbie the No4 deposit the ball out of Arbo on several occasions in the return fixture Cross knew there was still plenty do despite the good start. A change of bowling brought Doctor Astley to the fore and in line with my early morning premonition he was the man to remove the dangerous Crosbie. Around the same time Saisubramanian was beginning to look dangerous hitting a succession of boundaries. Buoyed by compliments from the previous weekend's touring party's key batsman Damo, the skipper thought he was due a bowl and how right he proved to be, removing Saisubramanian with his first ball to another good catch from KF.

From here on Watsons wickets fell regularly with Charlie amazingly picking up his first senior 5 for (amazing that it was his first not that he did it). Watsonians ended all out in the 46th over (I think) for 174.

With the pitch becoming more unpredictable it was a total we should have chased down but by no means for certain. When Charlie fell for 2 Sonians' mood changed; however 23 from Spickers and 28 from EC around another good knock of 46 KF (thankfully the selectors are still ignoring his form) got us close. When Calum fell for 9 a few nerves might have began to flutter in Cross stomachs.

No need however, with Dougie and Psycho at the wicket the remaining runs were swiftly knocked off. Bates was in a particularly savage mood hitting a quickfire 25* to close out a good victory. With both sides missing players this was a good win for HX with every single player contributing and an excellent effort in the field. It was particularly pleasing to see how the fielding had improved from the game against Accies where it was the difference between the sides.