64 more Robin..

Robin has been on at me recently about how many more 1st XI league wickets he needs to overtake Geoff Barratt. The figure is 64....so 3 more seasons at least Robin!

Derived from Hugh K's stats programme and McGill's averages, an updated list of the top wicket -takers is available here.

Presidents Trophy 2011

The replay of the final will now take place next season.

Rain reigns at Arbo as commonsense prevails in President's Trophy Final

It was a clash of the Division 1 Titans as 1st played 2nd in the end of term President's Trophy.

A coin toss went the way of the Cross and home advantage of hosting the tie at Fortress Arbo was awarded.

Rain overnight had left the square soft underfoot and as the Captain's went out to toss, it was clear that conditions above and below were likely to play a heavy part in the outcome of the game.

Fauldhouse were out the traps fast with their opening bowlers doing some fine damage. Owais run out, KF bowled, Spickers and CJE also returning to the Portacabin early on and it was 24-4 after 12 of the allocated 40 overs.

KO for KF


EC Smith was caught on the boundary as the cold and lonely scribe and photographer went for a heat in what had become a wet and perishingly cold day.

Calum joined his sibling after the Umpire took a long and hard look at an LBW shout before the trigger went up.

Bimbo then sent words of encouragement via Twitter from his Maternity Ward shopping trip with Mrs Bimbo and the BimboBump.

118 after the 40 overs - not a great score - but with the rain continuing and the light fading, who knew what the matchplay ball from Lords could do.

Tea was a feast of hot and cold foods and once again we thank Mandy for her efforts - often taken for granted.

Back out on the oval and Fauldhouse were in combat against the Cross and the Conditions, the latter to finally be their undoing.

Shannon, fresh from picking up his Player of the Year award the night before, was in fine form, unlucky not to get off the mark with some top class deliveries.

Jumping BeJesus

Pat has an LBW shout turned down

Lynch did manage a breakthrough when Owais held on to a drive from a Fauldhouse opener however as the conditions continued to deteriorate, the Umpires consulted each other and took the players off.

The Umpires decide enough really is enough

Naturally, both Teams were keen to get their hands on the silverware on offer however with the rain continuing to fall early into the Edinburgh evening, to have carried on would have been unsafe and not in the interests of the game of amateur cricket.

The rain clearly visible as is the punter on Ferry Road with their brolly!


For me, it was a poor end to a great season at Fortress Arbo for the Cross. On a personal note, it has been a tough season of no play due to injury. But beware, the Broonster will be back in 2012!!

Hat Trick for Mandy & Michael at Awards Night

Has Shifty Proposed to Mandy? Has he whispered something sweet to make her clutch her chest? Is El Presidente's breath caused Mandy's reaction?

Quick answer to all of the above sadly is No - in fact here we see Mandy & Michael being presented with exclusive Holy Cross Baggies as a token of appreciation for their unrivalled and outstanding services to the Club this season. Mandy then produced a stunning buffet after the Awards were over.

Before the Players were allowed to tuck in, Mandy reprimanded Charlie for bringing his mucky cricket shoes into the Clubhouse and reminded everyone that all the dishes and all the cups go back into the kitchen when finished!! You have been warned.

Bonfield is Top of the Crossers!

With 204 runs, 1 catch & 22 wickets, the Player of the Year Award for 2011 went to Shannon Bonfield.

Here we see EC Smith offering congratulations to 'Bonza' and one can only note the strong handshake on show here....

Bimbo wins in tense Holy Cross Arm Wrestling Championship climax

Bimbo was last night crowned as the Arbo Arm Wrestling Champion of the World in the historic surroundings of the Green Room.

He defeated the Mighty Quinn in a 3 bout final by 2-1.

On his route to winning the Tankard he'd bought to replace the one he thought he'd lost, Bimbo defeated Calum 'Big Guns' Smith in the Semi.

The Mighty Quinn delivered a knockout blow to the Smith Dynasty of Arm Wrestling prowess, taking the bookies by surprise with a Semi Final win over Smudger.

One delighted punter was spotted celebrating with his winnings shortly after the Bimbo win.

League Weekend 19

Saturday's fixtures -

• 2nds vs Preston Village at Arbo.
• 3rds vs Dunfermline 3rds at Campbell Park.

Saturday/Sunday -

• Awards Night in the Green Room.

Sunday -

• Presidents Trophy final vs Fauldhouse at Arbo from 1pm. Bar open at about 5.

Restructuring, Promotion and Relegation

As you'll all be aware, the structure and composition of next year's leagues is very unclear. However, our own PVB is doing his best to keep East League cricketers up to date with all the latest developments here.

Coming soon...

Apparently the 1st XI skipper has been interviewed by the gentlemen of the Edinburgh sports press ... the 3 hr interview is bound to produce some interesting material...

It's likely to appear here over the next couple of days.

but before we see that...did this 'information' derive from the interview??

Presidents Trophy Final

The Presidents Trophy Final vs Fauldhouse will be played at Arbo this coming Sunday, the 28th.


Or at least it will be unless Fauldhouse's SNCL play-off has to be postponed from the Saturday. If no play is possible, for whatever reason, on Sunday, there will be one further attempt to play the Final this season on the following Sunday, the 4th, although not at Arbo as it will have been turned over to winter sports by then. If the 4th also falls through then we'll try again in 2012. Still with me?


All support welcome. The Social Secretary is commencing negotiations to get the bar open from around 5pm so that those 2nds and 3rds who have a drink the night before at the awards can get a hair of the dog. The Final XI will, of course, abstain.

Maz drops bombs

[CA reports on the 1st XI match versus Marchmont- additional comments from CJE]

Arriving for the final game of the league season was largely similar to every other home game; the opposition all there, warming up, whilst various Crossers stood outside the changing sheds smoking and chatting. As ever, Charlie was setting everything up [GT was there too - and Mandy and Michael assisted too]. In fact Charlie and McGill were largely responsible for the game being on [the sunshine on Friday and Saturday helped too], both in terms care of the wicket all summer and in the last week.

On closer examination though, there were subtle changes. The flags had a uniform distance between them thanks to Gary T's debut on the flag distribution. He will learn that this makes for rather repetitive boundary golf. Other changes were that Euan and Keith were on time. Indeed, the opposition skipper didn't need to ask at least 3 times if the skipper had arrived yet [Pietsch asked 4 times..] Out they went to toss at quarter to 1 no less. Now the common cliche is to say that 'eyebrows were raised' when the opposition skipper wins the toss and chooses to bat. EC dispensed with the eyebrows [a quick trip to Roshan’s??] and said 'that’s not what I would have done' when the opposition elected to bat.

Bat they did and out came Macgregor and Sardesai to face new new ball [a new ball belong to Marchmont CC..] combination Bonfield and Trewartha. They were appropriately circumspect, with Aaron quickly on to a couple of short balls, MacGregor chipping away patiently, with them taking singles well when the opportunity arose. This combined with some sloppy fielding [any particular examples spring to mind?] meant that Marchmont made a steady start. They were on about 30 odd before Shanton got Aaron with an absolute beauty: swinging and then holding its line on a perfect length to just flick the top of the off bail and clean bowl his man. Breakthrough made and in came Loeffen, Marchmont’s gun player who has made plenty of runs this season [652 in the league in total]. He played and missed a few times early but also a played a few class shots, including a nice flick of his legs from Shanton. This nearly proved his undoing when he flicked one off Gary that fell just short of Dougie.

Macgregor and Loeffen saw off the openers and on came Charlie and Pat. Charlie didn't seem to be proving too difficult to play but Pat (notwithstanding one nice flick for 6 from Loeffen) was finding nice lines and exerting good control. Dougie replaced Charlie and bowled a beautiful spell. Straight from the off he was on the spot, bowling with nice flight and a lot of turn. He had a big shout turned down against Loeffen and Marchmont took drinks at roughly 75 odd for 1 - very much their session.

After drinks, Russell and Lynch continued and eventually Lynch got Macgregor LBW and suddenly things seemed to change. Peachey was out stumped; well bowled by Dougie [full bunger..? but it did drift.]. Collier who has had a good season came out and was caught by Lynch - a superb catch at a sort of fly gully. Someone described this as athletic; Pat has subsequently misinterpreted this as someone calling him an athlete.

Next up was urban street philosopher Keith 'Kay Eph' Fraser with a brace of catches. One a good one in a similar position to Pat's (he didn't make such a meal of it as he fell forward) and one at deep square leg (‘claimed’ by EC as he had posted Keith exactly there). Pat had bowled out (a solid 1 for 27 spell especially considering the marsh he was running up through) and Bainbridge came on at the Castle End. He induced Maksimyck to play on and GT, back on after Dougie had finished (figures of 1-30 not doing his spell justice) cleaned out Davi Sardesai with a yorker.

Throughout all this Loeffen was continuing nicely and made a solid 50. Number 10 came in, a big unit, and hit a few lusty blows. He smacked one straight back to Gary who (mostly out of self preservation) caught it before it re-arranged his face. Loeffen saw this as his cue to hit out and hit a big 6 before trying a repeat (perhaps to a slightly slower ball?) and skying one to the safest [KF ??] mid-off in Scottish cricket for a well made 60. GT finishing with 4 for single figures in his return spell.

A strange collapse from a Marchmont team that have had a good season. The scorecard reads; 33, 10, 60, 0, 5, 2, 0, 0, 0, 6, 0. These type of things used to be referred to as 'England style' collapse or, in the Green Room [circa 1998], as a 'Holy Cross style' collapse. Still, 131, although perhaps 20-30 runs short of what would be considered par, was still going to be a hard chase.

Owais Mahzer went out to bat sporting a grey Yankees cap in the style of legendary golden age MCer Rakim. Indeed, there has been some beef over who first used this 'look'. This feud has now been retired with Rakim agreeing to re-release the seminal single 'Shif - T for president (the Eric B remix)'. This will be used in the celebrations for the diamond jubilee of our Dear Leader. Out he went with Kay Eph and the fireworks started. After having a look for a couple of overs, Mahzer Maz started dropping bombs all over the shop. It was whack. Meanwhile Kay Eph was reflecting philosophically on his bat at the other end with the occasional spat out line. He 'spat up' a full length ball to mid off who [somehow] put him down [on a par with Big Pat’s dolly at Grange Loan]. Mahzer Maz eventually ‘nicked off’ to keeper for 36 off 28 odd balls [what was odd about them??] before stating something like 'I was jus gettin ma grove on' or 'just getting my eye in'. Still, braggadocio has always has had a role in hip hop culture.

In came Charlie (more Fresh Prince than Rakim) who batted with intent. Not only had the openers put on 50 odd with their fast paced rhymes but had used up many of the Marchmont openers' overs. The Fresh Prince and Kay Eph saw off the rest of Loeffen and Maksimyck and Charlie 'whacked' Davi Sardesai's first ball and basically took it from there. Scoring a well tempo-ed 62 whilst Kay Eph dropped the anchor (managing to see off an off spinner in the process (!)) and finished 34 no. The Fresh Prince playing some pretty 'fresh' shots (in the sense that they have not been seen before very often [fair enough…not in this country anyway...]) including a hoick over cow for 6 and two lofted drives straight for 4.

A 9 wicket win then means that we finish 2nd. A well deserved reward for a good season especially considering that we lost our first 2 games - we have gone 9 and 1 since then. Characterised by batting and bowling depth and consistency and backed up by good catching and (generally) high [KF again?] fielding standards. Its been good to have Marchmont back in division 1 and also congratulations to Fauldhouse who won the league and have gone this league season unbeaten - a notable achievement. Good luck to them in their play-off next Saturday. We have our final game (against Fauldhouse) in the President’s Trophy next Sunday at Arbo and all are welcome to support.

1997 vs 2011....

Having matched the performance of the 1st XI of 1997, questions have been raised about the relative merits of the two sides...

Derived from Hugh K's stats, here is the core side that represented the club in the 1997 season (number of appearances in brackets-15 matches in total):

Bates (15)
Barker (13)
Bradley (15)
Willey (5)/ Begg (4) / Wheatley (5)
Ellis (6)/ E. C. Smith (5)/ Afzaal (5)
Russell (11)
Robertson (c/ wkt) (11)
Dyer (15)
Worsnop (8)
Fisher (10)
McGill (15)

How does this line up compare with that fielded on the last Saturday of the season (and also not forgetting Two Dogs). 4 players (plus Bates-one 1st team league appearance in 2011) feature in both...but are they the same players...

Mazher
Fraser
Ellis
C. A. Smith
E.C. Smith
Bonfield
Russell
Pickering
Trewartha/ Worsnop
Bainbridge
Lynch

feel free to comment...especially keen to hear the Pres' views.

1sts 2nd in 1 in 11

Scores Digest.

1sts (at Arboretum)

Marchmont 131ao
M. Loeffen 60, S. McGregor 33.
Bonfield 6-2-9-1
Trewartha 9-3-34-4
Ellis 4-0-13-0
Lynch 10-2-27-1
Russell 10-0-30-1
Bainbridge 4.3-1-10-3

Holy Cross 135-1
C. Ellis 62*, O. Mazher 36, K. Fraser 34*
Loeffen 8-3-22-1

Report from the Marchmont website here.

This surprisingly convincing victory means that Holy Cross 1st XI finish 2nd in Division 1.
This equals their performance (in a differently structured East League: after the formation of the SNCL but before the Leagues and Grades were amalgamated) in 1997, when they finished 2nd to Cupar (and, as in 2011, just above Marchmont in third. Funnily enough Fauldhouse finished bottom of Div 1 that year!). Good stuff guys.

2nds

Div 5 - Largo 2nds vs Holy Cross 2nds at Largo.

Largo 126 all out - runs for Alex Anderson, 4 wickets for Colin Smith.

Holy Cross 127-6 - runs for Butt and Bates.

3rds

Division 8 on Inverleith Arti
Holy Cross Academicals 3rd XI 38 all out in 21.2 overs
(Kevin Casssidy 3-3, Craig Goold 3-6, James Crispin 2-17)

Stewart's Melville FP Royal High 3rd XI 42for 3 in 17.1 overs
(Umar Malik 14 in 11 balls: R Ellis 8-4-5-2)

League Weekend 18

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Marchmont at Arbo in 2nd-place shootout.
• 2nds vs Largo 2nds, (quite far) away.
• 3rds vs SMRH 3rds, (not very far) away.

Hollywood Legend Pictured In Edinburgh

Family Day Out

It could have been any father out for the day with his boys to watch some cricket at Portgower Place on Sunday. But this wasn't just any family outing. Original James Bond star, McGill Collins, took his boys to the set of 90's blockbuster 'The Masterton Files' and regaled the youngsters with the tale of how he bowled Don Bradman twice with one ball in the semi final.

Young Chuckie McGill (back row, left) was overheard openly questioning his fathers version of events having recently studied the account of a witness to the filming who wrote everything down in a scorebook.

Without pausing for breath, the ageing megastar explained to the first twins he had out of wedlock, EC & CA Hurley (back row centre & middle row centre) how, despite winning multiple Oscars every time he makes a movie, studio bosses keep freezing him out of summer blockbusters and forcing him to turn out in low budget B-movies.

Despite this marginalisation, ‘Cocko’ Collins still manages to direct some independent movies of an evening. He recently cast Bollywood sensation Vikramabawz Groweary in ‘75’, a short film about a street urchin who buys a magical shirt on the internet and turns into a run machine.

Cocko’s other twins, Shane (beard) & Prat Blanchett (back row right) announced they hope to shoot a movie at Portgower Place one day, though due to legal wrangles, all sets have been moved to nearby studios 20^th Century Fettes until further notice.

Geordie McGill (middle row left) appeared to be yet again engaged in his addiction to voicemail interception.

Cocko is probably best known for his role as ‘Mitch McGill’ a Portobello lifeguard in the Scorcese epic Deep Slippy Gully.

Another Final...

President's Trophy Semi-Final-at Arboretum

Leith FAB 42ao
I Davies 19*
S. Bonfield 5-18, P. Lynch 4-12

Holy Cross 44-2
G. Trewartha 22*
O. Mazher 14*

HX will play Fauldhouse in the final. Date/ venue tbc but NOT Sunday 21st

The Croscars - Awards Night, 27th August

Hmmm. Normal service resuming - you know, stuff about cricket and the Cross, although the photo of the Grange night out was very nice.

To celebrate another successful season, Awards Night will be held in the Green Room at Arbo after the last league games on Saturday 27th August. No need to dress up like a member of the Bullingdon.

Many of the awards (eg Most League Runs, Most League Wickets and the highly prestigious Quack, Quack Oops award for most ducks) are awarded on the basis of Colin McGill's statistics. Others (such as the one involving the very snazzy Hawaiian shirt) are awarded entirely at the President-compere's discretion.

However, most awards need your participation, so please vote for as many or as few of the following as you like, and feel free to provide a little explanation/description where necessary. Votes to Mr Admin/JB/the Secretary by Thursday 25th, please.

• Club Player of the Year.
• 2nd XI Player of the Year.
• 3rd XI Player of the Year.
• The Wolrige Tankard - for the player with the best team spirit.
• Clubman of the Year.
• Most Improved Player.
• Most Disappointing Season.
• Most Memorable Team Performance.
• Best Younger Player.
• The WG Grace Award - best older player.
• Most Entertaining Moment.
• Trigger - the worst player-umpire.
• The Botham Award - most heroic individual performance.
• The James Bradley Memorial Princess Hissy Fit Award - best tantrum.
• Catch of the Year.

If there are any other incidents from the season that you remember with amusement or affection, please let me know about them and we may create a one-off award to commemorate them.

Just Not Cricket

What, no cricket, oh well, are we allowed politics on here? No, oh, never mind, here are some thoughts on the UK Riots (sic) anyway.

A good place to start, Peter Oborne in the Telegraph;

Telegraph Article

Looters and Rioters?

Next up, some Bullingdon photos; I say

“…But within hours of the photo (right) being taken, the 10 young men were wreaking havoc on Oxford, where they were all at university.

One of them, said to be Ewen Fergusson (4), threw a plant pot through a restaurant window and the police were called…”

David Cameron

About the destruction of peoples businesses during the riots;

“criminality pure and simple”

About the trashing of a restaurant by the super rich student members of the Bullingdon Club;

“Like many young people, I did things when I was young that I should not have done and that I regret”.

About Andy Coulson

“I decided to give him a second chance”

About looters and rioters

“Law-breaking has to be punished. One of the heartening things we are seeing now is because the courts have been sitting round the clock we are seeing a much tighter timetable between getting your collar felt by a police officer, going to a police cell, appearing in front of a court and being sent to prison”

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson

About the destruction of peoples businesses during the riots;

“This behaviour was criminal behaviour”

About his days in the Bullingdon Club;

“The blissful sponge of amnesia has wiped clean the slate of memory,”

It's not just the tories, top Labour brain, Hazel Blears stands during the school holidays and asks;

“Why are these kids not in school?”

I can’t do her herioic expenses claims justice. Here is a link.

Fill your boots hen

Yup, she's still an MP. Just the sort of person we need to clamp down on people who think they can just take mod cons for free.

Coming soon, the Broonster/Frazerio dream ticket.

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.

Saturday Cancellations - 2s, 3s OFF; 1sts ON.

Because of the heavy rain of recent days, Edinburgh Leisure have been unable to prepare most of their grass pitches, so the 2nds' game at the Meadows and the 3rds' game at Campbell Park are off.

Because we are key-holders at Arboretum and because we can cut, roll and mark strips ourselves, the 1sts' games on Saturday and Sunday are still on at the moment.

Minotaur vs McEldrey

Crossers may be aware that the Australian selectors have been searching far and wide for prospective test cricketers and have been made aware of the our long term success of Shannon and more recently Pat. As a result they have demanded either their return or Cross provide an equal replacement.

A straw poll revealed one CA Smith to be our most "Australianesque" member and we have opted to ship him off for an initial two year tenure. He'll be working as a doctor to augment any potential lack of runs.

As a result CA is determined to end 16 years of hurt and finally overall his twin in the run scoring stakes. Rumours that his initial goal of outscoring The Prince (CJE) was quickly downgraded to out-scoring EC have been denied by his "people".

As it stands there is 1 league game and one cup final left

League runs:

EC Smith: 223
CA Smith: 165

Non League runs:

EC Smith: 83

CA Smith: 187

EC - 306

CA - 352

I'm unsure which carries more weight, league runs? Cup runs are still "first class" so do they all count?

Either way it's game on for the next two matches.......................SMITH OFF!!!!

Presidents Trophy

Last Sunday's washed out semi-final vs Leith FAB rearranged for this Sunday (14th) at Arbo.

1sts v Watsons 2's - Skipper Arrives Early For Next Seasons Match

Quick Quiz Question (answer at end of report):

Which letters are missing? A, B, D, F, G, J, K, L, N, O, P, Q, R, U, V, W, X, Y, Z.



The skipper at around 1pm on Saturday???

The first sign that things weren’t all they should be was when I received a text from Bainbridge at 12.57 saying “Starting, I won the toss”. Worrying. The skipper had asked me during the week if I could keep wicket, so I knew vice-skip Simon wasn’t playing, but where was The Skip?

One minute later, when I arrived, I discovered I was one of the lucky few to keep my place after the Parks Trophy victory three days earlier. Out went Pickering, Webb, Gaware & Lynch in a Romanov style cull. In were Morcom, Jones, Killey & Trewartha. Nick Jones, who I’d never met before, had his pads and gloves on ready to keep. So I assumed he was a Watsonian and thought we must be batting. That we only had 10 men and no match ball, batting would be the only sensible choice really. Until introductions were made and I realised my assumptions of normality were going to be tested to the max. Our 12^th game of the season and our 4^th keeper in the ongoing mass rotational experiment that we call Selection. And we were bowling.

Bimbo, now with a 100% record of winning tosses, immediately ceded control of proceedings to Frazerio. A dumb move. Any fool (or uncle Jo) knows that as soon as you get a sniff of power, you hang onto it and begin plotting the downfall (or preferably death) of any close rivals. If he’d held on to the mantle of power, he could have been opening the bowling for years to come. But as soon as I resumed the role, all the old insecurities of high office came flooding back. Immediately spotting the threat of Bainbridge to my acting position of command, I had to put him in his place (deepest fine leg and not opening the bowling).

With Lynch and Warsnap somewhere else and Bimbo in purdah (definition; the seclusion of women from the sight of men) on the boundary, I chucked our ‘borrowed’ ball (for we had none of our own) to Bonfire and asked Gary ThreeforFourforFiveforWartha (a name of Cornish origin apparently) to take the second over.

Papa Bonfield, suffering a bit from writers block struck with his very first ball (is that too obscure a cross-reference from last Saturday’s report?) enticing a snick that Jones happily snaffled and the Cross juggernaut was on the road again. Bonf proclaimed the virtues of the very short lived innings as, usually, the East League hackers aren’t good enough to nick his pearlers. About time somebody was good enough to do so!!!

Our favourite Watsonian now entered the fray and struggled against Trewartha, edging a couple through the burgeoning slip cordon before tickling one to your vice-vice-skipper at gully. Flannigan was next to go, tied down by Trewartha, he had a flail at one and missed, before losing his off stump next ball.

Er, still no skipper at this point. Brian ‘the one-armed bandit’ Fraser was in attendance in spectator mode and offered to do sub fielding duties. However this just reminded me of an old family story. My Grandad once told me, over a Werthers Original, that during the Second World War, one of his brothers was late back to his barracks after a period of leave. His CO had uttered the immortal words “I’d rather go into battle a man down than take Fraser”. The regiment then went off and were almost wiped out in one of those glorious futile gestures. So Brian was given a Coms role as we requested he found out where the F the skipper was. Difficult as he wasn’t answering his phone (/awake yet).

On the battlefield, the carnage continued. Yellowlees was next up. Looking good, he became ‘engaged’ in some ‘chat’ with a simmering Bainbridge (the ghost of the Bish alive and well?). When the Bimbo replaced Bonners, he thought long and hard about which of his arsenal of deliveries he’d deploy to dismiss his verbal nemesis. He decided on a hybrid of the half tracker and the long hop. A gleeful Yellowlees threw his bat at it, but could only chop it onto his timbers and off he went wondering if there were better ways to spend a Saturday.

The wireless operator reported at 1345 that contact had been made with the skipper and he sounded “groggy”. He was at his folks and would be going to Arbo to get his car and kit and should be half an hour.

Gary T scalped another in the meantime and the hosts were 41 for 5 against our charging one man Light Brigade.

After 3.5 overs of mediocrity I decided to relieve Bainbro of his toil, before he produced the first good ball of his spell to end his fourth over. Cue the first Hissy Fit of the day when I thanked him for his contribution. The tiara was thrown to the ground as he wailed something or other about just having found his rhythm. Dabbing his tears away I agreed to allow him to continue while Killey replaced Trewartha at the other end.

Sim & Boorman had now began a counter offensive. Defying the evidence of what went before, although the ball was quickly losing its shine in the drizzle, they continued to play shots when they could and kept the score ticking along at a healthy rate. Hissy Fit #2 arrived in the form of young Ellis. Asked to bowl at the Colinton Rd end, he was inconsolable. So Dougie offered himself up instead allowing Precious Prince Charles to get his way. I’m going soft in my old age.

Drinks came and went, but still no Dear Leader, until, in the 27^th over, our spirits were lifted. Out of the drizzle appeared that small red fanny magnet (the MR2, not Euan) and our cup winning skipper, like Marty McFly emerging from the DeLorean (Back To The Present???), arrived pitchside. In the 28^th over we were a team again.

Scrabbling around looking for a partnership breaker, I decided to ask Morcom to bowl an over, but first tried Gary T who still had two overs left. Three wickets later (figures of 6-39 for Trewartha), Morcom’s brief was truly defunct, though he still got one over as consolation anyway. Watsons had made a more than useful 92 for their 6^th wicket.

A further change recalling Russell and Bonfield was enough to take the final two wickets in 9 balls and Watsonians were all out for 145 in the 38^th over. Considering we had 10 men for most of it, a changed team, no office bearers and the quality of the opposition, I thought we did pretty well, although there was a murmur or two that we should have got them for less. If only I’d brought myself on 1^st change eh…

A mightily splendid, but disappointingly meagre Tea was then taken at Myreside where the increasing rain chased their 1^st XI off at Myreside just as we settled down to watch some ‘proper’ cricket being played.

And that was it.

In summation, another great performance by Gary T, averaging less than 7 with the ball and a strike rate under 12 in all 1^st XI games this year (it also transpired that Gary scored his "first" hundred against Watsons, not bad for our number 11). Shannon getting a batsman to nick a ball also deserves a second mention. Good efforts in tough conditions by the other bowlers too. And yet again in the field, it doesn’t seem to matter who is playing, our fielding was excellent once more, the only drops were two toughies behind the stumps by a useful looking stand-in keeper. The total lack of nets seems to be paying off spectacularly!!!!

S. Bonfield     6.3-2-16-2

G. Trewartha 10-1-39-6

Bainbridge     7-1-25-1

Killey             3-0-23-0

Russell           5-1-17-1

Ellis               6-0-17-0

Morcom         1-0-7-0

Quick Quiz Answer: E.C.S.M.I.T.H.

"It was one of those nights that just gets away from you and you can't bring it back"

Puzzle Solved

CJE has long wondered whether he would ever discover the solution to the title of one of his favourite albums:



Fortunately this has now been solved...the man himself turning up at Craiglockhart on Saturday...and claiming a neat catch off the very 1st ball of the match and going on to have a very solid innings behind the stumps. He then left soon after the game...perhaps off to entertain an audience with his acoustic guitar...

Sunday Game OFF

Sunday's President's Trophy match between HX and Leith at Arboretum is OFF.

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

Pick of the Pics from Parks Trophy Final

The 'pick' of the pics from Wednesday Night's Parks Trophy Final victory over MDafs can be found on Broonster's Facebook page

League Weekend 16 and the Week Ahead

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Watsonians 2nds, away at Craiglockhart.
• 2nds vs Murrayfield-DAFS 3rds, at Arbo.
• 3rds vs Kirk Brae 2nds, away at Double Hedges.

Sunday -

• Presidents Trophy semi-final vs Leith at Arbo.

Midweek -

• Tuesday 9th, the last evening friendly of the season, vs Tranent at Arbo.

Caption Competition Results

Congratulations to Replayer on winning a pint of creamy, foaming indulgence. If she would only step forward and reveal her true identity...

Parks Trophy comes home to Fortress Arbo

Dougie Russell hit the winning boundary at New Field on Wednesday night to give Holy Cross a 5 wicket win over Murrayfield Dafs in the final of the Parks Trophy.

After the last ball heartache at Myreside at the weekend, the 11 Men of Holy Cross produced a display of sheer bouncebackability (always wanted to type that in a report!) skittling their opponents out for 72.

MDafs took the the crease first and an early breakthrough saw Bimbo deliver and Euan taking the catch.

It was good to see young Gavin Morcom down watching. He was commenting about how he hadn't been able to make it down much this season due to a number of excuses valid reasons. It showed. A well placed MDafs strike was heading to the boundary with a Crosser giving chase. "Is that Norrie chasing that ball?" he enquired. "Erm, no Gav, it was Vikram", I replied. "Ahh, they are about the same height, I just thought it was him", he continued....

On with the show. A Bimbo bullet saw an unfortunate batsman knock the ball onto his stumps, then a rush of blood - not once, but twice in consecutive deliveries, saw an ever eager MDafs batsman run up the track but on his second excursion, he simply kept on running back to the sheds.

Charlie, the Man of the Match, got in on the action in the 8th over. His delivery saw Ellis Jnr appeal for an LBW before the ball dislodged the bails! 37-4.

Dougie was now in on the act, his opening delivery of the 9th saw another LBW shout and the Umpire duly obliged by lifting a solitary digit in agreement.

Ellis picked up another three wickets in quick succession with the help of EC Smith, once with a catch and the other with a throw of sublime accuracy for a run out and also a catch by KF out on the ropes. 58-8.

Shannon took the varnish off the edge of the bat of batsman No.9 and he headed back to the sheds and he wasn't to feel alone for along as Shannon ended the MDafs line up with a wicket that saw KF swoop like a seagull on chips to take the catch. 72 All Out.

A beautiful night for cricket in the Capital under the watchful eye of Edinburgh Castle, saw KF and Spickers head to the middle to kick off the Crossers stint.

Bimbo models the new HX Polo Shirts

It was all going well for the first over or so before Spickers was back in the sheds after nicking the ball into the hands of the energetic keeper. 9-1.

KF & Charlie were working in tandem and looked as if they were having fun, knocking off the odd cheeky run or two here and there, taking the score to 43 before KF was trapped LBW.

Charlie was missing Keith and he was despatched shortly afterwards. A swing and a miss was his un-doing. 49-3 and perhaps a bit of squeaky-bum time about to creep in...

Vikram took control and starting playing some delicate strokes, a wagon wheel of culture, but he lost his partner in crime C Smith who trudged off in disbelief after a LBW call from the Umps.

Vikram got an inside edge to take the ball onto his stumps in the 17th and it was 60-5, Cross just 13 away from winning the trophy.

Alas, it was Cross Legend Dougie Russell who hit the final runs - and in some style with a lovely boundary - and the Trophy made the very small trip up the road to Fortess Arbo.

The 2011 Parks Trophy Winners - Holy Cross CC

Pictures from the game to follow soon....

Parks Trophy Win

Murrayfield-Dafs 72ao (18.4 overs)
A. Jaffrey 20, R. Bainbridge 3/19, C. Ellis 3/12, S. Bonfield 2/12.

Holy Cross 75/5 (17.5 overs)
K. Fraser 23, C. Ellis 21.

report to follow...looked like some were going for a big night in the green room...

brief Evening News report here.

Action from Activcity Finals Day

Relive the heartache from Sunday's 'Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' final including the last ball drama online now at Broonster's Facebook

In the Semi, the Cross put Morton to bed with overs to spare. All the action is here!

Parks Trophy Final (2nd attempt)-WEDNESDAY

Confirmation that Holy Cross take on Murrayfield-Dafs in the Parks Trophy tomorrow (Wednesday 8th) at Newfield.
Game starts at 5.45.

supporters welcome.

It is hoped that the Arbo bar will open at 8pm.

Kiwi Whine house as England go Back to Black

With the Rugby World Cup only a month away, there has been controversy from the England camp who have unveiled their new 'All Black' shirt which gets it's first outing against Wales this weekend.

This has stirred the people of New Zealand, including legend Jonah Lomu who has accused England of being 'disrespectful' to the World Cup hosts and Holy Cross legend Dougie 'Heketoro' Russell who can be seen here at the Activcity Finals day practising his very own Haka.

The Silence Of The Lambs

The Bish

Largo visited Arboretum on Saturday scrapping for their first division lives. However the hosts continued to show the form that has driven them onwards and upwards this season and showed no mercy to the promising, but ultimately too inexperienced visitors.

The Cross batted first on a bogeyish track (soft, green & a bit runny) that required application from the batsmen. Well, ordinary batsmen. Rintoul, opening the bowling from the North Pole end, chided Owais for not being able to reach a wide in a surreal attempt to draw the batsmen into a war of words. Mazher’s response was to let his back take the flak and his bat do the chat. Owais appears to play the game on a strip of his own blasting his way to 22 from 17 balls before mistiming one of his booming off-drives to mid off. A little appetiser before the main course on Sunday as it turned out.

Future Hall-of-Famer, Ellis Jr joined the entrenched KF, who continued in a sort of supporting role before being emptied by “probably the ball of the decade” (my words) in the 23^rd over with the score on 79 for an unattractive 20 from 64 balls. This brought the skipper into the middle.

CJE, already in his stride and ECS building steadily began to put a really solid platform in place. Whilst the young Largo bowlers lacked any real bite (plenty bark), Frohlich apart, they showed good control and excellent variation to keep our 3 & 4 honest. Over time, our patience was rewarded. 200 would’ve been nice, 220 probably more than enough and anything else a bonus.

As the Largo kids began to wilt, the skipper in particular punished any loose balls. Charles was next to fall as we moved up through the gears for 85. Shannon added 17 in no time, refusing to face a dot ball for most of it, giving Spickers three deliveries at the end to make 2 not out. The skipper meanwhile stayed right to the end, succumbing only to a suicidal run out off the last ball. His knock of 78 included 4 (four, yes FOUR) maximum’s, three of which received heckles from the non-striker that he only had one shot. The 4^th six dispelled such notions disappearing back over the bowlers head.

The innings came to rest at 238-5. This after passing 100 in the 32^nd over illustrates how well we built on a solid start. I was impressed with the crop of Largo youngsters who all bowled and fielded well.  I’m going to mention Ryan Brown (7-1-31-0) in particular, but that’s a little unfair on the rest. They’ll be a much tastier adversary in 3 or 4 years time as, I’m led to believe, they have plenty more youngsters throughout their 4 XI’s.

After another fine Tea by Eminem, Smith opted to open with Bimboridge at the South Pole End. He struck with his third ball getting Speering to ‘do a Ziggy’, raising arms to a jab-backer that clipped the off peg. If not a fatal blow to the reply, it sprang a proverbial leak at the waterline.

The other opener was soon removed by The Bimbo (10-1-30-4) before, in one fine spell, a trail of destruction was scorched through the Fifers middle order by our own Fifer, Gary T (10-2-23-4).

Bonfield (9-1-22-0) used his two spells to write another thrilling chapter in his 1,001 Ways To Avoid Taking A Wicket. It fell to third change chucker, auxiliary Bishop Lynch (5.3-0-11-2) to bounce out the last two little lambs, both pouched behind by the ever reliable voice mail interceptor, Si Hackering.

Dougie (3-0-12-0) was the only other chucker on the day. 100 all out and more points in the bank as we look for our best league finish in over a decade.

Final Ball Drama with Old Friends Marchmont

[By E. C. Smith]

Gone was the beautiful sunshine from Saturday to be replaced by a slightly more overcast day at Myreside. However, pitch conditions looked good and all four teams were eager to take advantage of the rare opportunity to play on a national league pitch. The ActivCity ‘finals day’ pitched favorites Marchmont and Holy Cross against lower league opponents in the form of Drummond Trinity and Morton.

Inserted into bat by Morton, Holy Cross recovered well (after the early wicket of Keith Fraser) and pushed to around 60 after 10 overs. Although not capitalizing fully on this position Holy Cross got to a respectable total of around 125, helped by thirty odds from Owais and Charlie and a very elegant 18 not out from Vikram. Highlights of the innings included 2 towering sixes from Owais which was a sign of the pyrotechnics to come later in the day!

The instructions for the second half were to bowl quick and straight in the search for early wickets and ‘Aussie Pat’ duly obliged with a season best of 5-4 off his 4 overs! After Morton’s top order had been ransacked the result was never really in doubt but some good catches and disciplined support bowling meant that Morton were dismissed for around 60. While this was a resounding win for Holy X credit must also go to Morton for the spirit they showed and the variety and skill of (in particular) their bowling attack.

This not only led us into the finals against Marchmont but also to a hearty tea which included prawns which were devoured with remorseless vigour by c.g.j mcgill (I was impressed)! Captain E. C Smith then repeated his ‘tactic’ of losing the toss and we again found ourselves inserted onto a quickish (but lowish) Myreside track. What then happened was a stellar batting effort spearheaded by Owais who moved to fifty not out off around 10 overs, leaving the score at around 75-1. At this point Owais began to struggle with a leg injury but that did not prevent him carving a succession of Marchmont bowlers for 4’s and 6’s to all corners of the ground. It truly was a majestic effort and he found able support in the form of Pickering, C, Ellis and Keith Fraser, with Holy Cross closing their innings on 152-3.

While we knew this was a score that was around fifteen runs over par we were also aware of the threat posed by a Marchmont side which included recent recruits to support the experience of Collier, MacGregor and Sardesai. McGregor and Collier got off to a solid start and hit enough 4’s to make sure they were not too far behind the rate after the first few overs. However, a good catch on the boundary by Keith (from the bowling of Shannon) brought top league run scorer Matt Loeffen to the crease. The danger man was keen to get on with things and could have found himself run out early on before he started to pepper the boundary - Mazher style! The overseas man got to 36 in triple quick time but a good catch by Charlie, off the bowling of Dougie, saw him dismissed around the same time as MacGregor – with the score on around 75-3 off 11 overs.

Although slightly behind the rate, at this point, the experienced Sardesai manipulated the ball well behind square and made sure his team were not too far behind the curve. However, he was out going for one shot too many and his dismissal brought captain Sam Peachey to the crease with 60 needed off the last 6 overs. The captain produced an extraordinarily composed innings and resisted the temptation to go for suicide runs, whilst still pushing the Holy Cross fielding to its limits. He also started to find the boundary with increasing regularity and his potence was such that the Marchmont men required only 9 to win off the last over.

Aussie pat was given the task of dragging the impetus back in our direction and produced some fine deliveries under pressure. However, he was very unlucky to see an inside and outside edge cost 6 runs off two balls and a rushed leg bye left Marchmont one run off victory with one ball remaining. Pat then produced an exceptional delivery which was too good for the batsman (and the stumps) but Marchmont pushed through for the run with Simon’s throw missing the stumps by about an inch.

This was an incredibly exciting game played in the best of spirits and congratulations must go to Marchmont for a thrilling run chase! While there was no official man of the match award this surely would have gone to Owais whose innings of 93* was stamped full of swashbuckling quality.

Thanks also to the organisors of the tournament and to Colin McGill for doing the scoring in both matches. One that we will have to reluctantly put down to experience and take what we can out of in advance of Wednesday. Little doubt that if we produce the same sort of performance on Wednesday we should get the right result to reward us for what has been a very good season!

As with Sunday, all supporters are welcome with the game starting at 17:45 at Newfield…

Brief Evening News report here.