Handbags and Beer Rags

[Andy G reports on some 20 over midweek madness- annotations from cje]

Coco's select XI welcomed Maccabi for the first midweek friendly of the season. I'm not going to remember all the details just a brief summary [really?] to keep the fans entertained. Coco - with 12 players - won the toss we batted first. Sandy was forced kindly went to play for Maccabi as they were short.

Mike Nevin and Vikram Gaware opened with the tactic of all out attack! We screamed [?] to 16 off 2 when Vikram fell to the dazzling [? it was raining] spin of Adeel (from Murrayfield - Dafs) out came Andy Graham and blocked the last ball of the over.

Gus McLean was bowling from the other end and Coco was umpiring. Let the jousting begin...

Gus bowled a quicker delivery and it bounced high off  a stone the pitch possibly hitting Mike Nevin's bat and beating the  bemused wicketkeeper. We ran a run/bye and Coco didn't flinch. Uproar from Gus!! He wanted the bye - these friendlies count to official ICC Scottish cricket bowling averages you know! The handbags were out ... Coco with a 1980's pink number with metal studs and Gus with a blue leather clutch bag. Coco referred to a wide that Gus had given previously (probably in 1978 [actually June 4th 2007]) where the batsman nicked the ball to second slip! The next ball was bowled and the over was over, and the handbags were tucked away ready for round 2.

Back to the cricket - Mike and Andy put on a good few runs until Mike was bowled by a good delivery by Mr Malik (Suli was back at Arbo!)
No 4 was Brian Fraser he came in, sliced spanked Suli for a four ... I think ... but then tried to play across the line and was given out LBW by Coco - a ludicrous decision   fair I think ... No 5 [no 5-was KF doing the batting order....grrr] Smudger comes trotting in he smashed Suli for another 4 - conceding circa 10 runs from his last over - was quite good fun and but beware this over just made him [who-Suli or Smudger?] angry!

Alex looked good for the few balls that he faced, hitting some sweet shots but finding the fielders,  he was bowled playing down the wrong line by a good ball that cut in off the sodden skiddy pitch.

Ross Parker stepped in around the 16 over mark and partnered Andy to his 50 - he was on 40 when Smudger was out - AG batted a lot more conservatively for his final 10-and all those present some observers questioned his ambition to go for another 50 #tightfisted !

Jug No.1 done

Andy retired and debutant Kevin Marsh came in, he smashed a couple of runs and with the final ball of the innings hit a 6 six towards the rugby posts...

A 6 on debut - Jug No.2 ??

Ross and Kevin saw us through to the 20 overs and we ended on 125 for 4. So we went out with a ok strong total and a bowling line up to die for [??].

Opening with debutant Kevin and the veteran Smudger we had change bowlers of Coco and Ross Parker and couple of surprises... Kevin and Smudger got off to a good start with some excellent bowling ... Unfortunately the batting was strong.

Adeel's dad smashed balls through point, cow corner, square leg and the covers and his partner ... Well he wasn't bad either...it was Mr Suliman Malik ... Back to thrash those who taught him the game. The majority of his shots in true Suli fashion were straight of the bowler's head and quite a few shots to cow [some things don't change].

Great innings from the elder brother - and he gloated about finishing on 52 - 2 runs more than me!

After 10 overs Maccabi had 80 runs - they were doing well so Adeel's dad stupidly sportingly tried to reverse sweep Coco off middle stump - the first of his 3 wicket haul!

No3. Another crosser??? Michael Baker [aka MFTRC] steps in - after being padded up for the last 20 overs he took an age to readjust his helmet and gloves! He felt hard done by about not getting a bat so he deffered to the opposition at halftime and convinced them to put him in at 3... This is why they were hitting all of those runs, we only had 10 in the field!

He faced the pace and Coco got him on the fourth attempt - after Vikram dropped him at slip!

Wait! was this an HX intra-club friendly ... Sandy Robertson came in to bat and quickly sighed as he saw coco had an over left - he lasted a few balls and hit a couple of runs but then fell to Coco's pace. With 3 wickets coco was a bit happier ... But ding ding the bell went round 2..

Coco had a tidy over going for about 3 or 4 and he had bowled 6 balls so the square leg umpire started to approach, the batsman plodded around the wicket and I started having a between over chat with the batsman.

But no there was a mystery wide and and Gus wanted another ball - and the handbags were out again.

There were flashes of pink and blue as the two old timers pinged stories of dubious wides and no balls from the 70s and 80s I didn't catch any specific examples but I'm sure there was some chat of Portobello Baths!

Now they only had about 15-20 over the final 5 or so overs. Unfortunately Vikram 'old man' Gaware is injured and wanted to save himself for Saturday [what for-cricket?? or hauling white goods from John Lewis] so we had a trio of exciting, flighty [?] and and at some points [?] the best balls of the game!

BAF was the first to turn his arm over and his first ball was awesome!
He tossed it so high that when it returned to the [Earth's] surface it had snow on it, it turned and rolled under beat the bat. Just fantastic, it was just a shame he was only able to replicate it once more in his over;  when he got Adeel out -caught and bowled.

Next up: Alex Candilish his first 2 balls were wides but then he found his rhythm ... Just excellent, going both ways off the pitch [the same delivery] and he put it just in the right spot for the batsman to put it straight in front of Smudger and he fell jumped forward to catch it for Alex's first wicket (EVER!- not just for the Cross) .

Jug No. 3 and possibly 4 - first wicket for the Cross and first wicket ever.

2 balls later he put another in the same spot but this time the ball was hit sweeter and unfortunately Smudger at short extra cover  did an EC   wasn't able to hold it.

The last over went to [Sunday's hero] Ted:  he bowled two yards outside off, toying with the batsman to hit the final runs, after missing two the batsman finally caught one  [howzat!?] and the game was over.

126-5.. we were beaten by a good batting side.