Season ends in the darkness at Grange Loan

Holy X 1st XI v Carlton 2's

Saturday dawned fine enough and looked like we’d get to at least start the final league match of the season, although some heavy downpours had been predicted from mid-afternoon onwards.

This fixture had little on the line for Holy Cross as we could finish no lower than 6^th or possibly 7^th if we got absolutely gubbed and Penicuik managed to do the unthinkable and beat Glenrothes.

For Carlton on the other hand, this game had huge importance, in terms of their hopes of avoiding automatic relegation, as they were about 1% behind West Lothian in 8th place!

It was an unusual start to the match, as I lost the toss for only the 2^nd time this season! Brad elected to bowl and have us set them a target to chase down.

We got off to almost the perfect start, with Saideep playing an exquisite lofted straight drive over mid-off for 4 runs, from a rather bewildered looking Ahmed Shah. Unfortunately Saideep missed his third ball, a straight delivery that hit middle pin, reducing the Cross to 4-1 off just 3 balls.

Raja and myself then built a handy partnership reaching 53-1 off 13 overs, when I somehow managed to hit a straight drive to a diving Aslam at mid-wicket who took a tidy catch. Charlie and Raja added 19 runs for the 3^rd wicket, before Charlie repeated my dismissal, of which CoCo took great joy in reminding me of that fact!

In came the master blaster Owais and he had Raja took to their typical  style, singles + 4’s or 6’s and started building a nice total. At drinks we were 97-3 with both guys looking comfortable. After another 10 overs had passed we were on 135-3 when the predicted afternoon rain dumped a large amount of water in the space of about 20 minutes.

Early tea was taken and play resumed at 4:02pm, however the break in play really halted our momentum. We lost Raja for a fine 83, who was looking well set to easily pass 3 figures with 12 overs still remaining.

Then Dougie was run out for just 2, 3 overs later.

Owais fell a couple of overs after for a solid 30 and Holy X had slumped to 158-6 off 42.

Jimmy’s stay at the crease was short lived, getting bowled round his legs by a fine bit of leg-spin bowling from Aslam. Which sparked scenes that will surely lead Jimmy to take home the award for Hissy Fit of the season and reduced another of his bats to firewood!

As usual, Julius provided some entertainment with some lovely hockey shots, scoring 24 runs in pretty reasonable time. He and Bonfield had put on 20 runs in 5 overs, before Newman hitt a catch high in the air off McKay in the final over, which left Bacon to stand at the non-strikers end for the final delivery of our innings.

Holy Cross finishing 189-8 off 50.

A decent and defendable total, but possibly 20-30 runs short considering we were 135-3 off 35 overs!

After a quick turn-around, the plan was to try and restrict Carlton in terms of runs and pick up the odd wicket. With one eye on the weather, I was hoping we’d get to the 20 over mark before the rain arrived again and hopefully be ahead using the trusty ESCA Rain Calculator.

There was plenty of banter in the changing shed as Shannon and Charlie were only separated by 1 wicket for their season tallies, so I decided to let them go head to head and open the bowling in partnership for what I believe was the first time this season.

Both bowled extremely well and gave away very few runs, Shannon typically being too good to get the much needed edge and Charlie working away to bore the batsmen into a loose shot. Bonfield made the breakthrough in the 9^th over Bowling MacPherson for just 5, reducing Carlton to 16-1.

I had already made the decision to take Shannon off and bring on Bacon, to try and race through some overs, but the rain beat me to it! Off for another delay after 11.5 overs, however we were able to get back on after only 20 minutes off the field.

At the end of 12^th, Carlton were 19-1 and Charlie had bowled 6 overs and only conceded 3 runs! Which included 3 maidens, 1 wide and 1 no-ball!

The introduction of Bacon saw him pick up wickets in his first and fourth overs, which was also followed by Charlie taking a wicket in his final over.

Carlton now really struggling at 46-4 off 20 and Holy Cross in total control, particularly with the light now starting to fade and another large group of black clouds about to swallow up any sunlight that could potentially see us get through the final 30 overs.

Ali Shah and Atkin then put on a useful 50 run partnership for the 5^th wicket, which was aided by the odd loose ball here and there. But in general, Raja and Newman both bowled some good lines and we were still pretty sharp in the field. So at the 30 over mark Holy Cross were still ahead in my mind, having restricted Carlton to 90-4.

After Shah departed for a well compiled 42, although he was given a couple of chance in Bonfield’s final over, with a dropped catch by Spickers and a very close LBW shout turned down. Newman then managed to capture the wicket of big hitting Atkin for 26 a few overs later – Carlton now 116-6 off 37 overs and 189 looked a long way off in the impending darkness.

With our main guns bowled out already, the ball was tossed back to Bacon and Dougie was introduced at the 42 over mark with Wells and F. Allardice already having added 28 off their last 5 overs.

These 2 batted extremely well, both patiently waited for and also put away any bad balls, as well as ran between the wickets with a spritely nature that is sadly lacking at the Cross.

Bacon who bowled very well, was taken for 10 runs from his 7^th over, the 45^th of the innings (which unfortunately including 2 overthrows). This took the equation for Carlton down to needing 26 runs off 30 balls.

With Bonfiled, Ellis and Javed all having completed their 10 overs, I decided to roll the arm over, which initially paid dividends for Carlton. I made the error of moving Dougie back up to a regulation Square Leg, then Wells delightfully clipped the very next ball past Dougie for 4.

Carlton now needing just 21 runs off 28 balls.

With the light fading rapidly and the umpires having a quick chat, but deciding to keep going, Carlton only needed 7 runs from the final 12 balls to take out what seemed like a very unlikely victory at several different points of the game.

I bowled the 49 over and the first 4 delivery went for 3 runs, so 4 required off 9 ball, surely Carlton were in sight of an important victory, which would see them leap above West Lothian and out of the final automatic relegation spot on the league table.

By this time, even I was struggling to see Wells taking his guard at the other end of the pitch. With the 5^th ball of the over, I managed to pick up an inside edge which was held by Spickers and a huge appeal, somewhat belatedly saw Umpire Smith raise his finger and send Wells back to the hut with 46 next to his name in the book.

He’d taken Carlton to the brink of victory, 186-7 with 7 balls remaining!

With no further runs coming off the last ball of the 49^th, Dougie stepped up to bowl the last over in now near darkness. 4 runs required off 6 balls.

Dougie’s first 2 balls saw 2 dots and then a single, which seemingly swung the pendulum back towards the Cross. With his 3^rd ball of the over, he clean bowled R. Allardice with a well-pitched full delivery.

Carlton now 187-8.

In marched the Carlton Skipper MacKay, who with 2 balls remaining needed to somehow score 3 runs in what was almost complete darkness. Dougie darted one in sharp and yet another dot ball.

Carlton now requiring 3 runs off the final ball to win.

In moved Dougie to deliver the final ball, MacKay took a swipe at the ball and made a pretty decent connection straight down the ground to Raja left at mid-on. Young Allardice had taken off out of the non-strikers crease like Usain Bolt and had rapidly turned for the second, before Raja had made it to the ball.

The throw came in, but Allardice was well home taking Carlton to an identical score of 189-8 and game tied.

It was a fitting end to a game that both sides will feel they probably should have won at various points in the second innings.

Looking back you will always see moments which could have changed the outcome in your favour, such as one less wide, one less miss-field, or a dropped catch being taken etc etc etc.

Walking off and shaking hands with the Carlton lads, they were visibly disappointed that they hadn’t done enough to win the game and ensure they jumped over West Lothian.

Not long after getting off the park, after some furious calculations, an almighty roar emerged from the Carlton changing rooms. The 15 points from the drawn game was enough to move them up in to 7^th place and out of automatic relegation.

The draw saw us move back in to 5^th place in the Championship. I had targeted a top 5 finish at the start of the season, so am pretty happy to have ticked that off and guaranteed our place in the 2015 edition of the ESCA Championship.

Many thanks to all the guys who played for the 1^st XI in the league and other competitions this season. We used a total of 29 players in the Championship, which is quite impressive for a small club like Holy Cross.

I’d particularly like to thank the chaps that stepped in and took over the Skipper duties in my absence and also the guys from the 2’s and 3’s, who played a major part in several games. Which included a very important victory over Penicuik, in which we played 5 guys from our 2/3’s!

So all in all a good season for the 1^st XI in my eyes and looking forward to the awards evening on the 30^th!