Fuds' Fielding is the Highlight of the Weekend of Woe!

[Andy G reports on the match between HX 3's & Glenrothes 3's]

The 3rd X trucked to Glens on Saturday morning full of beans and arrived early. Yes that's right, 9 of 10 arrived at 12.15!! Unheard of! So in order to not embarrass ourselves with any sort of warm up we hung out in the changing room until 1250 mostly chatting about how good England are and what would Dhoni do against Coco's pace?!

Naturally Mahmood rocked up at 5 to 1 ...and to the wrong car park.

We were told that we'd be playing on the big pitch! That would have been great!! Unfortunately, it was really wet after the night before - the groundsman had said it needed watered so didn't put the covers on overnight! We would have played if there was no alternative but thought it would be a much better game if we played on the arti!

We assembled the nets around the outfield (though this didn't help as we still lost 6 balls - don't worry Jon only 1 new one was lost!) and tossed up. I won the toss and decided to bat, mostly cause I was a bit tired after hockey pre-season fitness and didn't want to field until I'd had tea! It's the finer details that determines decisions of what way the captain will elect to start the game when he wins the toss...

So Mahmood and Mike kitted up and sauntered in! The first ball; Mike hits it straight to a fielder and shouts YES! in true Nevin style. Mahmood sprints 2 paces then falls over in the middle of the crease. The Glenrothes fielder launches the ball in and the wickety was haulted by their skipper from taking the bails, very sporting !! Mahmood reciprocated by not scoring a run off the next 19 balls he faced - good coastal erosion!

Nevin hit 3 and was bowled bringing the Parker to the crease. He had gone to his brother's for tea the night before so was full of good red wine and brandy - unfortunately this wasn't a winning combination! It needs to be rum before a cricket game Ross, you know that!!
Ross went to hit one and it went high - their skippa made up some  ground to take it at mid on!

So I pop in at the 16th over. I'd been scoring since the start and really needed a wazz but couldn't leave scoring cause i'd been next in since the 12th! I decided I just had to see off 4 overs before scuttling off behind a container!! After 19 overs we had 44 runs (only 14 off 4 with me and Mahmood so pretty slow!) Mahmood then gets bowled!! This brought in the powerhouse - Fraser Buchanan. We had drinks - and I excused myself - and this brought a lease of life to the Cross!

It also made the wicket keeper a bit chattier - after i'd scratched around a bit for the last 4 overs he was getting chirpier (asking if I knew that we were playing cricket? did I know I needed to try and hit the rope? Were we trying to get 70 to get 1 batting point? Did my shorts and sock combination come in white cause the blue looks a bit village?)

I enjoyed this chat ... A lot! It was really good - I had a chat with him after and said if he ever moved to Edinburgh he should come to the cross. I asked him if he would like to put someone on the rope at cow corner and he said that because I hadn't hit a shot past short mid on. So I gave Butchy the wink ...

We proceeded to smack the ball around all corners of the ground.
After the 20th over (having hit a 6 and 2 4s to cow / long mid on) I asked the wickey the same question- they then had 3 on that boundary! Butchy and I hit 90 off 9 overs before I played across a straight one and was bowled for 68! Disaster, I didn't think and was punished! Bit silly but I made it to 400 for the season, only 20 odd short of Ross last season so I'll take that!

Butchy shortly followed me back to the rope on 26 a good but short lived partnership!
Dom and Elmondt were in next. Dom 'the new Mike Nevin' McMonagle played technically well but couldn't get the ball off the square. He then calamitously ran Elmondt out ... He still thinks there was a run straight to a lad in the covers!

There was a little wagging of the tail with Andy Donaldson striking a good 6 and losing a ball. But we were done-168 all out! Not a terrible score but with that short boundary we probably needed more than 200.

Delicious tea - someone had clearly been watching the Bake Off as there was a rather delightful carrot cake sitting out! Scrumptious !

Elmondt and Dom opened the bowling. Both bowled really well, Elmondt cracked open the wickets with a chap trying to hit him and Butchy back peddling in to take it at short mid wicket! Unfortunately we didn't take any more early wickets and although we limited them to 35 off 16, it wasn't quite enough - Elmo went for 4 runs and Dom 31.

Ross, in his second over picked up a wicket! He bowled an absolute howler of a ball - so bad that he'd already turned his back so he didn't have to look at it go over the rope. But never fear bucket hands McGonagle had it covers a great diving catch on the boundary bundling himself forward to not allow it over the rope! Great catch - catch of the season for me!

This opened them up a little bit with Coco taking one at the other end. A shot from their no. 4 getting scooped high in the air, spinning like mad off the edge - only for Gareth Howlett to get himself in a really good position to take the catch! Really good catch again! Coco bowled another; the spin, pace and flight confused the young keeper!
The last wicket we took was from Andy Donaldson -again another of these catch things! Elmondt at deep mid off! Excellent catching display; 4 of 4 taken on the day!

Although it was too little. They dispatched our short deliveries for 4s and 6s with one chap making 97*. If we had one more player either a bat to score 30 more runs or a bowler to get a couple more tight overs then we would have had a bit more of a chance.
A really commendable effort from the troops, everyone contributed with either a run, a catch or a wicket! Couldn't ask for much more against the league champs.

So it's not in our hands to go up any more but I tell you something selection's looking rosy for Saturday and our match away to Largo!!

Two wins !! Threes just fall short

Scores Digest:

1sts
At Cavalry Park


Marchmont 193-8 (M. Loeffen 64, P Macsimczyk 26)
S. Bonfield 10/1/34/1
S. McOscar 9/1/48/3
Killey 7/0/26/0
Trewartha 9/0/24/1
Ellis 9/1/25/1
Russell 6/0/29/2

Holy Cross 194-6 (49.5 overs)
C.Ellis 93*, S. McOscar 29, K. Fraser 23
Macsimczyk 2/27

Super game of cricket played in great spirits. 

Twos won!!
 vs Livingston 2nds at Arbo

Made 185/6, 58 from Ziggy, 33 from Fraser Buchanan in his first game for years. Bowled them out for 90, Usama 3/36, Lohan 3/26.

scorecard here

Threes lost...er just

further details to follow

Cross Scrape Trophy Win

President's Trophy 2nd Round (at Arboretum-switched due to Dresselrig being unplayable)
played as 20 over match on June 14th.

Holy Cross 131-7 (C. Ellis 50 (46), R. Javed 36 (29), M. Collings 3-19)
Livingston 119-8 (S. Kumar 37, R. Bowering 24)

A good tight game played on a rare nice dry evening (could be the last game for a while given the rain falling at present..) Livi did well to limit HX to a sub-par 131.

cje-after a shaky start- batted solidly enough and Raja found a bit of form but no batsmen really dominated and Collings' good spell and a late rash of run outs prevented us from reaching a par total (given the fast outfield and firm pitch) of 150-odd. Bimbo's stumping (by half the length of the pitch!!) may well receive a mention at the awards night.

Then the impressive Kumar well supported by Bowering took Livi to 72 off 11 before a run-out and then  a reckless shot from Kumar put the game in HX's favour. Good batting from Duvvuri helped Livi to 104 off 16 -at which point they were marginal favourites. His run out and tighter HX bowling helped the home side close out the game. Given that we had a strong bowling unit on display, we perhaps could have kept Livi quieter earlier-and not allowed so many boundaries. But an impressive performance from Livi's talented team and hopefully a 'wake-up call' for the 1sts.

Stuttering Cross through to Indoor Finals night

Score from Wednesday's re-scheduled LiveSport ESCA Indoor 6s matches:

Boroughmuir 115-2 : Tranent 55
HX (GT, CJE, Simon, Dougie, PVB, Pat) 95-3; Boroughmuir 59 all out
HX (GT, Simon, CJE, Dougie, KF, Pat) 61 all out : Tranent 50 all out

[further details from PVB to follow]



Perhaps not helped by KF's slight lateness...well he only missed one game... HX struggled in both matches. At the 15 over stage (matches are 10 overs per side) we were 2nd favourites in both matches but held our nerve better than our opponents.
Undoubtedly we also had a few moments of fortune, including two very near sixes that would have seen Tranent beat us, and a few '50: 50' decisions..

Cheers to PVB for stepping in...who was then kippered by Dougie...

Simon's Ist match for HX didn't start too promisingly...1st baller (was a decent shot-just picked out sq leg) but pulled it round: looking good in his 2nd knock, some good keeping, key wickets and a fine catch to clinch the game vs Tranent. Key to that victory-in all due fairness to KF -were three sharp catches behind the stumps.

After having a rather easy 1st evening, it was perhaps good preparation for Friday that we had such tough games. Tranent seem to have picked up some talented young players-watch out for them this season.

Scorecards (courtesy of PVB):

Holy Cross beat Boroughmuir by 36 runs

Holy Cross
Charlie Ellis ret 29
Gary Trewartha not out 31
Simon McOscar c midwkt b Boyapati 0
Dougie Russell not out 19
Pat Lynch run out 0
Paul Bailey run out 4
Extras 10
Total 95

Ram Boyapati 2-0-12-1
Harris 2-0-9-0
Njranjan 2-0-20-0
Ashish Talreja 2-0-31-0
Chaitanya 2-0-18-0

Boroughmuir
Ashish Talreja no 27
Ram Boyapati lbw Ellis 15
Harris  ? 1
Neil Craigmile b McOscar 10
Njranjan Siddegowda b McOscar 0
Chaitanya  run out 0
Extras 6 ( 3 wides, 3 leg byes)
Total 59 all out (8 overs)

Pat Lynch 1-0-1-0
Gary Trewartha 2-0-22-0 (2 wides)
Dougie Russell 2-0-14-0 ( 5 dot balls off the first 5 balls of his 2nd over)
Charlie Ellis 1-0-10-1
Simon McOscar  2-0-10-2 (1 wide)

Holy Cross beat Tranent by 11 runs

Holy Cross

Gary Trewartha b Amjad 9

Simon McOscar run out 7

Charlie Ellis ct ? b Hoenigmann 10

Dougie Russell st Craigmile b Fahad 3

Keith Fraser  not out 17

Pat Lynch c ? b Waleed 3

Extras 12

Total 61 (8.2 overs)

Amjad 2-0-27-1

Waleed 1.1-0-10-1

Hoenigmann 2-0-10-1

Fahad Nadeem 2-0-3-1 (First 11 balls were dot balls – 1 scoring shot)

Paul Dance 1-0-10-0

Overs

1 13-0

2 23-0

3 37-2

4 43-3

5 44-4

6 48-4

7 51-4

8 61 -4

 Tranent

Imran c Fraser b Russell 21

Aiden Hoenigmann c Fraser b Trewartha 0

Waleed Hassan not out 17

Paul Dance c Fraser b Russell 0

Fahad Nadeem c Fraser b McOscar 0

Amjad c&b McOscar 3

Extras 9

             Total 50 (8 overs)

Pat Lynch 1-0-3-0 (1 wide)

Gary Trewartha 2-0-17-1 (1 wide)

Charlie Ellis 1-0-3-0

Simon McOscar 2-0-10-2

Dougie Russell 2-0-14-2

Overs

1 4-0

2 8-1

3 11-1

4 25-1

5 38-1

6 41-1

7 42-3

8 50 all out.

Russell turns the game at Arbo, 2s rained off, 3s ..... well!

Results digest:

Div 1 at Arboretum.

Grange 167 ao (48.1 overs)
K. Rae 52, W. Phillip 33, E Duboulay 24
D. Russell 3/27, S. Bonfield 2/37, R. Bainbridge 2/37

Holy Cross 169/3 (36.5 overs)
C. Ellis 65*, S. Bonfield 46*, K. Fraser 26, S. Pickering 23.
M. Enos 2/25
[cheers to Sandy R for scoring in the foul weather-and also for sending tweets from the 3rd XI and 1st XI games..!]

Div 5 (at Falkland-2nd ground): Holy Cross 2nd XI 154 (J Bates 64) : Falkland 3rd XI 32-1 Match abandoned.

Div 8 (at Campbell Park): Holy Cross 3rds lost to Mufs 4ths by a lot (108)-failing to chase down 214..

Mufs 4's perspective on this match in this thread:
http://tinyurl.com/44cpdyr

Crucial Win for Twos but 1sts Flattened by Fauldhouse

1sts
At Arbo
Fauldhouse 283-5
Z. Ali 107*, A. Wallace 72, D. Mullligan 30, D. Allan 29

Holy Cross
189ao C. Ellis 64, R. Bainbridge 42, R. McDonald 4-23
further details to follow

2nds
pvb reports:
Div 5 at the Meadows

Holy Cross 2s 155-8 (Webb and Mehta 40+) :
Accies 2s about 98 all out (Astley 4 wkts).

Impressive bowling and excellent sportsmanship from Accies. HX were held back early on - 45-4 after 20 overs. Then Accies kept on losing wickets amidst some fine shots on a lottery of a pitch. Thanks to Accies for all their preparations in ensuring we had a scoreboard and a fine tea.

3rds
beat SMRH 3rds by 10 wickets
details to follow