1st XI v Grange II @ Fettes - 28/07/2012

Whilst some of the cricket wasn't the most picturesque, the setting wasn't too bad and it was a fantastic toss to lose. These are taken in the last 10 overs.

Bonfield playing in the V

Skipper square cuts

Bonfield defends.

Bonfield v ex Warwickshire captain Mike Powell

Russell showing off his technique

McOscar bats, bowls, keeps wicket and even does the scorebook.

Bonfield tickles one round the corner

Note the game on the pitch next to us had exited stage left and the covers were on whilst we soldiered on.

A familiar site at cricket grounds this summer - puddles.

Plate Tie postponed

Tonight's President's Plate match between HX 2's and Casuals is OFF. Well, the Meadows used to be a loch...maybe again if this continues...

Game rescheduled for Thursday 12th July at the Meadows.

The Sun DID always shine..

Given the current period of poor weather, it's tempting to believe that we are experiencing a uniquely wet cricket season.  One senior Crosser has posited that since 1996 the summers weather in the Edinburgh area have become decidedly wetter-more like Glasgow.  Is he right? 

The weather was always like this

The figures below suggest that -as with popular music-things really were better in the past...  Or are there other reasons why more fixtures were completed? Tougher men? Were cancelled games resheduled?

Number of HX Ist XI league fixtures completed (from Hugh K's stats):
note 1984!!

1975 11 out of 12
1976 10 out of 12
1977 13 out of 14
1978 13 out of 14
1979 12 out of 14
1980 12 out of 14
1981 12 out of 14
1982 10 out of 14
1983 12 out of 14
1984 18 out of 18
1985 13 out of 18
1986 16 out of 18
1987-14 out of 18
1988-12 out of 18
1989-16 out of 18
1990-16 out of 18
1991 17 out of 18
1992 16 out of 18
1993 16 out of 18
1994 14 out of 16 

1995 17 out of 18
1996 16 out of 18
1997 14 out of 18
1998 15 out of 18
1999-13 out of 18
2000-13 out of 18
2001 15 out of 18
2002 11 out of 18
2003 15 out of 18
2004 13 out of 18
2005 16 out of 18
2006 16 out of 18
2007 12 out of 18
2008  9  out of 18
2009 15 out of 18
2010 17 out of 19
2011 12 out of 19
2012  6  out of 10

ALL Saturday cricket off

1st, 2nd and 3rd XI matches all off.

Sunday:
Confirmation that HX vs @marchmontcc in the CS Challenge Cup is OFF. Apparently there is a small lake in the corner of Arbo.

Remember that HX are due to play Watsonians at Myreside on Monday evening. Weather is improving so hope remains.. 


Breaking..> message from Watsonians: I understand that there is no chance of play at Myreside tonight despite the sunshine but we will hopefully be able to get the game played tomorrow night.

Campbell Park on Saturday morning

Read all about it

Last night I recieved a text from Tillekeratne Dilshan informing me he'd just bumped into a top Scottish Cricketer on Princes St.

"I'd been hanging about all day with my autograph book hoping to meet one of the Holy Cross Cricket team" said Dilshan, "then, just as I was giving up hope of ever seeing one of my heroes, around the corner strolled Ellis Charles".

Ellis was in action on Saturday blazing his way to 222* against Victoria FCC as 'the Cross' reached 47-17 in a league decider somewhere near Glasgow. Fortunately for the Glaswegian villagers the game had to be abandoned before Charles could take 10 wickets probably for no runs.

"I've memorised Charlie's book 'Coco - Chicago's Worst Pitch' ( book link ) and have never given my wicket away since" gushed the Sri lankan captain. "It was much better than that nonsense his captain wrote about what to do when its wet, overcast, the pitch is a bog and your up against the best attack in the league on their own patch ( book link )". Although I thought he did look a bit worse for wear, maybe it was the recent floods in Morningside".

Charlie Ellis invented the "Chuck".

Norrie Tastic & Ziggy Licious were unavailable for comment.

KF on Scottish Cricket (part 2 of a continuing series)

With the Ashes now over and the South Africa vs South Africa 2nd XI test series yet to start, in his latest posting KF turns to one of the er ..... burning issues of the day.

Climate change !!! Is it really happening? As I'm about 99% unqualified to judge (with a 1% error margin), I feel I must waffle on this contentious topic immediately. Is it colder now than a month ago ? Yes. Is it warmer than it was last night ? Yes. Seems like a no brainer to this no brainer. Indeed, if the climate didn't change it would surely be time to worry.

But what has this got to do with the East League fixture schedule, I hear you ask ? The ESCA website has announced that the fixtures for next season "will run from Saturday 1st May until Saturday 28th August inclusive". Meaning the usual pre-season friendlies will be on the 17th and 24th April. You may see where I'm going with this now. Indeed, I could say you are already getting warmer (or colder).

I don't recall any "t-shirt weather" during this early period of the season and my memories of playing cricket at that time primarily involve at least two jumpers. Come the end of August and into September, once the season has ended for most folk, its flip flop and barbecue time. Cricket doesn't necessarily require the players to be warm, but it does require the best of weather conditions to get a decent or at least playable pitch. I believe it's time to look at adjusting the season as I believe it starts and ends too early.

Squinting briefly at Scottish football, there is often talk of a winter shutdown. The obvious problem with this being that our winter can last about 8 months, so which 2-4 week period do you close down for ? Trying to nail down exactly when, or even if, we have our summer isn't much less difficult.

A serious look must be had at historical temperature records, rainfall charts and anything else of use. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there's been no cricket played on the 3rd of July for 120 years or something similar, but I'm sure those records would back up my intuition that the open and close of the season require amendment. As the days shorten in September the kick-off times might have to be brought forward an hour.

In the meantime, I'm sure Jon B will take orders for club fleeces or maybe for long johns (with embroidered badges ???? fnarr).

It is now time for you to shout down my simplistic idealism with unfortunate realities like overlaps with the rugby season or pitch availability or whatever ......

Ludicrous weather

Can we really be seriously considering playing cricket tomorrow??

Breaking news (at 10.15am).....Some degree of sanity has prevailed-the 1st XI game at Glenrothes is OFF

3rds game at Broomhall is still ON

As Andy G and Ziggy have reported the pitch at Arbo seems playable and is being rolled... (don't wreck it for Sunday's game lads...)