5 under 30 !

[Andy G reports on the 3rds game at Dunfermline. Some of the references may be lost on older readers...well me at least. cje].

The car journey through was quite a fun one hearing stories from the night before (Ted's clubbing tactics) and learning that Jonny Ladd hasn't set foot in fingers [that sounds painful] - I feel the Holy X BBQ team should head there next sat so Ladd can see the big time. The 'young team' (Andy G, Cunningham, Ted and Jonny) arrived first at Dunfermline to be greeted by a 'sweet old man' who asked us if it would be possible to help him remove the covers from the strip. What we didn't realise was that we were about to reveal the wettest wicket we had ever seen - the old boy wasn't happy at the ''f****** f*** c****'' who had played on it the day before and had ruined his precious surface! [I feel his pain].

Fortunately the pitch had an artificial strip [um -that sentence would profit from a re-write] so it was game on but not before an inquiry about the number of ringers in the Holy X side!! One Dunfermline player stated that he hadn't seen a HX 3rd XI with so many youngsters - with 5 under 30 yrs old: AG's secret plan to get rid of anyone over 45 youth policy is obviously working!!

Skip Lawrie won the toss and elected to field - an excellent decision! We opened with Matt Cunningham and Keith Geddes. After giving Malinga a few pointers midweek, Matt took wickets in his 1st and 2nd overs with balls that swung both ways as well as moving off the seam in each direction [??]. He took a third later in his spell. Bowling very well, Matt could have had a handful [hatful?]- Russell Eberst pulling off a fantastic dive which came millimetres from the catch of his the century. Keith joined the party [surely he's been a member since he was 18?] too by adding 2 of his own - inc. the old codger from the start - an annoyed Keith bowled an extra quick one after the old boy requested that the next (''c***'') batsman stopped warming up in the nets!

After bowling their overs out, Keith and Matt combined had 5 wickets for around 40 runs. Now it was time for the youth policy to take full effect - Coco and Ellis Snr stepped to the plate [bloody Americanisms!].

Both bowled with the complete lack of pace guile and elegance that has come to be expected by the 3s. The wickets tumbled, including Dunfermline's very young and very good opening batsman (unsure of name) who scored 44 with no lives lost [?? lets hope not..only a game etc..] before he sucumed to Ellis Snr's bowling and was caught by Graham at mid off. Ellis Snr ended up with 4 wickets and Coco 1 [grrrr] - via a top spinner that dipped right at the last second (lovely!).

Special mention to a top fielding effort - the best display I've seen all year [praise indeed!] with the batsmen hardly getting the ball off the square and very few 4s being hit; thanks to Ted on the offside chasing hard to the boundary! (good to see he had some energy left..) Nick Jones took his first Cross catch (a jug) [why was he catching a jug during a cricket match?] and Jonny Ladd was even eager to get the helmet on at silly mid on ... What a lad! [this is getting smutty].

Final score 81 all out. We were offered tea either then or after our innings but wise words came from Ted Allat ''We should have tea now ... The hangover needs fed!''

Cracking tea BTW! [that's 'by the way', btw]

Opening the batting were Coastal and Dave Gilmour Mike Nevin. They made around 30 which gave us a solid platform. There was the usual dodgy running between the wickets until Mike got an edge to the wickey from the batsman [not a bowler?] who scored all their runs (he got all their wickets too) [ah...now I understand]. Their leg spinner was on form, getting Matt and Ken via edges too!

At around 50-3 Andy G (24*) and Ellis Snr (14*) finished off the innings by spanking the ball around. Andy G hit the leggy for 3 fours in a row obviously all classical cover drives slog sweeps!

A brilliant victory for the Cross one which will be remembered for Ellis Snr's wickets, Andy G's pulling, Ted's pulling the night before and some awesome fielding!

Final ball drama in intra-club game

At Arbo

Coco's XI 106-6 (20 overs)

Vik's XI 110-6 (20 overs)

Shannon hitting the last ball for 4 to secure victory.
more details to follow....

An enjoyable game despite the soggy wicket.
Cheers to Andy G for organising it-and getting 22 players out!!.

Cross 0 -Watsonians 2

Div 1 (Arboretum)

Holy Cross 172-7
S. Pickering 25, S. Bonfield 25, A. Cydzik 25*, D. Russell 24.
A. Learmonth 3-29
M. McLeod 2-22

Watsonian 2's 173-5
A. Learmonth 100*, B. Fox 23.
R. Worsnop 2-34
C. Ellis 2-26

A tale of missed opportunities. We were 50-1 off 11 but only got to 172 thanks to a productive last 4 overs. But in truth-despite a slightly under-prepared pitch and consistent Watsonian bowling- we were at least 50 short of a par score, with far too many quiet overs in the middle part of the innings (though not cut since Tuesday... the outfield was firm enough to give the batsmen good value for their shots-we needed a lot more boundaries!). Then, after Robin got 2 good early wickets, we failed to make another breakthrough for almost twenty overs ...plus the bad miss off Learmonth at 2nd slip was very costly...though he did play well, scoring heavily in his 'zones'. We'll need to play better against an in form Marchmont side this Saturday and against the East Academy on Sunday.

Div 5 (Craiglockhart)
Holy Cross 2nd XI 145 (N Webb 50+, N Shahzad 45*, C Mcfarlane 3 wkts) : Watsonians 3rd XI 146-8 (S Counsell 71, A Borthwick 31).


Div 8
3rd XI could not play because contractors were setting up the Park for the Moonwalk...

Can Catch, Can't Bat ...

Saturday results digest:

1sts -at Arboretum
Fauldhouse 120ao
Worsnop 4-42

Holy Cross 111ao
Cydzik 39
Sandhu 3-16

We did well to recover from 33-7 but if only we'd made a half decent start...

2nds-Roseburn
lost to Mufs 3rds by 10 wickets

Admin adds - Charlie's too kind - we couldn't bat (unlike last week) or catch (just like last week). A depleted 2nds scored far too few as the recognised batsmen were dismissed cheaply and tamely by a decent, but not terribly threatening, Murrayfield-DAFS attack. Debutant Irfan Butt hit a promising 29 and the lower middle order added some useful runs, most notably with Roshan's huge six, but 120 was unlikely to be enough unless we struck early. For the second week running Roshan and Usama opened the bowling very well but without any luck and as Darren Kidd started to get his eye in the run rate accelerated.

The last 30 or so runs came very quickly as the bowlers struggled to grip a sodden ball, but by then the die was cast as catches dropped while the ball was still dry (sorry, Smudge) had cost us dear. Thanks to MUFS for a game played in the usual good spirits and without any of the "overenthusiastic" appealing which is now so widespread.

3rds-Campbell Pk
beat Largo 4's by 10 wickets

further details to follow....

Broonster 3rd in the 'averages'

8.5....that's a 0.5 % improvement on his batting average last season...

http://tinyurl.com/69ybga5

Crossers on shortlist for Government Advisor Post

Matthew d'Ancona (political correspondent at the London Evening Standard) reports that:

'David Cameron has been telling senior Cabinet colleagues that the Coalition must get much better at "pitch-rolling": that is, preparing the ground adequately before the first over of any political cricket match is bowled'.

No. 10 is currently searching the nation for experienced pitch rollers and two of our club members have been mentioned in this context on an influential political blog (no, not Broonster's).

They are this man and this one.

3rd team...4th Party

http://notjustanotherpolitician.blogspot.com/2011/01/put-scotland-first-and-back-scottish.html

Bimbo blast seals victory for BFLs, while 2s and 3 compete but lose.

Saturday Results Digest.

1sts

Edinburgh 2 80ao (Obeid 40, Bainbridge 5/27, P. Kumar 3/14) lost to Holy Cross 81-1 (S. Pickering 31*, N. Metha 21).

Getting Mazhar (700+ runs this season) for 0 was key (top delivery from Bimbo: top catch from Spick). After that, good spells from Bimbo and Praveen pressurised an understrength Edinburgh batting line-up into some 'ambitious' shots. A useful partnership (assisted by a few fielding lapses) between nos 9 & 10 showed that the pitch was perfectly playable before Milly ended it with one of his signature submarine balls. New boy Pat ended the innings with his third ball - a useful delivery that hit the top of off.

Runs efficiently knocked off (against some decent bowling, with the pitch doing some odd things) by Nipun, Spickers and cje.

Surprisingly early finish meant we could enjoy the Bates and Bailey show at Arbo and the BBQ (cheers to Bainbro, Mandy and Michael for their organisational efforts).

2nds

Carlton 3s 262 for 7 (C Paterson 126, Z Yusaf 42*) beat Holy Cross 2s 196 for 7 (P Bailey 64, J Bates 56, F Allardice 2 for 18, R Metcalfe 2 for 26)
Scorecard here

3rds

Carlton 4s 166 for 9 (G Newman 45, H Aslam 20, A Rive 20) beat Holy Cross 3s 132 all out (M Nevin 30+, B Irvine 3 for 12, H Aslam 2 for 33)
Report and scorecard here.