Parks Trophy comes home to Fortress Arbo

Dougie Russell hit the winning boundary at New Field on Wednesday night to give Holy Cross a 5 wicket win over Murrayfield Dafs in the final of the Parks Trophy.

After the last ball heartache at Myreside at the weekend, the 11 Men of Holy Cross produced a display of sheer bouncebackability (always wanted to type that in a report!) skittling their opponents out for 72.

MDafs took the the crease first and an early breakthrough saw Bimbo deliver and Euan taking the catch.

It was good to see young Gavin Morcom down watching. He was commenting about how he hadn't been able to make it down much this season due to a number of excuses valid reasons. It showed. A well placed MDafs strike was heading to the boundary with a Crosser giving chase. "Is that Norrie chasing that ball?" he enquired. "Erm, no Gav, it was Vikram", I replied. "Ahh, they are about the same height, I just thought it was him", he continued....

On with the show. A Bimbo bullet saw an unfortunate batsman knock the ball onto his stumps, then a rush of blood - not once, but twice in consecutive deliveries, saw an ever eager MDafs batsman run up the track but on his second excursion, he simply kept on running back to the sheds.

Charlie, the Man of the Match, got in on the action in the 8th over. His delivery saw Ellis Jnr appeal for an LBW before the ball dislodged the bails! 37-4.

Dougie was now in on the act, his opening delivery of the 9th saw another LBW shout and the Umpire duly obliged by lifting a solitary digit in agreement.

Ellis picked up another three wickets in quick succession with the help of EC Smith, once with a catch and the other with a throw of sublime accuracy for a run out and also a catch by KF out on the ropes. 58-8.

Shannon took the varnish off the edge of the bat of batsman No.9 and he headed back to the sheds and he wasn't to feel alone for along as Shannon ended the MDafs line up with a wicket that saw KF swoop like a seagull on chips to take the catch. 72 All Out.

A beautiful night for cricket in the Capital under the watchful eye of Edinburgh Castle, saw KF and Spickers head to the middle to kick off the Crossers stint.

Bimbo models the new HX Polo Shirts

It was all going well for the first over or so before Spickers was back in the sheds after nicking the ball into the hands of the energetic keeper. 9-1.

KF & Charlie were working in tandem and looked as if they were having fun, knocking off the odd cheeky run or two here and there, taking the score to 43 before KF was trapped LBW.

Charlie was missing Keith and he was despatched shortly afterwards. A swing and a miss was his un-doing. 49-3 and perhaps a bit of squeaky-bum time about to creep in...

Vikram took control and starting playing some delicate strokes, a wagon wheel of culture, but he lost his partner in crime C Smith who trudged off in disbelief after a LBW call from the Umps.

Vikram got an inside edge to take the ball onto his stumps in the 17th and it was 60-5, Cross just 13 away from winning the trophy.

Alas, it was Cross Legend Dougie Russell who hit the final runs - and in some style with a lovely boundary - and the Trophy made the very small trip up the road to Fortess Arbo.

The 2011 Parks Trophy Winners - Holy Cross CC

Pictures from the game to follow soon....

Parks Trophy Win

Murrayfield-Dafs 72ao (18.4 overs)
A. Jaffrey 20, R. Bainbridge 3/19, C. Ellis 3/12, S. Bonfield 2/12.

Holy Cross 75/5 (17.5 overs)
K. Fraser 23, C. Ellis 21.

report to follow...looked like some were going for a big night in the green room...

brief Evening News report here.

Action from Activcity Finals Day

Relive the heartache from Sunday's 'Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory' final including the last ball drama online now at Broonster's Facebook

In the Semi, the Cross put Morton to bed with overs to spare. All the action is here!

Parks Trophy Final (2nd attempt)-WEDNESDAY

Confirmation that Holy Cross take on Murrayfield-Dafs in the Parks Trophy tomorrow (Wednesday 8th) at Newfield.
Game starts at 5.45.

supporters welcome.

It is hoped that the Arbo bar will open at 8pm.

Kiwi Whine house as England go Back to Black

With the Rugby World Cup only a month away, there has been controversy from the England camp who have unveiled their new 'All Black' shirt which gets it's first outing against Wales this weekend.

This has stirred the people of New Zealand, including legend Jonah Lomu who has accused England of being 'disrespectful' to the World Cup hosts and Holy Cross legend Dougie 'Heketoro' Russell who can be seen here at the Activcity Finals day practising his very own Haka.

The Silence Of The Lambs

The Bish

Largo visited Arboretum on Saturday scrapping for their first division lives. However the hosts continued to show the form that has driven them onwards and upwards this season and showed no mercy to the promising, but ultimately too inexperienced visitors.

The Cross batted first on a bogeyish track (soft, green & a bit runny) that required application from the batsmen. Well, ordinary batsmen. Rintoul, opening the bowling from the North Pole end, chided Owais for not being able to reach a wide in a surreal attempt to draw the batsmen into a war of words. Mazher’s response was to let his back take the flak and his bat do the chat. Owais appears to play the game on a strip of his own blasting his way to 22 from 17 balls before mistiming one of his booming off-drives to mid off. A little appetiser before the main course on Sunday as it turned out.

Future Hall-of-Famer, Ellis Jr joined the entrenched KF, who continued in a sort of supporting role before being emptied by “probably the ball of the decade” (my words) in the 23^rd over with the score on 79 for an unattractive 20 from 64 balls. This brought the skipper into the middle.

CJE, already in his stride and ECS building steadily began to put a really solid platform in place. Whilst the young Largo bowlers lacked any real bite (plenty bark), Frohlich apart, they showed good control and excellent variation to keep our 3 & 4 honest. Over time, our patience was rewarded. 200 would’ve been nice, 220 probably more than enough and anything else a bonus.

As the Largo kids began to wilt, the skipper in particular punished any loose balls. Charles was next to fall as we moved up through the gears for 85. Shannon added 17 in no time, refusing to face a dot ball for most of it, giving Spickers three deliveries at the end to make 2 not out. The skipper meanwhile stayed right to the end, succumbing only to a suicidal run out off the last ball. His knock of 78 included 4 (four, yes FOUR) maximum’s, three of which received heckles from the non-striker that he only had one shot. The 4^th six dispelled such notions disappearing back over the bowlers head.

The innings came to rest at 238-5. This after passing 100 in the 32^nd over illustrates how well we built on a solid start. I was impressed with the crop of Largo youngsters who all bowled and fielded well.  I’m going to mention Ryan Brown (7-1-31-0) in particular, but that’s a little unfair on the rest. They’ll be a much tastier adversary in 3 or 4 years time as, I’m led to believe, they have plenty more youngsters throughout their 4 XI’s.

After another fine Tea by Eminem, Smith opted to open with Bimboridge at the South Pole End. He struck with his third ball getting Speering to ‘do a Ziggy’, raising arms to a jab-backer that clipped the off peg. If not a fatal blow to the reply, it sprang a proverbial leak at the waterline.

The other opener was soon removed by The Bimbo (10-1-30-4) before, in one fine spell, a trail of destruction was scorched through the Fifers middle order by our own Fifer, Gary T (10-2-23-4).

Bonfield (9-1-22-0) used his two spells to write another thrilling chapter in his 1,001 Ways To Avoid Taking A Wicket. It fell to third change chucker, auxiliary Bishop Lynch (5.3-0-11-2) to bounce out the last two little lambs, both pouched behind by the ever reliable voice mail interceptor, Si Hackering.

Dougie (3-0-12-0) was the only other chucker on the day. 100 all out and more points in the bank as we look for our best league finish in over a decade.

Final Ball Drama with Old Friends Marchmont

[By E. C. Smith]

Gone was the beautiful sunshine from Saturday to be replaced by a slightly more overcast day at Myreside. However, pitch conditions looked good and all four teams were eager to take advantage of the rare opportunity to play on a national league pitch. The ActivCity ‘finals day’ pitched favorites Marchmont and Holy Cross against lower league opponents in the form of Drummond Trinity and Morton.

Inserted into bat by Morton, Holy Cross recovered well (after the early wicket of Keith Fraser) and pushed to around 60 after 10 overs. Although not capitalizing fully on this position Holy Cross got to a respectable total of around 125, helped by thirty odds from Owais and Charlie and a very elegant 18 not out from Vikram. Highlights of the innings included 2 towering sixes from Owais which was a sign of the pyrotechnics to come later in the day!

The instructions for the second half were to bowl quick and straight in the search for early wickets and ‘Aussie Pat’ duly obliged with a season best of 5-4 off his 4 overs! After Morton’s top order had been ransacked the result was never really in doubt but some good catches and disciplined support bowling meant that Morton were dismissed for around 60. While this was a resounding win for Holy X credit must also go to Morton for the spirit they showed and the variety and skill of (in particular) their bowling attack.

This not only led us into the finals against Marchmont but also to a hearty tea which included prawns which were devoured with remorseless vigour by c.g.j mcgill (I was impressed)! Captain E. C Smith then repeated his ‘tactic’ of losing the toss and we again found ourselves inserted onto a quickish (but lowish) Myreside track. What then happened was a stellar batting effort spearheaded by Owais who moved to fifty not out off around 10 overs, leaving the score at around 75-1. At this point Owais began to struggle with a leg injury but that did not prevent him carving a succession of Marchmont bowlers for 4’s and 6’s to all corners of the ground. It truly was a majestic effort and he found able support in the form of Pickering, C, Ellis and Keith Fraser, with Holy Cross closing their innings on 152-3.

While we knew this was a score that was around fifteen runs over par we were also aware of the threat posed by a Marchmont side which included recent recruits to support the experience of Collier, MacGregor and Sardesai. McGregor and Collier got off to a solid start and hit enough 4’s to make sure they were not too far behind the rate after the first few overs. However, a good catch on the boundary by Keith (from the bowling of Shannon) brought top league run scorer Matt Loeffen to the crease. The danger man was keen to get on with things and could have found himself run out early on before he started to pepper the boundary - Mazher style! The overseas man got to 36 in triple quick time but a good catch by Charlie, off the bowling of Dougie, saw him dismissed around the same time as MacGregor – with the score on around 75-3 off 11 overs.

Although slightly behind the rate, at this point, the experienced Sardesai manipulated the ball well behind square and made sure his team were not too far behind the curve. However, he was out going for one shot too many and his dismissal brought captain Sam Peachey to the crease with 60 needed off the last 6 overs. The captain produced an extraordinarily composed innings and resisted the temptation to go for suicide runs, whilst still pushing the Holy Cross fielding to its limits. He also started to find the boundary with increasing regularity and his potence was such that the Marchmont men required only 9 to win off the last over.

Aussie pat was given the task of dragging the impetus back in our direction and produced some fine deliveries under pressure. However, he was very unlucky to see an inside and outside edge cost 6 runs off two balls and a rushed leg bye left Marchmont one run off victory with one ball remaining. Pat then produced an exceptional delivery which was too good for the batsman (and the stumps) but Marchmont pushed through for the run with Simon’s throw missing the stumps by about an inch.

This was an incredibly exciting game played in the best of spirits and congratulations must go to Marchmont for a thrilling run chase! While there was no official man of the match award this surely would have gone to Owais whose innings of 93* was stamped full of swashbuckling quality.

Thanks also to the organisors of the tournament and to Colin McGill for doing the scoring in both matches. One that we will have to reluctantly put down to experience and take what we can out of in advance of Wednesday. Little doubt that if we produce the same sort of performance on Wednesday we should get the right result to reward us for what has been a very good season!

As with Sunday, all supporters are welcome with the game starting at 17:45 at Newfield…

Brief Evening News report here.