2016 Masterton T20 Draw

Hi chaps,

PVB sent through the draw for the Masterton T20 last night and as you'll see, a number of the big guns have been drawn against each other in round 1!

West Lothian v Livingston

Holy Cross v Edinburgh Accies

Mdafs v RH Corstorphine

Marchmont v S&S Penicuik

Edinburgh v Morton

Mazars Grange v Watsonians

Carlton v Heriots

SMRH v Edinburgh South

Cheers,

Skip

Season 2016 dates

Morning all,

If you've not see it, here is a message from Lord Admin;

Dear All,

Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year.

The club agm will be held at Arbo on Sunday 7^th February at 5pm.

Winter nets will be held at the Academy Sports Centre on Arboretum Road on the following dates –

·         Sunday 6^th March, 10-12.

·         Saturday 12^th March, 12-2.

·         Sunday 20^th March, 10-12.

·         Sunday 3^rd April, 10-12.

·         Sunday 10^th April, 10-12.

·         Sunday 17^th April, 10-12.

The League season starts on Saturday 30^th April.

Thanks,

Jon.

Dorset Tour 2000 - An Old Git Remembers

Since there has recently been some reminiscence of the club's 50th anniversary tour to the South, I have dusted off a few grainy old photos which I didn't even realise I had.  There follows a short photo-journal documenting three of the four games as well as some of the 'recreations' and 'characters' to be found on tour.  It should be remembered that there is no such thing as a bad cricket tour - they are all hilarious in their own way.  This one was a doozey.

Hambledon, Hampshire:  The Cradle of Cricket.  Two of the club's elder statesmen absorb the atmosphere of the mythical Broadhalfpenny Down.  The Bat and Ball supplied the opposition.  Oddly their opening bowlers didn't have the physique of regulars.

The tour party.  Even at 2.00 we were late starting.

Eeyore and the Duchess of Bradley take the hallowed field - the first time a Scottish Club has ever played at Hambledon.

Meanwhile the rest of us soaked up the ambience.  After some early wickets I splintered the sightscreen on the way to a bloodcurdling half-ton against the second string.  A handy partnership with Euan took us to a respectable score.

Hambledon:  a ground steeped in history...

...beauty...

...and melancholy.

Sadly or luckily, rain spared us the inevitable cuffing, but that meant an early start in the Bat and Ball.  Great mirth - even Broon was seeing the funny side.

Also the brothers Palmer and King Kerr.

Must have been one of Nick Fisher's bons mots.

Chuckie dishes out the fines.  All revenues were used for charitable purposes, i.e. they were put straight over the bar.

.

Next day in picturesque West Bay, Bridport

I think this is Calum.  It's certainly not me.  Not his last ducking of the tour.

I send Dr. Astley to walk off my hangover.

A local sea dog scans the horizon for treasure ships.

The joys of the seaside.  I believe this was the day we were due to play Palmer's Brewery, following a tour of the brewery itself at 11.00.  Colin and I couldn't manage the early start so instead had a lie-in before having a plate of cold mussels, followed by a shot on the dodgems and a spin on the centrifuge at the fairground.  What better way to start the day?

North Perrott, Somerset.  "It's nice".  "Yes, too nice,"  "Have you seen the far boundary".  "No.  Pass the binoculars.  Crikey, it's in Dorset"

HCACC XI and Palmer's Brewery XI.

B. Palmer (ours, not theirs) evades a hostile volley.  His remonstrations received short shrift from the oppo, who appeared to be targeting his panama.  I think someone ran a five to that boundary. Not Brian though.

Euan gets his marching orders.

B. Palmer simulates having had an energetic match by taking a very, very hot shower.  The much cooler character in the suit is Mr. Cleeves Palmer of Palmer's Brewery.  I had hit another 50 that day:  44 runs through second slip and a six onto the roof of Mr. Cleeves Palmer's Volvo.  "Sorry to have dented your Volvo," I crowed.  "Not to worry - I'm trading it in this weekend for an Aston Martin."   Bastard.

E. Smith and Nick Fisher model the "Madchester" look popular among the yoof of the period.

Pitch inspection at Powerstock, Dorset.  Astley determines precisely where to locate his landmine.  Lord Admin saunters by.

The quaint village of Powerstock, including the Medieval church visited by one penitent pilgrim that day.  Having opened without troubling the scorers, Calum Smith left the ground in an epic strop for over an hour, during which he paid a visit to inform the angels that there was no f*cking way he was LBW.

The changing facilities at Powerstock.  Not sure who's behind the lens here.  Perhaps he was trying to obscure my identity.  Perhaps he should have noticed the message on the boot of the car.

Astley tries to locate the middle.  Waste of time.

With Broon as skipper we began amassing a solid total.  And continued.  On and on we batted.  And on.  Deaf to the entreaties of his team-mates he withheld our declaration until all hope of  a close game had been completely vaporized.

The fielder in the foreground would soon be hospitalised when Astley activated the landmine he'd planted on a length.  The next ball, to the new batsman who had organised the game and the teas and had missed his wife's birthday to play us, landed in the very crater made by its detonation and literally burrowed its way to the base of middle stump.

Palmer, a study in concentration.  Kerr, a study in relaxation.  It couldn't be any other way.

Yes, that's McGill in a tie, and he wasn't even getting married.

The evening's activities begin.  The smartness was due to our appointment at Arthur's, Bridport's celebrated seafood restaurant, where Colin amused the waitress immensely by ordering one main course, two starters and three bottles of wine.

Dr. Bradley savours the unfamiliar sensation of warm evening sunshine.  Or perhaps he was letting one go - by this stage of the tour the minibus was beginning to take on the miasma of Bombay pokey.

Broon, flushed with the kind of joy that can only be obtained by inflicting a 150-run draw on a friendly village team.  Bless.

Finally a pictorial composition of which Rembrandt would have been proud:  Last Night of the Dorset Tour, 2000.

KF on the 2015 Ashes (part 1 of 1)

Rejoice!!! Fans of the seminal erstwhile series 'KF on the Ashes' can sook from my proverbial cricketing teats once more.

I know, I know, the highlight of your Ashes series are my dynamite Ashes waffles. A series of comment pieces veering from incoherence to searing insight and very quickly back again.

I take this opportunity to welcome myself back to the pages of our esteemed/knackered old website and hope your time reading this is not totally wasted!!! My time writing it certainly was!!!

Since starting a job that keeps me down the pit 23 hours a day, 6 days a week, my opportunities for playing and watching our beguiling sport have become rather limited. I've not watched more than a few minutes of this series live, but have caught all the highlights on council telly and listened to a fair amount of slavering from the Anachronistas on TMS.

This adequately qualifies me to load up the old scattergun, fail to take proper aim and begin spraying grapeshot indiscriminately. Where to begin?

I suppose the short summation of the 2015 series would simply read 'inconsistency and unpredictability'.

The closest match was a 169 run margin.

1st Test - Eng win by 169 runs

2nd Test - Aus win by 405 runs
3rd Test - Eng win by 8 wkts

4th Test - Eng win by an innings & 78 runs

5th Test - Aus win by an innings & 46 runs

England won the series, as the home team usually does. Quelle surprise amongst most of my favourite easy targets, the commentators, who mostly backed the Ozsters pre-series.

Here and now I predict Australia will win back the Ashes down there the next time.

What transpired isn't what anyone understands to be proper Test cricket. I'm not saying what we got was better or worse than the 'proper' way. Indeed, I'd say we're simply witnessing a change in cricketing era. It will have good points and bad. Don't fear change, embrace it I say (are you listening No voters, ha, no doubt more of this sort of stuff later, but just remember, vote Yes next time).

For a while there Test cricket was treated to the odd session where a maverick like Sehwag or Gilchrist would shake things up by hitting two balls in the same over for 6. Two overs in a row. It seems things have turned full circle. The curiosity now is the innings-building, leaver-of-the-ball. We were even just 10.2 overs shy of a seeing two day Test. So much for the argument in favour of 4 day Tests, they're currently barely lasting 3 (when typing this paragraph, away off in the distance I can hear Smudger rumbling something like 'bring back the bloody draw').

The easiest ways to explain this of course are the emergence of big money 20/20 tournaments, better bats and contractions of boundary ropes (think I heard that Bradman only hit two sixes in his Test career, totally over rated obviously, indeed I see on Wiki his best bowling was just 3-35, giving me the chance to repeat my figures of 4-3 just this season and still not a single peep from CricketScotland).

Within all this lie Australia's fundamental weaknesses. The basic organisation and cohesion of Australian cricket just doesn't seem to be there. Firstly, the pool of under 35 talent to choose from is shallow. Then the selectors make incoherent selections in which the captain seems to have little say. Lets look at the visiting skipper.

"At 4 there is a patently unfit Michael Clarke"

KF on the Ashes 2010-11: (Part 1) - England Win the Ashes! 04/12/10

Clarke is a shadow of the player he was/could have been, primarily due to injury. I was telling the Aussie selectors years ago to pick fit players. But they know best. That Clarke has played when nowhere near fit displays both his own can-do attitude and the lack of fit or able alternatives. I think his decision-making has been quite average with his retirement looming inevitably causing some distraction (eg his review after nicking it).

But, and this is a big but, the Phil Hughes tragedy also appears to have taken its toll on Clarke. When one person primarily shoulders the burden of a national sporting tragedy, how can any normal measurement apply to their subsequent sporting performance? His demeanour these last few months is very reminiscent for me of the way Kenny Dalglish shouldered so much of the burden after Hillsborough. Clarke's retirement has been overdue I think, but he's more than earned it and now deserves to rest his body and mind as much as anyone.

Going forward without Clarke and Rogers (and Harris) and hearing precious little banging on the door, you wonder what the future holds for Australia. But is it really so bad? A 3-2 defeat in seemingly alien conditions.

Lyon is an able spinner for any Test team. Johnson, Starc, Hazlewood, Siddle & M Marsh give them tidy bowling options with Cummins also in contention. Nevill hasnt done much wrong (as opposed to the always whinging Haddin who obviously dropped the Ashes (Root on 0 in the first Test) then created backroom unrest when fairly dropped, team game mate, get over it).

Its the batting they need to sort. Warner and Smith have the ability to obliterate attacks in no time, but who else? Watson and Voges are 34 & 35, but even with this imperfect pair they'd still need two more batters just to field a top 6. S Marsh might eventually step up, but we're already clutching at straws. S Undries did well in the 4th Test, but not heard from him since. Where is that Nathan Agar these days?

England on the other hand seem quite settled. Cook has deflected most captaincy criticism for the time being alhough I think he's no better than average as an on field skipper, a role woefully under rated at the top level. Cook handing Australia the Oval Test a good example. Everyone knows why he chose to bowl, but he shouldn't have. Here is me six years ago;

"How on earth can teams, in such supposedly enlightened times, have absolutely no clue how to read conditions? I plead now for any qualified academic’s out there to get a PhD arranged to look into this. It might even be as simple as just procuring a barometer. "

KF on the Ashes p4 12/08/09

Alex Tudor told me via the radio that during his 9 years at the Oval, no matter what, it was ALWAYS a bat first pitch. Cooky bowls. England lose. Hardly mentioned. Criminal.

Elsewhere Root has been wonderful and always provides some immature mirth due to the antipodean connotations with his name. If only England could uncover a Jack Pump, Harry Jump or Julian Onenightstand to keep the theme going.

Moeen Ali is a real pleasure to watch while Broad and Anderson have been their usual selves, superb when conditions suit, humpty when they don't.

Two looming problems are the 'other' opening slot where Lyth will obviously struggle to continue. And a spinner. More on this in a minute.

Only two points left for anyone still reading!!!

I’m sure the use of ‘technology’ will force players to play more fairly, a process I think has already started. Surely a good thing. Bottom line is that more correct decisions are being made, games aren’t being spoiled by howlers from the umpires and players are in the main being forced to be more honest or being exposed when they aren’t"

KF on the Ashes 2010-11: (Part 4) - World Domination Beckons 08/01/11

DRS is proving to be excellent. Umpires seem to make less bad decisions. Matches are not unduly affected by wrong calls. And maybe most importantly, players behaviour, almost unnoticed, has markedly improved. You never see bowlers screaming and charging at the umpire any more. There is simply no advantage to be gained by it.

Further improvements I'd really like to see is where for instance an umpires not out call is upheld when the ball is shown to be 'only' 49% hitting the stumps, this should surely be out. Or at the very least a team shouldn't lose a review. If a ball is reasonably predicted to hit a stump reasonably enough to dislodge the bails, it should be out. Yes there was enough doubt for the ump to say not out, but Hawkeye predicts the likelihood it would have been out, so out it should be.

Lastly, looking forward for England, they're off to be trounced in the desert by Pakistan. The series will be lost the instant they announce their squad. It won't have the tools required to win. Namely spinners.

Pakistan will pick 2 or 3 average spinners (in their XI) who will tear England to shreds. England will start the series with Moeen Ali as their only spinner. The seamers will take none for plenty. Maybe in the second test, but probably not that soon, England will pick a second spinner. Still too little, too late. This is not rocket science, I leave you with my final dredged up quote from a previous blog.

"I'll make my view crystal clear. The four best spin bowlers in England right now should be in that Test XI. There is no sane argument against this. Not sure about that I hear you insanely say. OK. Chew on these series aggregates for the England bowlers in India so far:

(Overs/Maidens/Runs/Wickets)
Seamers   96   14   354    2   (r/r - 3.69, s/r 1 wkt every 288 balls)
Spinners  154  25   421   12  (r/r - 2.73, s/r 1 wkt every 77 balls)

If they played four spinners and they performed to those averages (those spin stats include part timers Patel & Pietersen too) and then someone said 'bring back Broad, Bresnan and Anderson in place of these keepin-it-tight-wicket-takers, you'd be locked up. And yet, that's where we seem to be.
One Spinner or Two - 23/11/12

Whatever happens, just remember, don't blame me, I voted Yes so what do I know!!!!! Tony Blair wouldn't listen, Jim Murphy was never going to listen, Cameron certainly won't listen, gadzooks, I even thought Coulson was guil...

Thats enough for now, go back to sleep - Lord Admin.

League Weekend 17

Saturday's fixtures -

• 1sts vs Murrayfield-DAFS, at Arbo, noon start.
• 2nds vs Watsonians 3rds, at Craiglockhart, 1pm start.
• 3rds vs RHC 3rds, home on the Inverleith Park arti.

Largo Conquer Arbo - 2s Lose

We lost the toss and were put in. If I'd been asked on, say, Thursday night, I'd probably have taken 189 for 4. I certainly would have once I'd seen the cracks in the track. But it proved not to be enough - Bob Mowat, clearly a better judge than me, said later that Largo would have been very happy with any score under 200.

Every batsman got a start and Owais (34)  and Alex (37) in particular looked like they might have a big innings in them but, until an undefeated stand of 58 between Vik (38 no) and Quinny (21 no) at over seven an over, we never quite got going. Which is a bit of a mystery. The pitch, for all the cracks, played true. Indeed both Owais and JB contrived to get out to full tosses. But we struggled to get on top of the Largo bowling, with the Baddeleys particularly effective (9-0-34-2 and 9-3-32-0 in order of seniority). It was all rather frustrating and TJ was sufficiently disorientated that he was mystified when given out stumped by two yards and had to retire to a far corner with a beer to regain his usual equanimity.

Largo's reply was rather more businesslike than our effort, more or less up with the run rate for the first dozen overs. We began to squeeze the required rate up a bit with JB (9-1-27-2) and Elmo bowling in tandem and with 17 overs remaining and Dom Coates out for a good 51, Largo needed 5 an over. They got there with three overs to spare thanks to a very good fifth wicket stand between Ben Coates (62 no) and Chris Barclay (22 no).

As usual it was a pleasure to play Largo. We wish them well for the rest of the season, although not too well as losing leaves us looking over our shoulders and even keener for Glenrothes to win the East play-off. Still, our fate remains in our own hands - a win against Watsonians on Saturday would be very handy.

PS - Broon often refers to Arbo as "the Fortress" in his tweets. He may need to find an alternative, at least when the 2s are playing at home. Four of our five wins this season have been on the road. "Arbodise" has a nice ring to it .....

2015 Active Edinburgh Finals

After a comfortable win earlier in the week, Holy Cross took on MDAFS on finals day on Sunday 9th August.

With the usual Holy Cross availability issues, we went from having 13 names last week to 10 men confirmed on Saturday evening, then to get a txt from KF at 11:32am on Sunday asking if we had 12 men available, as he was severely hungover, typified this seasons unavailability.

Luckily Owais had popped down to watch and quickly raced home to drop off his son and get his kit!

First up was MDAFS in the semi-final. Winning the toss, it was an easy decision to bat first on what looked to be a quality wicket at Myreside. We put on 136-5, with every man getting in to double figures – Zia with 39, Raja 27 and Kashif 21. Calamity struck off the last ball when Bacon turned to come back for a second. He crumpled to the ground faster than Dougie walking around the boundary playing boundary golf! The early prognosis wasn’t looking good, could that be a season ending injury…

Kashif picked up a 3 early wickets, as well as us getting a suicide run out, which left MDAFS struggling at 29-4 at the end of the 6^th over. Charlie came in to the attack and gave me some catching practice at deep mid-on, leading to me dropping an absolute sitter. 2 balls later, I managed to hold on to the next one, which required a lot more running and distance to be covered.

MDAFS then mounted a mini comeback, but with 7 wickets down and 38 required from just 18 balls, they were always going to struggle. The final 3 wickets were shared between Raja, Charlie and myself. MDAFS all out for 110 in the 19^th over.

 

The final would see us coming up against Saturday’s Championship foe, Edinburgh CC.

Another toss won, Holy Cross were to set Edinburgh CC a target to try and chase down in the final.

Raja and myself got off to a good start, 23-0 at the end of the 4^th over. After a lovely boundary, Raja then chipped one straight to mid-off, out for 18 in only the 5^th over. Zia and then myself donated our wickets, hitting boundary balls straight to a fielder, Holy Cross stuttering to 40-3!

Kashif blasted some quick runs and was then caught in similar fashion, 66-4 off just 8.3!

Charlie took over and batted superbly. Thanks must go to the ECB’s Steven Finn, as Charlie was caught out off a no-ball after Razak’s slinging action had displaced the bails during his delivery stride. KF came and went for 2. Dougie was next man out, hitting a well-paced 20 and took us through to 114-6. Charlie batted extremely well and finished with 39 (ish), which included a big 6 off the last ball of the innings to take the Cross to a defendable total of 134-7!

Again Kashif started us off on the right foot, taking 2 wickets in the 2^nd over, Edinburgh CC slumping to 15-2! With fielding restriction in place for the first 6 overs, I struggled a bit and leaked several boundaries. The 3^rd wicket partnership raced to 56 before a disastrous run out – 56-3.

In the 9^th over Charlie took the 4^th wicket, courtesy of a very good catch from Euan, Edinburgh CC now 56-4. Some late hitting and another spilled catch by myself, which took one bounce before crossing the rope, saw Edinburgh CC reach 99-7 with 5 overs remaining. 36 required of 30 balls, it was going to be tight!

Zia removed his keeping pads and took a critical wicket in his first over, 115-9. With 2 overs to go and one wicket remaining, Dougie bowled a great over that included 3 dot balls, meaning Edinburgh CC would require 11 to win off the last 6 balls.

7 runs were taken off the first 4 deliveries from Zia’s over, which took it down to the wire. Off the fifth ball the batsman missed, Euan fumbled behind the wicket and the non-striker took off. Euan calmly collected the ball and rolled it back to Zia who took off the bails at the non-strickers end, the umpires finger went up and that was all folks, Holy Cross were 2015 Active Edinburgh Champions!

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the guys who played in the game’s leading up to and on finals day. By my calculation we used a grand total of 20 players over the 4 games, many who were from outside of the 1^st XI squad!

It’s that sort of contribution that to me epitomises Holy Cross! A bunch of guys who perhaps don’t have the skill or flashy 1 day coloured uniforms other clubs have, but still willing to give it their all. As skipper, I loved the fact that every guy on the field put in 100%, even those who were half crocked by the time the final came around on Sunday!

All in all, the day was a brilliant experience and a real team effort. Yes there were a number of guys making significant contributions at critical points in both games, but as a whole we won as a team!

I’d also like to mention the contributions of Costal and Elmondt, who both stepped up to play in the quarter final and then again in the semi-final on Sunday! Thanks also to Quinny who answered an 11^th hour call to play in the final, as he fielded particularly well and made some vital saved on the boundary. Without you guys, I have no doubt that we probably wouldn’t have made the semi-final let alone have gone on to be champions without your efforts!

I look forward to celebrating the win with you all at the awards evening on the 22^nd August in the Green Room (more to follow from JB on that subject)!

Cheers,

One very happy Skip J