2011 Under Way!
As promised – junior practice sessions are up and running again, and Scotland’s future XIs are shaping up!
Some of our young ladies ….
… and some of our young guns.
Tomorrow (Sunday 24th) should have seen us with a friendly against Rossie Priory, but sadly, they can’t manage to come and we have just had news that our attempts to get another club here have fallen through. Roll on next Saturday when we’ll see some cricket!
Technorati Tags: Freuchie Cricket Club, junior cricket, junior training
Great News on Coaching
We have just heard that we are to be awarded a substantial grant from Cricket Scotland under its “Investment in Club Coaches” scheme. To put it mildly, we are delighted! Our own Dave Christie will undertake the role of Head Coach, guiding the efforts of all our qualified coaches and assistants.
The scheme is part of Cricket Scotland’s efforts to have clubs investing in coaching and better facilities, rather than simply bringing in ‘hit men’ to win matches. Long term growth, rather than short term league positions – we think that has to the target for our club, and we are – to repeat – delighted, both that Cricket Scotland is taking this practical approach and that we should be direct beneficiaries.
We know that the future of our club depends on bringing our youngsters through to the senior teams, and this grant will be a major boost to our efforts. Indoor practices for juniors have already started and outdoor sessions will begin on Fridays as soon as evening light is good enough. In the last few years, we have been seeing 70 to 80 kids in the park on Fridays, and this grant will let us do even more for them than we have been doing. For more information, email info@freuchiecricketclub.com.
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, coaching, youth training, Cricket, Cricket Scotland
2011 Playing Matters
Indoor nets are planned to start at St Andrews School in Kirkcaldy on Friday 28th January, from 5 to 7 pm. They will run for eleven weeks, which should see us into outdoor practice sessions.
Dave Cowan (the Coo) takes over as captain, with Michael Jackson (Jacko) as vice captain. Second XI appointments have still to be made.
We are planning that Junaid Mahsood will be back with us this year as fast bowler and coach – arrangements are well under way.
We will be competing in the Indoor Sixes tournament again this year – first fixture Friday 21st January.
Great news: There had been a threat that the Strathmore Union would bring in a rule that no player might take part in a Division III game if he had played in two SNCL fixtures. We think that would have made it impossible for us to continue in this league, which would be a huge loss to our junior development plans. It’s great to report that the move was rejected at the Union AGM on Sunday past.
And just to remind about a few things from the end of 2010 -
Ross, Grant, Joe, Blair and Galzo, some of the 2010 trophy winners
……….. and some of the revellers at the Hogmanay hooley
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Scottish Media Indoor Sixes
Not ‘Glorious’ – FABULOUS!
This was billed as ‘Freuchie’s Glorious Weekend.’ As it turned out, ‘glorious’ didn’t do it justice. If there’s any truth in the old crack that a Scotsman’s highest praise is “no’ bad,” this was indeed – no’ bad!
One of the main features of Saturday’s Family Fun Day was the official opening of the new Sports Court, even if it’s likely to retain its now unofficial title of ‘the MUGA.’
‘Taster Sessions’ were on offer – was that not supposed to be about sampling the sporting activities rather than scran?
Patrick Laughlin, Chairman of Freuchie Community Council, kicks off the MUGA opening ceremony whilst Dave Christie and Cllr Andrew Arbuckle wait nervously for their parts to come…
Dave Christie cuts the ceremonial ribbon ably assisted by Cllr Andrew Arbuckle and Mr 60 Minutes, whilst every kid in Freuchie enthusiastically crowds around.
Freuchie Cricket Club coaches teach key skills to our youngsters during the Kwik Cricket Taster session.
The activity tents with Freuchie Church as a back drop.
The new Player’s Disciplinary Unit? Or the new dressing rooms?
Just Chillin’ in the Freuchie sunshine
Great crowds, great weather and good fun all round.
Sunday was more about cricket, with a T20 game against Falkland and the official launch of our book “Freuchie Cricket Club, 1908 – 2008.” Events were opened by Sir Menzies Campbell, attention initially divided between the cricket and a ceremonial tree-planting in the school playground to commemorate the thirteen players in the Lord’s squad. No less than nine of them were at the ceremony.
Sir Menzies Campbell opens events on the Sunday
….. but what on earth is Coo looking at?
“And dae ye mind yon time ….?
The closing ceremony with Sir Menzies Campbell, our president Ian Paterson, the irreplaceable Dave Christie and Cricket Scotland president Bob ‘Faff’ McFarlane.
We’re betting this blanket has a story or two to tell…
Like so many days of the kind, it’s hard to do justice to all the people who worked to make this weekend what it was, but we have to mention Helen Lawrenson and her team for much of Saturday’s events, Rachel and Dave Tosh for the catering, our bar staff, the players who ran Saturday’s sports for the kids, Falkland Cricket Club for joining us on the Sunday, Liz Smith MSP, Sir Menzies Campbell MP, our local councillors and Bob McFarlane, Scott McCrone for ‘The Book,’ (all but five of our fifty copies already spoken for) Jock and Black Light for the Lord’s video display – the list just goes on and on. And we finished the day with a win over our old rivals, Falkland. What more could a body ask for!
Over the next few days we’ll be adding more blog posts with even more photos and commentary from the weekend.
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland, Falkland Cricket Club, Liz Smith, Menzies Campbell, MUGA, Scott McCrone
Teams for 22/23 May
Saturday 22nd, First XI at home Corstorphine – meet at 11.15
Scott Galloway, Dave Cowan, Scott Birrell, Robbie Birrell, Scott Gourlay, Dale Cowan, Steve Rowley, Jock Wallace, Mike Jackson, Liam Kelly, Stewart Gibson
Saturday 22nd, Seconds away to Marchmont, meet at 10.30
Blair Forrester, Alan Wallace, Robbie Wright, Shane Munro, Lee Duncan, Grant Horsburgh, Ross McMurdo, Rory Brown, Chris Hunt, Blair Lawrie, AN Other
Sunday 23rd, Third XI at home to Kinross, meet at 11.30
Dave Cowan, Scott Galloway, Greg Birrell, James Fretwell, Shane Munro, Robbie Wright, Rory Brown, Grant Horsburgh, Max Brown, Liam Kelly, Ross McMurdo
Technorati Tags: cricket, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Corstorphine, Marchmont, Kinross
Three Out Of Three
I like to think that my personal outlook is ‘generally optimistic.’ However, when it comes to matches – of any kind – where I have any sort of interest in the outcome, my hopes for success for a given side or player seem often to be the kiss of death.
But this weekend? Wow! On Saturday, Galzo and his men beat SMRH by three wickets. Kenny and his crew beat Corstorphine and Galzo and his lads beat Breadalbane on Sunday. It would be hard to say which of these results gives most satisfaction, but I’ll have a go at that in a minute.
A ‘five for’ for Steve Rowley – 5 for 20, no less, plus 3 for 16 for Scottie Birrell led to SMRH all out for 114. Stevo was also top scorer with 33 not out, Galzo close behind him with 32. It would have been good to have lost fewer than 7 wickets, but there was a lot of criticism of the pitch. Max points for the lads, though, and Stevo has to be man of he match.
Meantime, at home, Corstorphine had compiled 233 for 6 off 50 overs, a pretty daunting target. However, Jock Wallace got 52, Lee Duncan a magnificent 108 not out (his first century) while Robbie Wright weighed in with 26. We finished with 234 for 6 of 40.2 overs. The only downside was that Alan Duncan – Lee’s dad – retired hurt. Speedy recovery, Duffer.
On Sunday a mixed team visited Breadalbane. We would have had more young lads in the side had there not been a U15 match scheduled for the day (which in the end did not take place). Our aim in seeking entry to the Strathmore Union is to get more competitive cricket for our younger players, and on this showing, it’s going to work out really well. Everyone had a good time (well, almost everyone) while the like of Liam Kelly and Chris Hunt got a chance to show what they are made of. “I didn’t realise how good these guys are!” said Galzo. May be too soon to say that this is a plan that will deliver what we are after, but so far, so good.
Tough to pick what has pleased me most, but my pick is the Third XI outcome – not just the result, but the involvement for our promising juniors.
RESOURCE
Cricket Scotland result service for the SMRH v Freuchie match.
Technorati Tags: Cricket Scotland, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, cricket, SMRH, Corstorphine, Breadalbane
Year-End News
Two bits of good news. First, Galzo, Allan Baxter and I attended last night’s Strathmore Union AGM, where Freuchie was elected to join the Union. Second, we know that we are entered for the Indoor Sixes starting in January.
Strathmore Union first: We applied to join Division III of the Union with the aim of getting Sunday games giving more development opportunities for our juniors. We have a lot of promising juniors who are not quite at the stage of a guaranteed place in the Second XI and they need competitive matches to keep them involved and develop their playing skills. We’ll be aiming to field as many as possible of our older juniors, with a sprinkling of senior players to give the team some weight. Three clubs had applied to join the Union, Gordonians seeking to get back into the Union, ourselves and Stenhousemuir keen to get into Division III. Gordonians will go back into Division II; the vote went against Stenhousemuir, leaving the three of us biting our nails for a few minutes, but we were delighted to see a near-unanimous vote in our favour. We’ll report further as plans develop.
Indoor Sixes: We were bitterly disappointed not to participate in this tournament in 2009; invitations were sent by e-mail, and for some reason, we never received ours. By the time we realised that the draw had been made, it was too late for any adjustments. However, Cricket Scotland confirmed today that we are indeed in the draw for the 2010 competition. More to come on that one too.
AND THE AGM! Don’t forget that this is in the clubhouse at 2.30 pm on Sunday 6th December. All members – players especially – are urged to come, members of the public cordially invited.
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Strathmore Union, Scottish Media Indoor Sixes
Trophy Winners
Congratulations to all the Freuchie Cricket Club trophy winners this year.
1st X1 Winners 2009
Strathie Cup-Batting Average. Robbie Birrell
Freuchie CC Cup-Batting Aggregate. Robbie Birrell
Dryden Trophy-Bowling Average. David Cowan
David Smart Memorial Cup-Best Fielder. John Wallace
McHugh Trophy-Most Vital Innings. Robbie Birrell 95 not out V Dumfries
Andrew Grant Trophy-Best Catch. John Wallace
G.D Crichton Cup-Players Player Of The Year. Scott Galloway
2nd X1 Winners 2009
Freuchie CC Cup-Batting Average. Blair Forrester
Ceilidh Cup-Batting Aggregate. Blair Forrester
Freuchie CC Cup-Bowling Average. Graham Christie
Christie Trophy-Best Fielder. Shane Munro
Dick Morrison Memorial Cup Player’s Player of the Year Blair Forrester
Juniors 2009-09-07
David Robertson Cup Best Bat Shane Munro
Coughlan Trophy Best Bowler Liam Kelly
Christie Trophy Best Fielder Ross McMurdo
Nett Cowan Best Fielder Chris Hunt
Melville Cup Most Promising Junior Corey Bridgeford
Best Performance of the Season 5 wickets for 6 runs from 4 overs Greg Birrell
Fraser Irvine Shield Under 13 Player Ross McMurdo
Edmonds Shield Under 15 Player Liam Kelly
Roy Irvine Shield Under 17 Player Shane Munro
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, trophy winners
Captain’s Corner
Unfortunately we were undone on Saturday by a very controversial Umpiring decision which cost us the game! Scorecard is here.
Renfrew batted first and scored 219 on a very good batting track. Some wayward bowling and fielding again gave them at least 30 runs more than they should have gotten. Myself and Stevie Rowley got off to a great start putting on 70+ for the first wicket, Stevie went on to make over 70 runs himself. However once again our batting failed to dominate the bowlers until Dave Cowan came in to change the game, very nearly taking us all the way to victory. That was until he was given a very dubious LBW with 6 runs left to win the game, well within his capability as there were 8 balls remaining.
This week will be another very hard game as we are in the capital playing Edinburgh who’s batsmen are renowned for going for their shots. Should be an interesting day!
Sunday we were on Scottish Cup duty at Dunfermline Knights, once again we came up short. Dunfermline’s professional, Alistair Gray, was a quality player and took the game away from us with an accomplished innings of 80+ not out. Freuchie won the toss and chose to bat first, we managed to make 196 in the 50 overs, probably 40 runs short of a competitive total, on a very good wicket. On the plus side the young lads, Dale Cowan and Robbie Wright, came into the side and did very well. Both bowling pretty tight spells against quality batsmen. A big learning curve for both of them. Hopefully we can get our revenge on Thursday night in the Fife Cup, which is being played again at Dunfermline.
Well done to the 2nd’s, who won their league game on Saturday against Leith. The boys are steadily climbing up the league and will be hoping for another win on Saturday against Edinburgh 2nd XI.
A wee mention to Greg Birrell, Ross McMurdo and Grant Horsburgh who will be representing Fife & Tayside under 12’s on Sunday at Freuchie, please come along and support them if you can.
Technorati Tags: Alistair Gray, Dale Cowan, Dunfermline Cricket Club, Dunfermline Knights, Edinburgh Cricket Club, Greg Birrell, Grant Horsburgh, Leith Cricket Club, Renfrew Cricket Club, Robbie Wright, Ross McMurdo, Stevie Rowley
Captain’s Corner
Sorry to say we were totally outplayed by Dumfries on Saturday, unfortunately it was the same as most games lost this season, not enough runs on the board and wayward bowling. The scorecard on the Cricket Scotland website says it all! There’s nothing more to say on this subject, we will now look ahead to this Saturday’s game against Weirs, which is a must win as they are currently below us in the league. We had to make a few changes this week again, Stewart Gibson and Alan Duncan make their debut for the 1st XI this year, we’ve brought them in for their vast experience. Andy Sutherland comes back in after having a good weekend with 2nd’s last week.
Well done to the 2nd XI who had another good win again on Saturday against Marchmont. The highlight of the day was Blair Forrester scoring the first century for the club this season. Keep up the good work lads.
They play Grange this week which will be another tough challenge for them, but once again they have a very strong side to travel to Edinburgh.
And finally, well done to the Under 11’s who beat Dunfermline last night. They played very well with all of them contributing to the win. Friday nights coaching is really starting to pay off and we are noticing a great improvement in the kids.
Technorati Tags: cricket. Dumfries Cricket Club, Dunfermline Cricket Club, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club