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

Known as The Three Commandos, these kilted (don’t ask) ruffians will break out from Perth Prison to make their way to a secret hide-out. Kenny (The Menace) Crichton, Dale (Youngcoo) Cowan and Michael Jackson (Jacko The Cracker) have fifteen hours to get to their destination, where their collars will be felt by the local polis to verify fact and time of arrival.

There will be a total of ten teams in the Jail Break, all operating under different constraints – can’t use any form of transport that uses fuel, mustn’t spend any money, mustn’t have a pint for two weeks before (all right, I made the last one up) or whatever. Trophies will be awarded to those who get furthest / have the fanciest destination / show most originality in modus operandi etc.

“Cui bono?” as they say in the better class of detective fiction. Who stands to gain by this criminal activity? The aim is to raise funds for the refurbishment of the Black Watch Museum in Perth, the event organised by Alan Duncan (oor Duffer) of the Grey Lodge Settlement in Dundee. (Grey Lodge works in all sorts of different ways to get help to people who need it and is a worthy cause in itself). In the case of The Three Commandos, half the money raised will go to the Black Watch Museum appeal, with half to Freuchie Cricket Club.

Get your hand in your pocket and your name on a sponsor sheet! There’s some behind the bar in the club, or speak to Duffer (07790 026 124), Kenny (07818 504 939), Mike (07800 691 059) or Dale (07716 317 948).

We are also looking for people who might be able to help in whatever way – accessories before or after the fact, as it were. Talk to one of these guys if you want a bit of previous against your name!

Technorati Tags: Black Watch, Perth, Perth Prison, Grey Lodge, Freuchie Cricket Club

There’s some concern about the state of the road round Lathrisk; it may have been all sorted by 2nd January, but if it’s not, we’ll do what we did last year and mark the worst of the pot holes with cones. We’ll try to get a better copy of the map for this post, but for the moment, Alan W’s note says:

Why are we racing?

Very good question! From the Cricket Club perspective; sponsorship, the events in the clubhouse during the day and the winter buffet disco at night, this event will raise a substantial sum for the Club funds. From a health perspective the race will allow us to burn off some of those Christmas Calories. From a realist perspective it’s a chance to toast the festive period in good company.

The Race

31½ Mile Relay Race

Each lap is 4½ miles

Each team should consist of one lady (the captain) and three guys. The captain will be required to complete one lap (the first lap), whilst the guys will be required to complete two laps each, therefore each team completes seven laps.

The Circuit

Teams

Each Team consists of four cyclists. Teams will be issued Team Numbers and cyclists will be issued with Letters.

For example Team one will have cyclist 1a (the Captain), 1b, 1c and 1d. For the purpose of timings it is important that cyclists remain in the ‘a to d’ order (first four laps) and ‘b to d’ order (laps five to seven).

Starting

Each lap will start and finish at Freuchie Cricket Club.

This year we have restricted the number of teams competing, so all the Captains will start at the same time.

The Bike

In the interest of fairness, racers are not permitted. Mountain bikes only. Maximum of two bikes per team.

Race Marshals

Volunteer Race Marshals will be positioned around the course. Marshals will record cyclist passing designated points ensuring that each lap is completed correctly, whilst ensuring that the cyclist can race safely. Cyclist must obey the Marshals orders at all time. Any instruction/decision given by the Marshals are final.

Age Restrictions

All cyclists must be aged 13 or over.

Protection

It is recommended that cyclists wear a helmet and high visibility clothing.

Refreshment and Beverages – For Cyclists and Spectators

The Clubhouse and facilities will be open from 11am. Cyclist and spectators are invited to watch the race from the Clubhouse. Soup, Pies and Sandwiches will be available and of course the drink will be flowing, as always everything is reasonably priced.

Prizes

Prizes will be awarded after the race for:

· The team that finishes first

· The team that finishes second

· The fastest individual Lap

· The team with the best name

Winners and ‘not quite winners’ will be announced after the race.

More Information

To enter a team, for more information or sponsor sheets please contact; Alan Wallace (07872 379 224), Robbie Birrell (07960 568 376) or Scott Gourlay (07882 904 765).

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Cricket Club, festive period events

I’d like to wish Ian Patterson all the best as President this year, he has been very supportive and I’m sure under his leadership Freuchie Cricket Club can move forward.

Saturday was our first game of the season, a friendly against Glenrothes Cricket Club. Unfortunately we lost by a mere 16 runs, due to some slack bowling and some bad shot selection by the batsmen. However, as it is our first game of the season we will not dwell too much on the result but rather look on the positives which were that all the batsmen spent some time at the crease and the bowlers all turned their arm over. Special mention must go to Jamie Macintosh who has committed himself to play for Freuchie this season and looks to be a very good addition to the playing staff.

Looking forward to next week as we are off to Huntly for a weekend of team building (and drinking!), we will definitely be joined by our amateur Dan Harper who arrives this week and we also hope that Mario Saliwa, our Pro, will also be here in time to join us. However we are still waiting on word back regarding his Visa to enter the county, we will keep you posted on this situation as it unfolds.

Regards

Robbie Birrell

Technorati Tags: Dan Harper, Dave Christie, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Glenrothes Cricket Club, Huntly, Ian Paterson, John Thomson, Mario Saliwa, Robbie Birrell, Scott Galloway

Membership subscriptions are due, so if you haven’t renewed yours …..

Courtesy of our sponsor, Black Light and the labour of our own Jock Wallace, we have shiny new disco kit, so look for sparkling discos from now on. Any apprentice DJs out there?

Cricket Scotland demands that all clubs playing in the senior leagues have a groundsman qualified to Level 1, and while Dave Christie has Level 2, it makes sense to have some back up. So Dave McIntosh is registered for an Institute of Groundsman course this month. Good on both Daves.

Race night this Saturday. Get up there and back a winner!

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland, Black Light, Dan Harper, Dave Christie, Dave McIntosh, Mario Saliwa, Scott Galloway

We had fifteen teams

Fastest race time was 1 hour 48 minutes 52 seconds

Fastest laps were 12 minutes 16 seconds and 12 minutes 20 seconds (from the rider of laps four and eight of the winning team)

These times compare with last year’s figures of 1 hour 50 minutes 26 seconds and fastest laps of 12 minutes 54 and 12 minutes 20, again from the rider of laps four and eight.

So our competitors are getting fitter ….. Well, some of them are. And chaps and chapesses, if you want to succeed in this event, you have to do something about this guy who is turning in these super-fast laps ….. A few drawing pins? A can of Instarust for his chain? Or just make him ride the bike that our unfortunate team of juniors was using – it wouldn’t be quite true to say that they spent more time trying to fix it than they did cycling it, but that’s not far off the mark.

And chapesses? A team of ten ladies had the fifth best start to finish time of the day at 2 hours and 34 seconds, although it has to be admitted that they completed five laps against the others’ eight. They went round in pairs, and if it looked a bit on the leisurely side at times, just be aware that at least two of the lap times beat some of the men’s.

We think we raised about £2,900 for our fund for Junior (and senior) coaching in 2009. Details to come. That’s a great, great effort from everyone, from organiser Alan Wallace to all the riders, all the marshals, the couple sitting in the car tracking times and shouting desperately “what number was that that just came in?”, the ladies with the soup and the pies, the spectators – everyone.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club

Freuchie Cricket Club would like to thank Campion Homes for their very generous kit sponsorship and show of support for our young players.

[Click on any photo to see it full size]

What is it they say about working with children and animals again? That can certainly be extended to photographing our younger cricketers! Hopefully, the weather will be kinder on another evening so we can attempt to take better photographs for all the proud parents to put on display.

Please use the Contact Us form if you are an enthusiast young cricketer that would like to be part of Freuchie Cricket Club.

Technorati Tags: Campion Homes, cricket, Fife, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, juniors

Freuchie Cricket Club is fortunate in having Roundtrip Solutions Limited as IT supplier and sponsor. John Thomson, MD of Roundtrip, earlier this week identified a serious compromise of the FETA website – the Forth Estuary Transport Authority, which provides information on the Forth Road Bridge. Details of the incident involving hackers redirecting visitors to a malware server in Turkey and John’s investigation of it are reported in today’s Scotsman.

We tend to think that taking guard has to do with lining up our bat with one or more of the stumps. If anything is needed to remind us that there are more forms of attack than what the other team’s bowlers can offer, this is it.

If you have visited the FETA website within the last few weeks then you may wish to read John’s analysis and suggestions for checking your computer.

Technorati Tags: Forth Road Bridge, Freuchie Cricket Club, hacking, Roundtrip Solutions, Scotsman

We’ve finally settled plans for The Centenary Whisky, which will be a cask-strength (46%) 12 year old single malt from Tomatin with our own label. The design of the label is just being finalised, the order is already placed and we should be getting delivery mid to late November.

We’ll have Centenary Ties as well; the design was agreed at the last meeting of your hard-working committee, and I’m proud to say I’ve got mine already. (Just to pay for it!)

We’ve also ordered some rather smart pens which will carry the legend Freuchie Cricket Club, Centenary Year, 2008, with forest green bodies and black ink. They’ll be with us in the next couple of weeks as well.

Christmas presents? Nae problem.

We are delighted to announce that Mrs Elspeth Skinner of Lathrisk House has undertaken to be one of our patrons. Details have still to be worked out, but her support will be invaluable and we’re hoping that we may be able to apply for a Sportsmatch award for one of our major projects. However, they’ve dished out all their cash for this year, so we’ll have to wait to see what can be done.

Plans for Mrs Skinner to meet with Dave Christie this morning didn’t work out, though, because he was away skiving. What? A dry morning and Dave not up the park? What’s his excuse? Answer: Dave has again been awarded the accolade of Scotland’s Grounsdman of the Year, and was off to Ingliston to view the flash ground-keeping machinery and be presented with his award. We are talking about the need to replace our aging outfield mower, and this was a chance to see what’s available. I was glad I was sitting down when Dave told me about costs, but Dave being Dave, he might have a work-around… More news soon.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Tomatin Distillery, Sportsmatch, Ingliston

MATCH ANALYSIS

Not sure which is which, but if last weekend’s collapse at Drumpelier was the “saw,” yesterday was surely the “see.”

At home to Forfarshire and hosting our Sponsors’ Day (lunch and a wee jolly as a “Thank You” to our sponsors), we were particularly anxious to put on a good show on Saturday. Forfarshire is a strong side, captained by Scotland skipper Ryan Watson, so we were worried about the possibility of him skelping the ball around our not-awfully-large park. However, he was caught by Robbie Birrell off Gibby’s bowling for 32 and Forfarshire were all out for 110 in 39.2 overs.

In reply, our opener Steve Rowley was looking good until he skied one, but his co-opener Robbie Birrell was joined by Jason, and that was the end of the visitors’ successes. Sengie finished 61 not out, Robbie 42 not out. Only downer is the news of a fairly serious knee ligament problem for Scott Galloway. He wasn’t playing and we hope he mends quickly.

Some photos from the play on Saturday.

Photo 1: Forfarshire bowler at full pelt

Photo 2: Freuchie’s Robbie Birrell puts in a great show

Photo 3: Forfarshire fielder watches as Jason Seng fends off another fast ball

Photo 4: Forfarshire fielder retrieves another Freuchie four ball from Albany Crescent 

Taken by John A Thomson 9th June 2007

One last photo, the all-conquering Freuchie team – they done us proud in front of our sponsors.

Photo 5: The victorious Freuchie 1st Team 

Left to right back row: Alan Wallace, Scott Gourlay, Jock Wallace (Alan’s big brother), Stewart Gibson, Robbie Mutch (South African amateur), Jason Seng, Kenny Crichton & Kris Glen.

Left to right front row; Scott Galloway, Steve Rowley, Scott Birrell, Alan Duncan (veteran of our 1985 Lord’s victory), Robbie Birrell (Scott’s twin) and Allan Baxter (who scores for Freuchie and for Scotland).

Photograph taken by Lawrence Peters (that’ll be why he not in it!)

You can request high quality versions of these photos by sending a request via the “Contact Us” form.

More photos can be viewed over at Cricket Scotland.

MATCH ANALYSIS

A desperately depleted Second XI was away to Livingston, with an injured Dave Cowan compelled to play because of a whole string of call-offs and Kris Glen with the Firsts to replace Scott Galloway. Coo’s injury forced him to stop bowling after only three overs and Livingston accumulated a daunting 228.

Not what you want to see when you’re fielding ten and a half players, three of them dragged from the under 17s. But they did it! They did it! Two balls to spare, and huge batting contributions from the Coo and the always reliable Arun Trivedi. A most gratifying result, to put it mildly.

SHIRT SPONSOR

Technorati Tags: cricket, Cricket Scotland, Drumpelier, Fife, Forfarshire, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, juniors, Livingston. match results, Scotland, St Boswells