Round the Wicket

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

Scribe’s batting analysis for SNCL and all cups:

Also batted: JDR Mackintosh 5,5,10,10: KJ Crichton 4*,2*,1*,1*:GB Christie 7*: RC Wright 3: S Kennedy 2: JB Forrester 5: CR Millar 2: CH Balfour 3.

And for bowling:

Also bowled: JDR Mackintosh 11-2-65-2;KJ Crichton 15-0-115-2;GB Christie 3.3-0-31-0;RC Wright 7.3-1-55-2;DW Harper 6-0-49-1; K KHalil 4-0-30-2; S Kennedy 4-0-26-2

Catches: AS Duncan 14, RT Birrell 9, JSC Galloway 9, MPF Jackson 8, JA Wallace 7, GS Gibson 5, D Cowan 5, SJ Birrell 3, JDR Mackintosh 2, A Sutherland 2, S Gourlay 2, S Rowley 2, CH Balfour 2, RC Wright 1. Total 72.

Stumpings: MPF Jackson 2, AS Duncan 1. Total 3.

AC Baxter, 08-Sep-09.

‘Semdy goin’ to do the same analysis for the Second XI? You do it, and I’ll type it up. John A.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, SNCL

Freuchie Cricket Club has been told today’s Courier is running our “2000 Not Out” story. Grab yourself a copy before they’re all gone!

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Scribe, The Courier

Allan Baxter (aka Scribe) has been honoured for services to cricket by Freuchie Cricket Club.  As he approaches the completion of 45 years of scoring service, another landmark moment was reached a few weeks ago with the 2000th match being scored at Huntly. To acknowledge this super feat a memento was presented to Scribe by Freuchie Cricket Club President Ian Paterson during last week’s match against Corstorphine.

 Photo: Ian Paterson, President of Freuchie Cricket Club, presents Scribe with a bottle of Port

Scribe started scoring on the 16th of May 1964 (45 years ago)  at an under 15 game over at Ballyclair in Northern Ireland. His illustrious career includes 35 years scoring at Cupar and the last five seasons at Freuchie.

Ian Paterson paid special mention to this meritorious achievement:

Scribe’s dedication and meticulous attention to detail whilst scoring for the last 45 years is a true example to us all. The club is extremely proud to have such a Scottish cricketing icon as our scorer.

Technorati Tags: Alan Baxter, Ballyclair, Cupar, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Huntley, Ian Paterson, Northern Ireland, Scribe

Not the sort of games we’ve become used to in the last few years, though, where we’ve had a fair sprinkling of triumphs. None of the problems of the opening months seemed to go away, while a few fresh ones came along. The long and the short of it is that despite some fairly decent batting performances in the latter months, we lacked the penetration in attack to get our opponents out for less runs than we could muster.

Our Centenary Year, which started with so many off-the-field successes and such high hopes, ended in our relegation from SNCL Division I to Division II, while the second team, struggling for players throughout the year, has also been relegated to East League Division II. We can’t even say that there was anything marginal about either outcome.

One can usually find plenty of happier events to reflect on, but we didn’t have all that many of them this year. However, our Centenary Festival game against Sussex Ladies was definitely one of them, and yesterday’s ‘Sixes’ was another. The plan was to give the tournament a bit of a twist, with visiting clubs sending four players to be boosted by one Freuchie player and one social member. Cupar won the tournament. The only snag is that Cupar is on an end-of-season tour and could not send a team. The “Cupar” side therefore consisted exclusively of Freuchie players, Andy Sutherland clouting a couple of enormous sixes into the neighbouring football practice ground. How, and to whom, do we now award the trophy? A day of good fun all round.

A wry rider to that: We have just been docked points by SNCL’s Competitions Committee for fielding an ineligible player in a first XI game. Sounds like this was cheating, but the player in question has been one of our second team players for a matter of years – including 2008 – never in the last few years selected for the Firsts. Hardly a matter of wheeling in a hit man in a desperate attempt to scrape up some points. However it turns out that through carelessness on my part (no surprise to those who know me), I have never registered this player with SNCL. My wife now wants to know if these guys who won the Sixes Trophy are eligible to play for Cupar?

And our Junior Coaches deserve so much praise for their efforts throughout the year. So many kids up the park on a Friday evening, so many potentially good cricketers. The task for the rest of us is to keep the club playing at a high standard to make sure these youngsters will enjoy a worthwhile level of cricket competition when they reach the senior teams in a few years time.

And if the weather wasn’t great for cricket, spare a thought for the Freuchie folks who were flooded out a couple of weeks ago, not least our own John Thomson of Roundtrip Solutions Ltd, whose house and car have been pretty comprehensively wrecked. Check it out on ‘Freuchie Mill’ on YouTube.

But the Centenary Dinner Dance is coming! It’s on Saturday 13th September at the Lomond Hills Hotel in Freuchie. If you haven’t got your tickets yet, call Danny Ramage on 01337 857 292. Emcee for the night will be Bob McFarlane of Rossie Priory – ‘FAFF, to his many friends, and the principal speaker England’s scorer Bill Frindall (The Bearded Wonder). We’re looking forward to a great night. Come and join us!

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Lomond Hills Hotel, Roundtrip Solutions Ltd.

No – it’s not Christmas already, just some shockingly belated notes about our Centenary Cricket Festival.

So many people did so much to bring the Festival about, not least our main Festival Sponsor, Belhaven. More of that in a moment, recognising at the outset that my sieve-like memory is likely to do a grave injustice to many who helped.

The first of our games was on Tuesday 17th June (I’m only a month late in writing this!) against a Scottish President’s Select. Captained by Euan McIntyre from Cricket Scotland with luminaries such as Pete Drummond and Bill Scott from Meigle with a big partnership from Gregor Maiden of Grange and Ian Young from West of Scotland, the Select was a bit much for us, despite a brave innings from Arun Trivedi.

Just in case you missed it, information and photos from this match were posted earlier.

Wednesday was the Big One, our visitors Sussex Ladies. For anyone who might have thought that Ladies’ Cricket is a kindergarten pat-about, this would have come as a revelation. Technically superb, commanding batting, excellent bowling, crisp throwing-in. Just a pleasure to watch. However, our 239 for 8 (half centuries for Scott Galloway and Stevie Rowley) was a bit much for the ladies. They finished 175 all out, Ebony Rainford-Brent top-scoring with 53. We hope Katherine Brunt has fully recovered from her altercation with a cricket ball.

Photo: Freuchie Cricket Club & Sussex Ladies photo call 

Photo: Timeout for a wee break and a drink…. note the marquee

Fife Scouts had put up a marquee for us and Belhaven had equipped it with a bar. We planned a barbecue, hoping for one of these balmy evenings, but it was decidedly cold. We moved inside and the Milenberg Jazz Band got the dancing going. “Let Ebony play the drums,” cried the ladies. That’s usually a cue for all-round embarrassment, but not this time – Ebony’s drumming was up to the standards of her excellent batting. (Our drummer was lucky to get his sticks back at all).

Photos: Ebony on drums and the Milenberg Jazz Band in full swing 

Thursday brought us Falkland Cricket Club and the Archie Cowan Memorial Trophy match. I think we’d have to confess that getting out a mid-week team three days in a row was a struggle, and like the President’s Select, Falkland, with pro Tim Lythe, proved a bit much for our somewhat depleted side. Family Watson (Brian, with 30-odd not out and next generation Graeme and Paul) provided a solid core that we could not match on the day.

Although we may have failed to recapture the Archie Cowan Cup, the presentation of a centenary celebration gift to the club by Falkland’s Paul Watson, graciously accepted by Alan Duncan, demonstrates the close links and comradeship between us and our local rivals. Perhaps next year they’ll remember to bring the cup with them so as to save us the trip to retrieve it!

Photo: Paul Watson presents Alan Duncan with a gift from Falkland Cricket Club 

So – at risk of forgetting major contributors – big, big thanks to Harry ‘The Barbecue’ Barclay, The Scotsman, the BBC, to Belhaven, whose generosity covered the travel costs for the Sussex Ladies, to the local families who provided bed and breakfast for the ladies, to our own committee, who put in so much work, to the Lomond Hills Hotel who loaned us a barrel of Best for our beer tent, to the Scouts for the beer tent, to the Milenberg Jazz Band for their good-time music, to all the players, visitors and our own, to visiting photographer Alan Richardson and our own John Thomson of Roundtrip Solutions …. The list just goes on and on, but it really has to include our President, Alan Duncan, who was the means of our having Sussex Ladies here, and also who provided many of the ideas that made our three-day Festival a success.

Now, when we get to the bi-centenary …..

Technorati Tags: Cricket Scotland, Belhaven Brewery, Cricket, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, The Lomond Hills Hotel, Sussex Ladies’ Cricket Club, Falkland Cricket Club, Meigle Cricket Club, The Scotsman, BBC

For anyone who missed the Reporting Scotland news report last night, we’ll go into some of the highlights.

The strength and enthusiasm of the Sussex Ladies shines through in an interview with their Captain, Alexia Walker.

Dave Christie reminisces on what is unarguably Freuchie’s (if not Scotland’s) finest cricketing moment, the National Village Cup win in 1985.

Our new signing, a Mr Andy Goram, seemed to be attracting a fair amount of media attention for some reason! Welcome to the club Andy. We’ll have more about and from the new signing in due course.

… and finally….

According to the reporter, John Anderson may be “the most important delivery of all”. 
Or maybe it was the barrel of beer he had in tow at the time. Decide for yourself.

[Updated: BBC Reporting Scotland don't appear to keep news reports online. The link to the news report was removed from this original blog post as it is used for the most recent show.]

Technorati Tags: Alexia Walker, Andy Goram, BBC, cricket, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, National Village Cup, Reporting Scotland

Come to Freuchie for Day Two – Sussex Ladies are here! Game starts at one o’clock, with barbecue starting in the afternoon (I think – don’t hold my feet to the fire) and the Milenberg Jazz Band in the evening. As I write, the sun is shining. Let’s hope it keeps it up. Roll Up! Roll Up!

In the meantime, a little about Day One: We had a pretty wet day here for yesterday’s match against the Scottish President’s XI, but we got through 40 overs apiece with some really entertaining cricket along the way. The President’s men’s 225 was a bit much for us, but we got to a creditable 175 in reply, with some sterling efforts from Arun Trivedi and Duffer, to name but two.

A few pics from visiting photographer Alan Richardson -

A moment of success for the fielding side, with Arun, Duffer, Robbie Birrell and guest star Andy Goram in shot.

When you see the determination on Kenny Crichton’s face, it’s no surprise that we had some successes.

While Andy shows that Kenny’s not the only determined guy on the park.

Just to show that we had at least some sunny moments – anxious Freuchie players and supporters look on.

Gour keeps his eye on the ball, with partner Stevie Rowley poised for a run.

And a heart-in-mouth moment as Gour looks on from the other end.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland, ladies’ cricket, Sussex Ladies’ Cricket Club

There is no doubting the skill involved in the batting performance of England’s Kevin Pietersen during the recent match against New Zealand, but is it cricket? Look at the coverage and share your thoughts.

An MCC cricket rules committee has decided the “switch-hit” stroke, a term borrowed from American baseball,  is within the rules of the game. The International Herald Tribune has an interesting article that discusses the differing views on this batting stroke.

How long will it be before we see the “switch-hit” being used on the field of Freuchie Cricket Club? Perhaps we’ll see it tomorrow from one of the ladies from Sussex.

Technorati Tags: baseball, cricket, England, Kevin Pietersen, MCC, New Zealand, Sussex Cricket Club, Sussex Ladies, switch-hit

Our Centenary Year Cricket Festival starts on 17th June with a match against a Scottish President’s XI, with some of the Scottish stars of yesterday (yet to be named) playing against us.

Wednesday is really special – our match against a Sussex Ladies’ team, which includes a number of the England players. There’ll be a barbecue in the evening, with the Milenberg Jazz Band providing gentle background music. (Aye, right! The Milenberg? Gentle?)

Thursday sees us face a Falkland Select, so there’s three days of varied and entertaining cricket in store. All three games start at 1 pm.

Roll Up! Roll Up!