Round the Wicket

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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!

Well, near the school - along the schuill wall, and round the park to learn a bit about cricket.

Catch her report in The Scottish Review - good pics of the park, the lads, and star of stage screen and radio, Mary Low. Well, star of Islay’s report.

What we should have told Islay is that this was the first round of the Patent Attorney Murgitroyd & Company’s Caledonia T:20, and a fine match it was. We batted first for a tolerable score of 157, with DHSFP always pretty much up with the clock when it came their turn. Things could have gone absolutely either way, but a truly stunning one-handed catch from skipper Alan Wallace off the bowling of Scott Gourlay (once again - see Islay’s report in The Scottish Review for some comment on each of them) tipped matters in our favour and we ran out winners by nine runs. (I think the lower right of Islay’s pictures is Alan W getting back on his feet from taking that catch, Scott G in the background saying “YES!!” and I think we scored two runs more than Islay credits us with, but I’m not going to argue with a lady).

Stoneywood Dyce next …..

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Murgitroyd, Stoneywood Dyce CC, The Scottish Review

No denying that the number of items on the ‘bad’ side is heavily out-weighing the ‘good’ at the moment. Where do we start?

Last post was greeting our overseas player Bev Smith. Bev’s brother played for us in 2004 and a number of our members are friends of the family in Johannesburg. When it was suggested that Bev might come to us this year, we all said whoopee, or words to that effect. We did not do the normal checks. When we came to register him, we found he was too old to be classed as an Overseas Amateur, and did not have the coaching certificates to let him be an unpaid professional. Big thank you to Clarence Parfitt of  Cricket Scotland who worked hard to help us with arranging coaching certificate courses, but Bev decided it would all take too long and took the plane home last Thursday. Tough on Bev, sad for us.

We have a long injury list to add to this, so it’s not going to be an easy season.

We were also bouncing in our last post about the Twos’ success against Carlton. The ESCA competitions committee have taken the view that we went against the spirit of things by playing Alan Wallace and Steve Rowley, and have reversed the points score - nowt to us, ten to Carlton. We don’t think we went against the spirit at all, have the right of appeal and are exercising it.

And the good? Thumping home win for the Firsts against Stenhousemuir on Saturday, which puts us third in Division I. If we can maintain that through the season with such a depleted squad and no overseas players, it’ll be some feat.

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland, Carlton Cricket Club, ESCA, Stenhousemuir Cricket Club

Alan Wallace sends us the following report:

For the third consecutive season Freuchie attended the Scottish Media indoor 6 a side tournament at Ravelston (Scottish Cricket Academy) in Edinburgh and were successful in reaching the finals. In 2006, at the first effort Freuchie won the overall tournament and followed it up in 2007 finishing third, with second overall this year.

After seeing off Preston Village and Murrayfield DAFS off in the opening games, Freuchie met and beat SMRH in the semi finals. Freuchie played the Bank of Scotland Corporate team in the final. In the end the Bank won a close game with five balls remaining.

(If there are any errors in the scores below, they are down to my typing. John A)

Freuchie v SMRH.

Freuchie Innings

SMRH Innings

Freuchie v Bank of Scotland

Freuchie Innings

Bank of Scotland Innings

Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Cricket Scotland, SMRH Cricket Club, Bank of Scotland

We are aiming to deliver this newsletter to every house in Freuchie, but with something like 600 homes, it’s going to take us a day or two!

Centenary Year well under way, Seniors’ Day and our promised Race Night behind us, but we can’t leave the last event of 2007 without a mention – the Tour de Freuchie, our great Cycle Relay Race. Great in every way – great fund-raiser, great fun, great competitors, great supporters, great organisers, marshals, soup-and-pie-providers – even great weather, in marked contrast to the 2007 playing season. Thanks to all, and especially to the Race sponsors. The event raised £3,086, enough to pay for the refurbishment of our outfield mower and still leave a few hundred to help with other things.

Nor was that the only race. We hoped that half of Freuchie would be queuing for our “Freuchie 100” Centenary Whisky for Christmas presents, but it didn’t come off Santa’s sleigh until 21^st December – a bit late for those who like to shop early. It’s going well, but if you haven’t got some, you still have a chance. “Freuchie 100” is in fact cask strength Tomatin single malt in numbered bottles. Special numbers are being kept back for special awards and auction, but we missed a trick; numbers 134 and 8 (our winning score from Lord’s in 1985) would have made a very special two-bottle lot, but by the time we thought of it, Blair Forrester had already bagged 134 to commemorate his personal highest score.

Why not join us for a weekend break? Our next big event is the pre-season tour to Northern Ireland, leaving on Friday 18^th April and returning on Monday 21^st, as much a social as a cricket event. We’ll have matches on Saturday and Sunday, with ceilidhs promised for both evenings. A great hooley, entirely. We would like to have a few more people coming with us – both to add to the party and, let’s be honest, to fill the bus. At the time of writing, we are about ten names short. All your transport, ferry, bed and breakfast and a great weekend for £200 – just your lunches, dinners and lemonade money to add. Come up to the club to book your place, or phone Alan Duncan on 01337 857006, or John Anderson on 01337 857 292.

What else? March 2^nd for the Sportsman’s Brunch. March 7^th for pool, darts, dominoes and boxing (Alan Wallace says you’ll have to come along to understand) with Glenrothes Cricket Club. Prize Bingo on Sunday 9^th March, and hoping for one more (maybe 6^th April) before the cricket season starts. Plans for an Easter Family Disco on 22^nd March have still to be confirmed, Coffee Morning (maybe a Soup Kitchen) on 5^th April, and a Ladies’ Night on 2^nd May. Lots to look forward to.

It’s sad to have to report this, but we are seeing an increase in the fouling of our park by dogs. We know there are a few irresponsible dog-owners who allow their dogs to foul the park and make no attempt to clear up the mess. These people do not seem to care how objectionable this is for others, that it’s a danger for the children who play there, that it’s an offence under law. If you can help us to identify any of these anti-social dog owners, please let us know. Tell Dave Christie or any of our members.

We are delighted to report on our two-year sponsorship agreement with Campion Homes. The plan had been for Campion to give us £2,500 in each of the years 2008 and 2009, with our buying a training top for every one of our junior members and training suits for our senior players, this clothing to carry just our name and a very discrete Campion logo. The costs of this proved a stumbling block (manufacturers want their own logo to dominate all such clothing, and will sell “logo-free” only as a higher cost special), but Campion very generously upped their 2008 contribution by £550 to cover the added cost and still leave us some funds for other things. Next year’s contribution will all be for Club purposes.

The playing season is under way with our participation in the Scottish Media Indoor Sixes at Ravelston – two wins out of two so far, with the next round on 22^nd February. Indoor nets start on 2^nd March at Glenrothes, with a home game against a touring side and our Northern Ireland tour before the first league game, at home to Penicuik CC on 26^th April. The Twos are away to Carlton CC Twos on the same date. We have still to resolve what’s going to happen about overseas players, all the avenues explored to date having turned out to be dead ends, so to speak.

Remember too that the Clubhouse is available for members’ functions – it’s a great venue for your own parties and celebrations - join us! Fees are due by end February, and Membership Cards should be with us very soon.

Stay up to date with events; log on to www.freuchiecricketclub.com/blog.

Contact us at the clubhouse (01337 858 226), call the secretary on 01337 857 292, or e-mail secretary@freuchiecricketclub.com

Technorati Tags: Cricket, Freuchie Cricket Club, Glenrothes, Glenrothes Cricket Club, Carlton Cricket Club, Penicuik Cricket Club, Campion Homes