22 / 23 May
Another good one for the Firsts on Saturday – beat RH Corstorphine by seven wickets – scorecard here. Quoting from SNCL’s Division II Roundup: “Freuchie moved into second place with a comfortable win against RH Corstorphine at Public Park. The visitors made 159 all out in 44.3 overs. When Overseas Amateur Jason Biddulph was at the crease a large total looked on the cards but with his departure for 67 the batting collapsed with Scott Galloway capturing 4 wickets for 17. The two Scotts Birrell (66*) and Gourlay (39*) put on 98 to see their side home with 3 overs to spare.” What more could a body ask for?
Photo: Matching winning Freuchie 1st XI
Meanwhile, our Second XI’s 100% record came to an abrupt end. A number of regulars were unavailable for selection, the situation made worse by injuries and call-offs. That said, it was a respectable looking batting XI that took the field against Marchmont. Stand-in skipper Alan Wallace praised Shane Munro for his mature innings of 30 not out and Grant Horsburgh for his contribution, but 139 all out off 47 overs wasn’t likely to be enough. Sadly, so it proved. Robbie Wright bowled economically, but the Marchmont batsmen cruised past our total without difficulty – and without loss. Alan reported that young Ross McMurdo bowled excellently and he had particular praise for the fielding of Cameron Millar and Blair Lawrie. We also have a special thanks to Charles Balfour, who drove up from Newcastle in response to Alan’s appeal for players.
Sunday saw our Thirds at home to Kinross. Both clubs had sides of genuinely mixed ability, but it has to be confessed that our mix was a good deal stronger than theirs. Freuchie batted first, with James Fretwell retiring hurt, but Dale Cowan and Robbie Wright rather took charge at that point, Dale skelping some huge sixes into the football park and retiring when he made his hundred. Robbie was close behind him at that point. He too got to his hundred a few balls later, and likewise retired. That left the way clear for the younger lads, who must have enjoyed batting without any pressure whatsoever.
Technorati Tags: Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Corstorphine, Kinross, SNCL
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
Captain’s Corner
Firstly my apologies for not providing a Captain’s Corner last week, things were very hectic. Very briefly on last week’s games, we were beaten in the league by Corstorphine and unfortunately were also beaten by Falkland in the last over of the Fife Cup Final. The scorecard from the Corstorphine game is here.
The very good news from Saturday last week was we won against Prestwick in a bottom of the league clash! Scorecard here. It was very fitting due to it also being our Sponsor’s Day which was a great success. Thanks to everyone who made it possible and helped out on the day.
Everyone contributed to the game and if we can keep playing to this standard I’m sure we can survive in SNCL Division 2.
Onto Saturday this week and we’re at Falkland, we will be hoping to avenge the early season loss against them, in which Duckworth Lewis played a major part in this defeat!
Technorati Tags: Corstorphine, Falkland, Prestwick, SNCL
Team Selections
The team selection for the 1st and 2nd XI for this coming weekend are shown below.
| COMPETITON | 1st XI League |
| DATE | Sat 4th July 2009 |
| FIXTURE | Corstorphine Cricket Club |
| VENUE | Corstorphine |
- R Birrell (Capt)
- D Cowan (Snr)
- S Gourlay
- S Galloway
- S Birrell
- A Duncan
- S Rowley
- S Gibson
- D Cowan (Jnr)
- J Wallace
- D Harper
- Res – n/a
Players meet 10:45am at Freuchie Cricket Club for 1pm start at Corstorphine.
Any call offs call R Birrell on 07960 568376.
| COMPETITON | 2nd XI League |
| DATE | Sat 4th July 2009 |
| FIXTURE | Corstorphine Cricket Club |
| VENUE | Freuchie Cricket Ground |
- S Kennedy (Capt)
- C Balfour
- A Leckie
- R Wright
- K Crichton
- M Jackson
- G Christie
- K Khalill
- B Forrester
- S Munro
- A Sutherland
- Res – L Kelly
Meet at Freuchie Cricket Club at 11:15am for 1pm start.
Any call offs call S Kennedy on 07957 585902.
Good luck once again to both teams.
Technorati Tags: cricket, Corstorphine, Corstorphine Cricket Club, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club
Captain’s Corner
It was a bad for both XI’s on Saturday, as we were beaten by Edinburgh in corresponding fixtures. We arrived at the ground under very heavy and overcast conditions with the prospect of play looking doubtful. As the afternoon went on the skies cleared and we were able to commence play at 2pm, the game was cut down to 42 overs each. We won the toss and elected to field as the wicket was damp but this turned out to be the wrong choice, as the game went on the wicket deteriorated rapidly!!!
Edinburgh started off in their usual style, the big opener peppering the boundary at every opportunity. We eventually got him out for 60+ off 40+ balls, the rest of their batsmen continued the scoring rate with unorthodox shots and copious amounts of luck! Their innings closed with them amassing 233 from the 42 overs. Once again our slack bowling and fielding let us down, except for Scott Galloway who had 6 wickets to his name.
Our innings started off reasonably well but there was always the hint that the wicket was going to do some silly things. Good length balls were spitting of the wicket and making batting very difficult and dangerous with numerous balls rising to hit our gloves and whizzing past our noses. The guys did pretty well getting to our total of 199, myself with 58 and Dave Cowan with 42 the main run getters. Special mention must go to Dale Cowan who hit one of the best sixes by a Freuchie player in many a season.
With the 2nd half of the season starting on Saturday we’re hoping our luck and performances will improve, starting with Corstorphine this weekend.
Technorati Tags: Corstorphine, Dale Cowan, Edinburgh, Freuchie, Scott Galloway
Captain’s Corner: Must Do Better!
These are the words that spring to mind when thinking of Saturday’s first league game against Corstorphine. I’m sad to say that they out played us in every department.
Unfortunately I lost the toss and was put into bat, Its just a pity the cricket wasn’t up to that standard! Other than Steve Rowley there wasn’t many pass marks on the batting front, as again players weakly gave up their wicket through bad shot selection, 166 was never going to be enough to defend on a drying wicket.
This brings us onto the bowling, apart from the opening partnership of Dave Cowan and Scott Gourlay, who again both troubled the batsmen on several occasions and kept runs to a trickle, the bowling was far too short and the lines not tight enough which enabled the batsmen to score freely on both sides of the wicket and made setting the field very difficult.
We will certainly be working hard at training this week, weather permitting!
Saturday cannot come quick enough to try and redeem ourselves and get our first (much needed) win of the season. We welcome Scott Birrell back into the squad after work commitments last week, this will surely strengthen the batting and bowling at Prestwick.
Behind the scenes we are working fervently to get Mario Saliwa, our professional, into the UK and playing cricket for us throughout Scotland. We’ll keep you up to date on the pro situation as it developers further.
Again we must thank Dave Christie for all his efforts as the wicket was exceptional for this time of year. There were a few comments about how good our ground looked from both umpires and players.
Resources:
Scorecard for Freuchie vs RH Corstorphine
Technorati Tags: cricket, Corstorphine, Corstorphine Cricket Club, Dave Christie, Dave Cowan, Freuchie, Freuchie Cricket Club, Mario Saliwa, Prestwick, Prestwick Cricket Club, Scott Birrell, Scott Gourlay, Steve Rowley