A Year of Scottish Cricket: T20 Champions, Season Round-up and Rugby!!

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Jelly Beanz

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A Year of Scottish Cricket: T20 Champions, Season Round-up and Rugby!!

Well, here goes...

I play for my school and my club and at the start of the season I was expecting to play in the 2nd XIs for each but, as it stands, I've been picked for both set of 1st XIs which is surprising. I've been pleased with my early season pace and consistency, both of which have improved from last year, but I'm yet to be tested in a fully competetive match.

We've had two fixtures for school and one for the club rained off so far, meaning my only 'proper' cricket has been a 40 over friendly for my club seconds against a team 2 divisions above us (the div below our 1st XI). We were hammered and I made a duck but bowled a tight opening spell of 5-1-9-0, so all in all it wasn't too bad but there are things to work on before the first league fixture.

If all goes well, it'll be my first match for the school 1st XI tomorrow and my first match for the club 1st XI on saturday but I wouldn't put too much faith in the weather!!
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

Well, for once, the weather held and play was possible today, though disrupted by several showers early on. We were playing away against a rival school who had a county player in their ranks and so expected a tough match.

We bowled first, limiting them to 143-4 from 25 overs. I bowled second change and my first spell was reasonable but unrewarded with most of my runs coming from the bat of their county player. I returned for the final over of my allowance to bowl the second last over of their innings and managed to york said county player with the small matter of 70 runs to his name :p My final figures were 5-0-30-1, which is a bit more expensive than I would have liked but not too shabby either. To cut a long story short, we passed the target 6 down before I got a chance to bat. All in all, not a bad day out and it was rounded off by being told that I had been picked to play against the MCC in the school's annual match against them. Very much looking forward to that next week and the match on Saturday, fingers crossed the weather holds :D
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

You play the worlds oldest cricket club (I think?), nice to have on your CV!
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

i remember back in the day of school cricket we only used to get 20 overs!
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

Stumped said:
i remember back in the day of school cricket we only used to get 20 overs!
Click to expand...

Yeah but he probably goes to some posh school. :p
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

:laugh: it's private but not that posh!! 25 overs is the standard in Cumbria for U19 matches as far as I know.

Yeah, it should be good if the weather holds. Normally it's held at the ground at the school but they're extending the astro so it's down at some club in Carlisle instead. Normally we get smashed but we've beaten them for the first 2 times ever in the last 4 years (out of like 40 :p)
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

25 overs is a decent number, we used to get stuck with 16 overs if we were unlucky.
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

Club 1st XI vs second best team in league - 50 over match:

The guys we were playing hammered our 1st team last year and we had two players making debuts (including me!!) so we went into the game not expecting too much from it.

Now, England are known for collapsing dramatically, but they have NOTHING on us!! We batted first and had reached 37-1 pretty solidly when our kiwi was run out for 25. Nine runs later, we were all out - 46 all out - enough said. In our defence, the best legspinner any of us had ever seen was bowling and the pitch was distincly dubious but still, 9 wickets for 9 runs is going some!! Personally, I was last out for 0 after surviving 2 overs reasonably solidly. So far, the debut wasn't going so well...

We didn't even bother with tea (only 27 overs had been bowled) so we all headed out back onto the field pretty quickly. Their openers solidly reached 31-0 before the skipper struck and I came into the attack at 37-1. I bowled consistently and reasonably quickly with a very close lbw shout against their pro being turned down. Next ball, long hop on middle stump is absolutely smashed - and I mean smashed - only for our kiwi to catch it at midwicket!! First ever 1st team wicket, not exactly as planned, but a wicket nonetheless :p I nearly bowled their next batsman but soon after they passed the total. Final figures 3-0-10-1.

Overall, only getting 1 point from a maximum of 25 from the game was disappointing but from a personal point of view it wasn't too bad. Now looking forwards to Wednesday's match against the MCC!!
 
Re: Jellybeanz' blog: A Year of Scottish Cricket

School 1st XI vs MCC - timed match:

The MCC batted first, as always, in brilliant sunshine and on what looked a batsman's paradise. Our openers bowled tidily and I came onto bowl at 30 odd for 2. I bowled tidily with an edge of catchable height through first slip (who had moved the over before) and one falling just short of gully. A couple of close but ultimately unrewarded lbw shouts also ensued. Then their best batsman started hitting out and clobbered 4 fours down the ground off me. Admittedly, one was overpitched but the other 3 were perfectly good balls and one was nearly caught by our mid-off. Apparently, I'm putting too many balls in the same place so I'll have to work on varying things a bit more. Anyhow, we fielded well and the MCC got 154-6 off 47 overs, personally my figures were 4-0-27-0 but I felt I bowled better than my figures showed (then again, so do most bowlers :p)

Our openers brought up the 100 partnership and we knocked off the runs comfortably, giving us our third ever victory over the MCC and the first without the team being supplemented by 'guests' (often the pro at the nearby club). The fact that all but 3 of the team will be available for selection next year as well bodes well for the future.

An interesting one for all you 'spirit of the game' chaps out there, but our opening bat was on 96* with 1 run needed for victory off 5 overs. It would've been his first ever century (despite many 50s) and scoring a century against the MCC results in a day out at Lord's and a bat being presented to the centurion. So anyhow, the opener hit a ball to the boundary, where it was cut off, and the other batsman calls 'no' to let him get his 100. The MCC chap doesn't like it, calling it 'Not how we play the game' and proceeds to deliberately bowl a wide to end the game and not allow him his 100. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd say that letting him get his century was fair enough. How do all you guys feel about it, considering the controversy of the 'hitting a 4 to end the match' issue??
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

So the MCC bloke delibrately bowls a wide to end the game but has a go at someone declining a run in order to get a century? I would say what the MCC guy did was worse!

And about bowling in the same place, if the batsmen keeps hitting the ball you keep bowling, wouldn't it make sense not to keep bowling the same ball?
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

Strange :confused:

There is always an extra ball for any wide down here!
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

Liz Ward said:
Strange :confused:

There is always an extra ball for any wide down here!
Click to expand...

Read again, Miss Ward, and you will understand. ;)
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

I'd have to say that it was pretty low to do that and the umpire should have not bothered in calling it.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

wolf said:
Read again, Miss Ward, and you will understand. ;)
Click to expand...

It was obviously past my bedtime :D

You have to remember, I am a little, grey haired, old lady... I need diagrams :laugh:
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: The MCC, controversy and getting tonked

Yeah, the umpire shouldn't have called it but the umpire was our games teacher and he wouldn't want to put the MCC off coming back again next year!! It wasn't just the bowler involved, their skipper wasn't a happy bunny either.

In terms of bowling the ball that gets hit again and again; one ball he'd go for it and get 4, next ball block it, next ball nick it through slip, then go for it again and get a flukey 3 over the fielder's head etc etc I kept telling the skip to put a man back but he wasn't having any of it.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Sedbergh, sloggers and getting tonked (again)

School 1st XI vs Sedbergh School XI - 35 over match

We arrived at Sebergh to play against a team consisting of a mixture of their 1st, 2nd and 3rd XIs and were surprised to see that we were playing on their main pitch. Now, this pitch has gone down in folklore as being the most beautiful pitch most people who have been there have ever seen. The grass is cut with nail-clippers, the games teacher shouts at players for running over the square between overs and they have a viewing balcony on the quaint, slate tiled pavillion. It's got a Minor County level square, 8 practice nets (yes, eight!!) and a wireless electronic scoreboard - in other words, the epitomy of 'posh tottie's day out'.

Of course, our team consisting of the people who are in it, we had to have 3 or 4 self-proclaimed 'chavs' sitting with their feet up on the balcony rail, shouting and throwing things all day. These activites were occaisionally interrupted by bouts of farting competitions. Think what you will, but the Sedbergh schoolmaster's face was hilarious!!

Anyways, lost the toss, bowled first and got absolutely hammered by a large 3rd team slogger. I came on 2nd change with the score on about 60. My first over cost 3 and contained a half-arsed lbw appeal against their slugging southpaw, which was a reasonable start. The next over starts with two dot balls before this bloke decides he's had enough of batting properly and proceeds to swipe across the line at everything. A ball a foot outside off stump is cross batted to the long-on boundary. Next ball is nicked for 4. Dot ball (being conservative) followed up by an absolutely massive 6, again to long-on, from a ball 6 inches outside off stump. Two balls later he chips a catch up to midwicket, which is dropped. Great. I was taken off after my second over, which I thought was pretty harsh considering I should've had him out. Anyhow, this guy goes on to score 110 before he's finally out and they're comfortably scoring at about 10 an over. I'm brought back on and concede 21 off 2 overs with about a dozen of those coming from nicks or shots that just clear fielders. Again, despite conceded less than the guy down the other end, I'm taken off. Of course, they proceed to chip all their shots actually to the fielders from now on and our occaisional medium pacer picks up a 3-for before they bat steadily to 308 off their 35. 4-0-38-0 is nothing to write home about but, considering how I bowled, I would've expected better figures than that.

We closed on 197-7 or so after never really looking like having a chance in the chase. Our school's version of a 'proper' allrounder (cheers, Nightvision) scored 54 meaning he has passed fifty in every innings for school this year and we got home just in time for The Apprentice.

As an aside for you apprentice watchers, how did Raef get fired??!!? He's the only honest, gentlemanly one in there!! From here on in I'm going to stick with my early-series pick of Alex but it's really anyones game as far as I can make out. Any views??

Sorry about the length of time between posts, I've been ill and sitting exams so cricket has been largely un-played since my last match. Just one final apology for the obscene length of this post and I'm going to sign-off. Thanks for reading, if anyone made it this far!!
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Sedbergh, sloggers and getting tonked (again)

That's some score off 35 overs alright! The thing with sloggers is that they'll either stay in and make loads or get out really early - so it's just unlucky that he hung around so long. Though you don't make a slog 100 without having a good eye I suppose.

197 off the innings isn't too shabby either - it'd be enough to win the majority of games in the 40 over leage that I play in.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Sedbergh, sloggers and getting tonked (again)

Yeah we were fairly pleased with our batting but the outfield was lightning fast, which I spose makes a difference. It was our bowling and fielding that let us down; I think the slogger being left-handed threw a lot of our bowlers and the fact he was dropped twice (once off my bowling) didn't help. To be honest, I wasn't best pleased with how I was treated as I wasn't given any warning to warm-up before I bowled and was then taken off before I could get any kind of rhythm going, only for the next guy to bowl worse than me. But hey, I guess it happens.
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Ligaments, hard nuts and con-men

No games - injured

Not the best week for me, to be honest. Last Friday during fielding practice I slipped and pulled a ligament around my knee, obviously meaning I missed the match the next day. I had a bowl on it again this Friday but all is not well and I'm missing this week's match as well. Not the greatest situation ever, but I guess it gives me more time for the maths revision I should've been doing anyway ::)

It seems injury follows me around at the moment, not only did I miss a game with a bug, then two with my ligament but tonight at fielding practice I nearly injured someone else!! We were chasing (light jog in my case :p) after balls and returning them to the keeper. I misjudged my first return throw and it flew maybe a foot or two above head hight past the keeper, who made a point of not going for it, only for it to hit the back of the head of a guy a few metres behind him!! I was obvious shocked but this guy has propped for the local rugby team for the last 30 years and is as tough as old boots so he was ok after a minute. I have to say though, I was really glad he blamed the keeper for it because I was feeling really guilty for while :embarrassed:

On a worse note (this seems a pretty negative blog entry doesn't it?) our overseas pro this year has been sent home. The club have finally investigated his CV, rung up a few of his past clubs and found that this guy is awful. We suspected something given he claimed to average 60 and turned out to be an average batsman at best, but none of us realised just how bad an egg he was. For the last 7 years he has been following a cycle of staying at a club, being really pushy and getting as much free gear as possible while generally pissing people off and then, when asked to leave, sueing them for racism and writing abusive emails to them. It's a good job we found out now, but I didn't realise what kind of things people will do and surely there should be some sort of place to report it?

Well, that concludes this week's blog and, on a positive note, this is my 400th post :D
 
Re: A Year of Scottish Cricket: Dodgy pitches, dropped catches and Aussie luck

Club 2nd XI v Cumbernauld 1st XI - 50 over match

I went into the game looking forward to it, with this being my first outing for the 2nds in a competetive match this season, but this was tempered with trepidation as I hadn't bowled for 3 weeks with my knee injury. From the team's point of view we need three wins more wins from around 8-10 matches to make us safe from relegation (by the captain's reckoning anyway) and this looked like a good chance of getting one.

Cumbernauld only have an artificial pitch as they share their ground with a rugby club but, while some astro pitches are ok, calling this one bad is like calling mass genocide fairly unpleasant. It was shocking!! Where some don't bounce at all, this one is fairly similar but with one difference: every so often a ball will just take off at right angles to the way it was going rolling along at toe-height!! The good news was that they'd cut the outfield since last time the team played here (about four years ago, I'm told) so that it was now only about a foot deep in the worst places.

We lost the toss and were put into bat but made a solild start which was backed up by good running between the wickets. We ended up with 178-4 from our 50 overs which is a fairly good score in this league, especially on a pitch like that one with their South African fast bowler, affectionately called 'Zulu', running in trying to kill you despite the bounce issue.

I opened the bowling but was pretty hit and miss in my first spell going at about 5 an over for my 6 overs, despite having 3 dropped catches and a nick over the slips. Bowling on the astro was an absolute nightmare and all of our bowlers struggled, especially with the ball swinging a fair distance, fairly randomly depending just how much shine had been forcibly removed from which side the last time it made contact with the astro.

Anyway, largely through dropped catches and several fortunate plays and misses the other team had made it to around 110-1 by the time I was brought back on to bowl. My first over was a maiden and in my first 5 overs of my new spell I took 2-12, having their no.3 lbw and yorking their number 4. Overall, my second spell was much better but I couldn't force another breakthrough as their overseas Aussie and 'Zulu' combined to take them past the total. It might have helped if I hadn't dropped the Aussie opener (for about the 6th and 7th time in his innings) diving to my left at midwicket and then in a sharp but catchable caught and bowled chance the very next over. My final figures were 15-1-64-2 which was alright considering I hadn't bowled for ages but it was dissapointing to lose the match after batting well on a tough pitch.

Next week we're at home and could to with a win to lift us up the league a bit, but first I have exams to deal with ::)
 
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