2007 news stories can be found at 2007 News Archive. Go to our Sitemap for previous years' News.

All of the Clubs Saturday games eventually fell victim to the rain; at Muirhouse a bolt of lightning apparently hit the outside of the Clubhouse - it sure was some bang! On the pitch Edinburgh Accies had reached 169 for 7 off their 50 overs with Moffat and Raso both hitting 25 and Phil Taylor not out 37. For Mufs Ones, Melv Clench finished with 10-1-35-2; Dale Simpson 10-0-55-1; Tom Wheeler 10-3-25-2; JP Cruz-Rocha 10-3-15-2; Chris Banks 5-2-8-0; and Reagan Black 5-1-18-0. In reply, Mufs were 19-0 (Reagan 15 not and Mr Belly 3 not) when the rain got too heavy for further play. Mufs 3s had Boroughmuir 2s 80-odd for 7 at Roseburn and on the other pitch Mufs 4 had reached 135-8 off their 45 overs; Graham Watson with 26 and Chris Richardson 39.

The Murrayfield DAFS Youth Development Committee met on Wed and agreed that we will be starting up the Youth Development Coaching Sessions from Thursday 5 June. The following has been prepared as a "media release":

"Murrayfield-DAFS Cricket Club are hosting youth cricket coaching and practice sessions at Roseburn Park, Riversdale Crescent, EH12 5XN from 5pm to 6.30pm starting from Thursday 5 June and continuing through to mid-August. All standards and from age 7 upwards are welcome. The cost will be only £1 per session but are free to Junior MDCC members (£10 annual subscription rate).
Murrayfield-DAFS coaches, who are all governing body qualified, will supply playing equipment for use in the sessions, but children are welcome to bring their own. For beginners, we will introduce them to cricket using softball/Kwik-Cricket. Please ensure children are suitably dressed for outdoor physical activity and bring own refreshments with them.
Adults wishing to get involved in cricket are also welcome to attend our Monday night practice sessions, also at Roseburn Park, from 6pm (weather permitting). The club fields four league teams in the East of Scotland Cricket Leagues as well as Sunday and Midweek friendly teams.
For further details please contact Iain Martin on 07973 105818 or ijmartin@talk21.com or Ian Shiels on 07730 074174 or ian_shiels@hotmail.com, or go to www.murrayfield-dafscc.co.uk"

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An piece written by Phil "Claypole" Rogers (yes he's still live and kicking but studying etc...) if you want to write a piece for the website then send it in to me.... terrible jokes most welcome.

A good weekend at the football for Mufs stalwarts. Former opening bat Andy Knight kept his neighbours in Perth, Australia awake by celebrating his West Brom side's clinching of the Championship title, while his erstwhile batting partner Ian Shiels enjoyed Stoke's first promotion to the top flight since 1985.

While that pair's teams departed the Championship, two more Muffers were happy that their sides would be playing in it next season. Record-breaking pre-season skipper Keith Lawrence's Nottingham Forest ended their unexpected stay in League One, while a drained Phil Rogers was at St Mary's to see Southampton scrap (or scrape) their way out of the Championship's bottom three.

All we need now is for first team skipper Melv Clench's Birmingham City to perform the great escape on Sunday. (and I guess failure of Palace to progress in the Championship play-offs will be some consolation to Tom Wheeler)

In a friendly 18/18 played at Roseburn Park in sunny conditions, Mufs Midweekers defeated Edinburgh South by 15 runs. Stars of the show with the bat were Mark Williamson with 24, Lindsay "Bicycle" Towns with 25 (retired) and David 'DJ' Jamieson 11 n.o. at the end, as Mufs posted 95-5. For Edinburgh South, S. Ramakrishnan took 3-13 off 4 overs and M Dutton 2-18 off 4 overs. Despite an enormous number of wides conceded (22) Mufs bowled Edinburgh South out for 80 off 16.3 overs with Adeel Raza bowling a tremendous spell to first remove top scorer, P Reddish, stumped for a dogged 15, and then clean-up the lower order to finish with 6 wickets for 10 runs in just 2.3 overs. Other wicket takers for Mufs were Mr Belly with figures of 3-0-5-1; David Jamieson with 3-0-16-1; The Donimator with 3-0-15-1 and Sunny Dahiya 2-0-11-1.

Next midweek is on Tues 13 May again at Roseburn v Casuals CC - availability to Ian Shiels - 07730 074174.

Mufs Ones produced the only note of cheer on Saturday with a well-fought victory over auld rivals Holy Cross. Twos lost against Largo by one wicket at Muirhouse and Threes and Fours also continued in their disappointing early season slump.

At the Arboretum, Mufs restricted Holy Cross to 101-9 off 50 overs with an excellent session in the field after Cross openers had initially looked well set with an opening partnership of 39. The Mufs squeeze was led by Tom Wheeler (10-5-7-3) with the wickets of the top three (Pickering off Tom's first ball the first of two good catches by Vimal) ably supported by Jean-Pierre with a spot-on spell of 10-3-17-1. Then Rafic claimed 3 for 15 off 8 overs as Mufs continued to strangle the Cross innings with a combination of tight fielding, great catching and pressure bowling plus shrewd captaincy by a fired-up skipper.

In the chase, Mufs lost JP quickly for a duck to "Two-Dogs" but Mr Belly somehow managed to defy the fury of Bonfield in the lively opening exchanges before being run-out for 8 - weighed down by a considerable ballast of tea-time grub and, sadly, probably now relinquishes his title of "fastest fat-man" over 22 yards. Mangesh Akerkar, looking to atone for batting sins of the previous week, made amends and then more with an excellently paced 44 (6 fours) to take Mufs near to victory with stands with Vimal (10 before being undone by Dr Astley's first ball) and then with Raj (17 not) before Danny clouts two successive boundaries to take us to victory and that precious, confidence-building first win. Mangesh was voted Mufs Man of the Match. As ever, a game played in great spirit with the Cross.

More photos from Arboretum can be found at this link to Mufs v Holy Cross photos.

Mufs Twos narrowly lost at Muirhouse. Mufs posted 136 with Asif 38, Sutha 28, Riaz 25 and Regan 16 amongst the runs. Largo took the points off the second last ball despite a 5 wicket haul and a hat-trick for Dale Simpson - link to Scorecard. Threes lost after a poor batting display led to them being skittled for 80?-odd and Fours (with just 10 men due to late call-offs) were 100 all out chasing 179.

The Sunday friendly at Galashiels unfortunantly looks like being off due to a lack of availability and insufficient transport logistics.

A Mufs midweek XI took on Currie and Balerno at Roseburn in a 18/18 game - switched to the artificial due to the damp grass wicket. In a sporting contest played under retire-at-25 and 'everyone (almost) gets a bowl' midweek friendly protocols, the visitors emerged victorious after chasing down Mufs 95-1. Chief scorers for Mufs Chris Banks and Mangesh who both retired once past 25, Richard Scott top scoring (also retired) for CnB. A good, but slightly chilly, workout before retiring to the warmth of the Murrayfield Hotel for post match beers/juice and Chelski v Sorry Scousers in the CL on the telly.

Next 20/20 friendly sees us take on Edinburgh South on Tuesday 6 May, 6pm. Availability again to Ian Shiels please at 07730 074174 or ian_shiels@hotmail.com, ta.

Thx to those who have sent in Player Profiles in response to the item below - they will be processed when I get the time - likely while chewing my fingers off watching Stoke City on Sunday. Talking of which (Sunday that is) Mufs travel to Galashiels on Sunday - contact Martin Ward on 07917 732757 if you are looking for Sunday friendly games.

Given there are quite a few new faces this year, then a wonderful opportunity to let your new team-mates know your darkest secrets is through completing one of our Player Profile forms which is posted up on the website at our Profiles page which lets us all know what terrible taste in music/football teams, etc you have. The form can be accessed from this link to Player Profile(word doc in rtf) - if you can't use/open MS word just email me your answers to ian_shiels@hotmail.com! Latest form received from Siva.... good lad.

Mufs suffered a poor start in the Season openers with all four teams suffering defeats. Mufs 1 threw away a good start having been 102-2 off 23 overs at one point before suffering a shocking collapse to fall to 144 all out. Only Ian Shiels (47) and Vimal D'Souza (25) emerged with any real credit from the batting wreckage - Hamilton and Hardwicke taking 3 wickets apiece. Mufs battled back at the end to bring us back to the cusp of victory but we couldn't quite force that final wicket. So a loss by 1 wicket - and lessons to be learnt by the Mufs middle order.

Mufs 2 were defeated by 101 runs by Marchmont at Roseburn - Marchmont scoring 189 with Sam Preachey hitting 51. 2 wickets apiece for Rajnish (the pick of the bowlers with 10-2-26-2), Usman and Manan. Mufs struggled with the bat, bar 24 for Regan Black and a late 21 from Rajnish, slumping to 88 all out; E Granger taking 5-22 - link to match return.

Mufs 4s posted only 58 at Musselburgh but had the hosts 8 down in the end - some photos posted by Iain Martin on Facebook.

On Sunday at Fettes, Mufs 3s, completed the unwelcome clean sweep of defeats by losing to Grange 4 - Mufs dismissed for only 89 with N Peet - who was in Grange 1s not that long ago - wreaking havoc in the top order with 5-29. Marcus Lyall top scored with 27, followed by Phil Yelland with 18 and Sutha with 17. Grange reached their target for the loss of 3 wickets - 2 to Adeel and 1 to Martin (off the 10th ball of his over!!).

All round, a poor weekend and plenty of thinking for our batters' to do in particular. Hope to see 'em at nets on Monday working on their game! Fuller details of the games and scorecards are on the Message Board.

For the (home) skippers, there is a new ESCA Match Return form this year - available here at this link to Match Return.

A Midweek fixture list can found at this link to Mufs Midweeks. First 20/20 is next Wed 30 Apr at Roseburn (grass wicket) v Currie and Balerno. Availability to Ian Shiels please at 07730 074174 or ian_shiels@hotmail.com.

It should have been a clean sweep of victories for all 3 of the Mufs XIs that played pre-season friendlies, had it not been for a dramatic last over at Paisley where the hosts, Kelburne, stunned Mufs by scoring 15 off the final over to snatch victory off the last ball. Nevertheless good workouts all round to help us make the transition from indoor nets to grass surfaces in advance of the season openers. And some areas of improvement to make to sharpen our games no doubt.

At a sunny but chilly Kelburne Oval, Paisley, Mufs scored 155-9 off 40 overs with Jean-Pierre Cruz-Rocha scoring a fine 47 on debut batting at 4, Raj Sampath a useful 37 in the middle order and Sicknote a dogged (slow!) 17 up top. After a stodgy start and early loss of wickets this had turned into what seemed a competitive score on a typical April slow and low wicket. For Kelburne, R.McLean took 3-3 and I.Bennett 2-21.

In reply after a marvellous tea, Kelburne were pegged back by good Mufs bowling and the regular fall of early wickets. But with the chill perhaps affecting the standards of fielding - or simply just poor application - we let Kelburne wriggle off the hook, with ex-pro Butt proving a stubborn thorn in the Mufs side with a fine 75 before being run out trying to keep up with an ascending run-rate. With one over to go we still looked home and hosed as Kelburne needed 15 for victory with 7 down, after Raj had bowled a tremendous penultimate over - finishing in the end with 2 wickets for 14 off 7 overs. However, one should never count one's chickens as they say, as Kelburne shocked Mufs in an astonishing final over blitz, set up by a stonking straight 6 off the first ball by young Campbell. Then McDonald swiped another boundary and with a series of scrambled 1s and 2s Kelburne managed a last ball victory, finishing on 156-7 off 40 overs (I.Butt 75, J.McDonald 23no, S.O'Connell 18, D.Campbell 12 no). Jean-Pierre Cruz-Rocha, with his 47 and a tidy 2-25 spell with the ball, was voted Mufs MoM with Raj a close second. Some lessons to be learnt by all afore the season - and an excellent workout in a competitive but very good-natured friendly game which we would love to repeat same time next year. Apart from that last over !

A Mufs 2s/3s XI took on Largo 2 at Roseburn - batting first Mufs scored 206 for 7 from 45 overs with Nadeem Amjid top scoring with an excellent 58, Regan Black 48, and Chris Banks 33 not out. For Largo M. Sneddon took 2-18 and A. Robertson 2-31. Largo were dismissed for 83ao from 43.4 overs with R. Ealand 22 and R. Tooze 15. For Mufs Siva took 2-1, Nadeem Amjid 2-3, and Mark Williamson 2-19.

In the other match at Roseburn, across on the artificial, a Mufs 3s/4s XII took on a Dalgety Bay XII in a 40 over game with two Mufs newcomers making up Dalgety Bay numbers ironically top scoring for them - Marcus Lyall with 51 not out and Dale Simpson with 19 - as Dalgety Bay Mufs posted 132. Mufs bowling stars were Ed Long with 3-16 and a fine return to action for Andy Piggott with 2-17 and a catch. Mufs chased down the target with 5 wickets to spare with Chris Donaldson 41 not out, Billy Sneddon scoring 32 (including 3 sixes), Lindsay Towns 16 and Graham Watson 15 - the bowling star for Dalgety Bay was another Mufs newcomer on 'loan' - Pranay with 2-16.

On this Wednesday there is an internal club 20/20 at Roseburn being billed as a Melv XI v Raj XI - players are required - and should be a good spectacle anyway so come on down.

We've not had a rotten joke posted up for a while (memories of Ed Clark's jokes are fading...) so here goes...

Mexican Oysters

MDCC does not in any way condone the practice of bull fighting or the eating of anyone's testicles.

The first of the season's Monday Outdoor Nets at Roseburn Park will be held on Monday 21st April from 6pm - try to be on time to help set-out the netting onto the cages, plus the evening light obviously won't last that long.

Teams have been announced for the 3 pre-season friendlies at Roseburn Park - team listings are on the Message Board - availability has been good so there might be a few who miss out on a game but the outdoor nets will be put up so come on down and cheer the guys on and have a net. You might find yourself dragged into a game anyway!! But we can assure you that with us now running 4 teams in the League each weekend then we will be needing you!! - so there will be plenty of cricket for all. Anyone not yet paid Club Subs can of course bring them down to the Saturday games to give to captains or down to nets.

A reminder that we will renovating the other outdoor net lane at Roseburn on Sunday morning (from 10am or so) - volunteers required - let Don Wilkie or me know you are coming.

Today saw a significant milestone in our Club's continuing development - the formal signing off of our Top Club Development Plan by us and Gordon Drummond from Sporting Chance/Cricket Scotland and thus the achievement of Active Status. Thanks to Iain Martin for his hard work with the paperwork. Now the hardwork in the gym hall, park and nets really begins ... see news item below about Youth development.

So with our Top Club Active status accreditation now achieved we need to put the plans into action! And help will be required. We are looking to do some introduction to cricket sessions at Gylemuir Primary School this summer (May/June)- some extra helpers to accompany our qualified coaches would be useful. If interested please let Henry Collin (henrycollin@btinternet.com 07989 395037) know asap as he will need to co-ordinate getting your Disclosure Scotland clearance via the Education Dept, and fast!

We will also be putting in place a regular Thursday youth practice session (5.00-6.30) at Roseburn Park as part of our youth development efforts - if interested in this please let me (Ian Shiels) or Iain Martin know - and again we will need to get you Disclosure Scotland cleared (via Cricket Scotland this time!!). This winter Cricket Scotland will be running another Level 1 Coaching course - let me know (ian_shiels@hotmail.com) if you are likely to be interested.

Other youth development activities will see myself and Mark Williamson help out Sporting Chance coaches with after-school cricket sessions being run at Tynecastle High School. So all in all an exciting new chapter in the history of our Club has started.

Hopefully not a sign of things to come as the friendly game against St Michaels CC unsurprisingly falls victim to the wintry weather. Anyway there are three friendly games being played next Saturday 19th to look forward to! Let the skippers' know your availability if you haven't already. Teams should get posted up on the Message Board - if in doubt phone up a skipper!! We may be oversubscribed for the three teams so if you are not picked then, with two teams playing at Roseburn, by all means go on down as the outdoor Nets may be up as well for some practice.

On Saturday a Mufs XI hopefully will travel to Dumfries to take on St Michael's CC and defy the elements (to a degree) in a pre-season 'warm-up' friendly match. Meanwhile for those not in the XI they have a warm and cosy indoor net session between 12-2pm! The Club, as always sheds the odd player each year for a variety of reasons - off travelling, moving away, 30 pieces of silver (hiss), injury or insanity. So we always need to recruit and retain. And that is a responsibility for EVERYONE not just a few club officials nor relying on this website (i.e. the new player reg) to bring in the new players. Its even more important this year as we need to find 44 vaguely fit bodies to play each weekend! So spare no sinew in your efforts to RECRUIT, RECRUIT, RECRUIT !!

And for those of you still yet to send in a Player Availability Form or pay your Subs - get them in now!!

Having done such a smashing job on one of the Net batting ends at Roseburn already we are keen to renovate the other lane on Sunday 20th April - 10.00am start. So volunteers required - please let either Don Wilkie know (text or call 07866 797831) or me Ian Shiels (07730 074174) so we know who to call if the works had to be postponed at short notice.

For those not involved in the first pre-season friendly match an extra session of indoor nets has been booked at Edinburgh Academy Sports Centre (Arboretum Road) for Saturday 12 April - from 12pm to 2pm.

Its been a wee while since we met for a beverage. So a social gathering shall be convened from 8pm on Saturday 5th at old haunt Berts Bar (William St, West End).

With 44 players needed each Saturday this season and some pre-season friendlies coming up then we need to have a good idea of our player pool availability in advance! Please fill in the attached Player Availability Form (don't need to fill in all the season's games if you are not sure!!) and send back to murrayfield-dafscc@uk2.net and copy to me at ian_shiels@hotmail.com or print out and bring to nets.

Talking of which this Sat 5th is the last scheduled Indoor Net session (1-3pm) and so another chance to impress our captains new and old. If you haven't attended, then now's your chance!!

Who needs that Charlie Dimmocks and her Groundforce crew? A Mufs hit squad spent a soggy Sunday at Roseburn Park renovating one of the outdoor net batting ends - a job very well done! The other net end will be tackled at the season end. The Club owes these fine gentlemen a drink or two:- Don Wilkie, Nick Hill, Ian Shiels, Martin Ward, Tom Wheeler, Paul Leonard, and Phil and Neil Yelland.

A pictoral guide to renovating batting ends can be found at this link to Roseburn Nets Renovation. Also a chance to see an early emerging candidate for Worst Dressed Mufs Workman Mufta Award.

A call for volunteers to help out at Roseburn - first this Good Friday (from 9:30am) - UPDATE: WORKS NOW POSTPONED - to help with work to level out the saddles on the square - then, as previously posted, on Sun 30th March from 10.00am to help relay the batting ends.

We are delighted to announce that there will be Club Indoor nets next Saturday at the earlier time of 12-2pm - we had originally not booked anything given the Easter Holiday - but there's a sizeable contigent of Muffers still around so we have now booked this extra session. The following Saturday we return to 1-3pm.

We have a few pre-season fixtures lined up to get us into gear for the start of the 2008 campaign:

Saturday 12th April MDCC v St Michaels CC - Away at Dumfries
Saturday 19th April MDCC v Kelburne CC - Away at Whitehaugh, Paisley
Saturday 19th April MDCC v Largo 2 - Home at Roseburn - (grass)
Saturday 19th April MDCC v Dalgety Bay - Home at Roseburn - (artificial)

Volunteers are needed to help us with the job of renovating the Outdoor Nets at Roseburn. What we are doing is lifting the batting ends, refilling the underlying base material and then relaying the mats. This work will be undertaken on Sunday 30th March - meet at the Roseburn nets from 10:00am.

Mufs completed a somewhat less than successful campaign in the Cricket Scotland Indoor Sixes last Friday and are eliminated from the tournament. Fuller details posted at the Mufs Message Board by Vesty. Hopefully some lessons learnt out of the tournament experience but definitely a bit of fun had nevertheless.

Charlotte Bascombe has been representing Scotland at the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa. Full details can be found at the Cricket Europe website. A young Scottish side found things tough but jolly well done anyway. And no run-outs for Pickles.

A reminder that Club Indoor Nets are on this Saturday 23 Feb, 1-3pm at Edinburgh Academy Sports.

* Bumper Pack of Yorkshire Tea Bags
* Tablecloth
* Money-off vouchers for Yorkshire Tea cakes and biscuits
* Plus a selection of other Yorkshire Tea goodies

Should help things along at Roseburn Park !!

While here.... a wee test for you in the attached test for dementia. Or just plain ol stupidity.

Mufs have been drawn against East Kilbride in the Lloyds TSB Scotland Trophy - fixture to be played on Sunday 8 June (reserve date Sunday 15 June). Full details can be found at this link to the Trophy draw.

A message from the USA bound, Master Lawrence...

"Hi all,

You're all invited to my farewell drinks (sniff!) ...
... on Wed 27th Feb in The Guildford Arms from 6.30pm (www.guildfordarms.com/images/guildford-map-web.jpg)

This will be the last chance to catch-up before I fly off to the land of the free, & I hope to catch up with as many people as possible!

Cheers,
Keith"

2008 ESCA League Fixtures are now published on the ESCA website. In the season openers, Mufs Ones have an early chance to gain revenge away at Heriot's 2s, Twos will host Marchmont (at Roseburn), Threes away to Grange 4, and Fours away to Musselburgh 2s.

A reminder that this Sunday 17th sees the last single hour Open net session at 5-6pm at Academy Sports.

Apologies for the delay - the AGM minutes are now available at this link to MDCC AGM Minutes. Transcripts of Captains' epic speeches to follow... get yer hankies ready.

While here.... one knocked up the attached Recruitment Flyer to post-up in the Cow Corner shop - but if you wish (go on, go on, go on) you can do your bit too for recruitment by posting this up as well at a location of your choice... best to place it somewhere where a passing cricketer might see it of course.

The Committee is delighted to announce that Melvyn Clench has been appointed to the position of MDCC First Team Skipper. I am sure all in the club will do their utmost to support Melv in his new role. This also means that we have a vacancy of Midweek Captain - expressions of interest please to us at murrayfield-dafscc@uk2.net.

The first of our Club Nets was held on Saturday 24 January at Academy Sports. There was a good turnout of 23 of which 16 paid their 2008 Subs (which made our Treasurer jolly happy). The next Club Nets are in two weeks time, that is, on the Sat 9th Feb at 1-3pm.

For those unable to wait for their next fix of cricket netting, then remember that there is also the Academy Sports Open Nets session at 5-6pm this Sunday 3 Feb - repeated also on the 10th and 17th.

Mufs first ever outing in the Indoor Sixes was certainly fun and frantic but unfortunantly our lack of experience of this format cost us as we were defeated by both Preston Village in a bit of thriller and then comprehensively by a strong Freuchie team. The perennial club weak point - running between the wicket - was prominently exposed on the night, lets say!! We have a chance of revenge and/or further comedy running most probably on Friday 22 Feb, with a repeat set of fixtures against these clubs.

Results:

Cricket Media Super Sixes - Results 25th January 2008

Freuchie CC: 116/1 in 10 overs (14 pts) R Birrell 26*, S Gourlay 26*, S Galloway 25*
Preston Village CC: 79/5 in 6.4 overs (2 pts) S Ramson Jnr 25*, G Galloway 2/17

Preston Village CC: 126/4 in 10 overs (14 pts) S Ramson Jnr 51 *, S Galloway 2/17
Murrayfield Dafs CC: 119/5 in 8.2 overs (5 pts) D Abraham 55

Freuchie CC: 138/5 in 10 overs (14 pts) S Birrell 44*, S Galloway 33, M Word 2/23
Murrayfield Dafs CC: 62/5 in 4.5 overs (4 pts) S Birrell 2/7

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2008 Club Membership Subscriptions are now due (our membership year runs Jan-Dec). Fees are £60 for waged - £30 for unwaged/student. Paid members get free Indoor Club Nets. So bring your subs cash or cheques(made payable to Murrayfield-DAFS CC)along to nets or send to our Treasurer, Paul Hubbard, at 42 South Gyle Wynd, Edinburgh, EH12 9HJ.

Hats off to Tom Wheeler as he is taking to the stage again with the Holyrood Amateur Theatrical Society at the Pleasance Cabaret Bar from Friday 25 Jan to Sunday 28th - 7.30pm. A bit of a"press-release" of sorts from the ol' luvvy-dahling himself...

"The blurb for the show refers to "unforgettable entertainment in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere" - I think that translates as "the bar will be open". There'll be a couple of (very) short plays in the first half, and a bit of everything in the second - music, capoiera (which, for the uninitiated, is a sort of cross between dancing and acrobatics), and what might loosely be termed "comedy" from me. There's likely to be a topical element to my act - primarily because I won't get round to writing it until the last minute. And if I'm really struggling to get a laugh then I'll try recreating my running between the wickets at Heriots last season, that's bound to do the trick...

Tickets are 6 quid - happy for people to email me at imsorryihavent@cluemail.com if they want to pre-book - Tom Wheeler"

Because of the Indoor 6s on the Friday, then a few of us will be venturing to barrack... sorry... support Tom and his crew on the Saturday. Come on down to see a Maestro at work.

New (and shortest reigning... and undefeated!) First Team Skipper, Keith Lawrence, has announced that he is to stand down due to him taking up from March an environmental economist position that is based in Washington, US of A. This means there is a vacancy for the Ones Captaincy post again. Any interested candidates wishing to be considered by the Committee for this position should email us at murrayfield-dafscc@uk2.net by January 25th, thanks. One spiffingly good candidate has emerged already. We of course wish Nasty all the best in his new jolly exciting job.

Mufs have been drawn away against Penicuik in the reformatted Masterton competition - first round to be completed by May 29th. There is also a mini-Masterton tournament starting later where we have been drawn at home to Fauldhouse - First round to be played by June 20th. Full draw details and a fuller explanation of the changes to the Masterton can be found at the new ESCA website in a Masterton News article.

A reminder that the Club's first Indoor Net session will start on Saturday 26th January from 1pm to 3pm at the Edinburgh Academy Sports Centre at 10 Arboretum Rd - opposite Holy Cross's ground. See full list of dates at this link to Mufs 2008 Indoor Nets.

There has been some confusion regarding the general Open Nets that Academy Sports Centre ran last year on Sundays... Master Vesty's posting on the message board about this is not correct - the 6-8pm Sunday slot he mentions has been taken by Carlton CC - one went to see the manager today (Fri 11 Jan) to check-up and he said there has been very heavy demand for slots this year from clubs which has taken up the majority of free slots in the hall. However, there was the odd 1 hour slot free so we asked him to book these as Open Nets. These 1 hour sessions are:-

Sunday 27 January - 5-6pm
Sunday 3 February - 5-6pm
Sunday 10 February - 5-6pm
Sunday 17 February - 5-6pm

No doubt there will be a small charge to be paid at the Centre reception (I forgot to ask how much! - will check.)

The Club now has an account at Cow Corner - so 5% of the value of purchases made by our players at Cow Corner will be refunded to the Club. Just make sure you let them know you are from MDCC ! We would urge our players to support Cow Corner - a business run by fellow ESCA cricketers from Kirkbrae CC.

You will them at 90 Brunswick Street (off Leith Walk), Edinburgh and at www.cowcc.com.

Open 6 days a week:
Tue - Fri 11:00 - 18:00
Sat / Sun 10:00 - 17:00

Be afraid......Mufs 2s 2007 Season Stats finally now available at our Statistics page. Top run scorer was Chris Banks with 143 runs at a very creditable 20.43 average. Top wicket taker Stuart Coull with 13 wickets at 18.23 apiece closely chased by The Nightbus, Tony Simpson, with 12 at 14.50 apiece. Some horror stories amongst these stats though - but there's always next season to put it right!!

We were asked to post-up the following Edinburgh Sports Clubs Update Newsletter from the Council. Some food for thought in here for developing the club in partnership with the Council methinks.

We have booked a series of indoor net sessions at the Edinburgh Academy Junior School Sports Hall off Arboretum Rd - entrance is opposite Holy Cross' ground. These commence on Saturday 26th January 2008 from 1pm to 3pm. Full schedule below. There may be some additional midweek evening nets booked closer to the season start.

Mufs have entered the Cricket Scotland Indoor Media Sixes tournament, drawn in Group C with Freuchie and Preston Village.

Our schedule is:

25 Jan 7.30 Mufs vs PV
25 Jan 8.30 Freuchie vs Mufs
22 Feb 7.30 Mufs vs Freuchie
22 Feb 8.30 PV vs Mufs

7 Mar Finals Night.

There will be a "match fee" per night - probably £5 - to help cover some of the entrance fees. We need to know who is interested in playing - please email us at murrayfield-dafscc@uk2.net, thanks.

A happy New Year to all Mufs, past and present. Here's to success to all on and off the park in 2008.