2008 news stories can be found at 2008 News Archive. Go to our Sitemap for previous years' News.

Our Juniors have been in action at U-13 and U-11 Level in the LJCDG Indoor Tournament. On Sunday 21st the U-13s were involved in great game against Penicuik. The lads had what was arguably their best performance to date with excellent bowling and fielding to restrict Penicuik to 258. In reply we lost a flurry of wickets early doors to make the target tougher (loss of 5 runs per wicket) but with 18 neeeded of the last over the lads so nearly got there, but a vital loss of a wicket 2nd last ball meant that Penicuik just shaded it by 4 runs. Generally there has been very satisfactory progress as the lads go up the learning curve which bodes well for the future.

We have also had 3 MDAFS players & parents go through the UKCC Level 1 Cricket Coaching course - JP, Dougie Adamson, and Patrick McCarthy.

At the EGM held on Thursday 11 February the Murrayfield Hotel the 2010 Team leadership positions were resolved as detailed below:.

Election Of 2010 Office Bearers (Captains and Vice-Captains)

1st XI Captain: Candidates: Mangesh Akerkar – Elected.
(Proposed: Paul Hubbard, Seconded: Ankeet Vora)

1st XI Vice-captain: Candidates: Tom Wheeler – Elected.
(Proposed: Don Wilkie, Seconded: Ian Shiels)

2nd XI Captain: Candidates: Andy Lacey – Elected.
(Proposed: Ian Shiels, Seconded: Tom Wheeler)

2nd XI Vice-captain: Candidates: Suthakar Rangaswamy – Elected.
(Proposed: Don Wilkie, Seconded: Ankeet Vora)

3rd XI Captain: Candidates: Vamshi Sunki – Elected.
(Proposed: Don Wilkie, Seconded: Tom Wheeler)

3rd XI Vice-captain: Candidates: Darren Kidd – Elected.
(Proposed: Vamshi, Seconded: Andy Lacey)

4th XI Captain: Candidates: Don Wilkie – Elected.
(Proposed: Ian Shiels, Seconded: Luke Hayes)

4th XI Vice-captain: The EGM agreed that the Executive Committee should consider suitable candidates and appoint. Update - Chris Richardson now appointed!

Ex Officio Committee Members:

Players’ Representatives
Vimal D’Souza had resigned as a Players’ Representative.

Ankeet Vora was elected as a Players’ Representative. Proposed by Don Wilkie, seconded by Tom Wheeler.

Please find a link to formal note of the EGM meeting.

Good luck to all the incoming officials - our thanks to the outgoing officials for the efforts.

An EGM has been called for Thursday 11 February at 7pm at the Murrayfield. This EGM is being held to resolve the Club team captaincy and vice-captaincy positions.

MDAFS Juniors kicked off the 2010 season with an indoor U-11 LJCDG match against Watsonians. Unfortunantly Sonians were firing on all cyclinders and our lads were understandably a bit rusty as we lost too many wickets in our reply. Still, a good experience for the lads. Next up will a tough challenge for our U-13s in a match at 2.15 at West Woods v a team from Loretto.

Details of upcoming MDCC junior events this spring....

Our spring Junior Nets are being held at Academy Sports Centre (Edin Academy Junior School, Arboretum Rd) as follows:

12-2pm for each.

We found that 1 hr sessions were a bit too rushed for previous indoor nets - but the Centre wouldn't do 90 mins hires. So we have 2 hr sessions which should provide plenty of opportunity for skills work/drills before netting.

The other event is the 2010 Lothian Junior Cricket Development Group Indoor 8-a-side Tournament which we have entered at Under-13 and U-11 level this year.

Games are as follows - all at Westwoods, Fettes:

A Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all Muffers both past and present wherever you are in this world! Have a good un.

MDAFS are delighted to announce that we will have the services of a new Edinburgh Council backed Community Cricket Coach for the next two years. The post is being funded by CEC, the CSDT and by us and Corstorphine CC. We were part of the interview panel which met recently and appointed Antony McKenna (a young and enthusiastic Level 2 coach). Antony will be of great help to us in progressing our Junior section further forward. Talking of coaching we still have funds available for anyone wishing to take a formal coaching course - let me (Ian Shiels) know on 07730 074174.

Courtesy of Daddy Coull, who unearthed this snippet of history, as he explains:

"I picked up The Encyclopedia of Scottish Cricket in a second hand bookshop. It's by David Potter and published in 1999 so a bit old. Here's the bit about Murrayfield, thought it was interesting and could make for a website entry during the winter months where nothing much is going on...."

MURRAYFIELD - a team with an interesting history. They play at Roseburn Park in the shadow of Murrayfield Rugby Stadium. They were founded in 1909 as London Road Church when Reverend James Anderson and several of his Kirk Session decided to form a cricket club from among the number of his Bible Class. The historic decision was reached on May 25th 1909, but their first game was not played until a year later against the similarly ecclesiastical Central Wesleyans. Presumably these proponents of muscular Christianity saw cricket as a way of diverting wayward youth from the dangers of alcohol and other fleshy sins.

To survive, the club had to attract young men from outwith the Church, but the club continued to be part of the London Road Church until in 1952 when a little Presbyterian pressure over the vexed issue of Sunday cricket compelled the club to dissociate itself from the Church and to become merely London Road Cricket Club. After a nomadic existence over over various of Edinburgh's parks, London Road settled in in Roseburn Park in the 1950s and in 1992 changed their name to Murrayfield to assume some local identity.

As a team they have had their moments, particularly in the Parks Trophy which they have won 16 times, totally dominating it in the 1960s and their latest victory being 1996. They joined the East of Scotland League round about the time that they severed their Church connection, and almost reached the final of the Masterton Trophy in 1967, beating teams like Leith Franklin and Edinburgh Accies. The have played in every division of the East League, and reached the first first Division for season 1996. In 1998, however, they were relegated to Division 2 of the East of Scotland League, but not without beating St. Modans on the last day to give the title to Glenrothes.

The have produced some fine players, but quite a few of them move on to other Edinburgh teams - Billie Law, Alistair Swarbrick, David Fraser and Fraser Watts, for example, but they have also been well served by stalwarts like Phil Yelland, David Fisher and Murdo McLeod. They can also claim (something that few others can) that they had a player who has played in European football. Murray McDermott spent almost all his football career with Raith Rovers and indeed is still talked about in Kirkcaldy as Rovers' greatest ever keeper, but he spent some time with Hearts at the end of his career and on September 7th 1988 substituted for Henry Smith in a UEFA Cup tie against St. Patricks of Dublin. Great cricketing moments have included the dismissing of Bangour Hospital for 7 runs in 1958, and Robin Ballantyne's taking of all 10 Leith Accies wickets for 35 runs in 1966.

A particularly sad occasion was the death of former player Chris Warne, one of the very few people in Britain to die of CJD. Yet there has been a happy side to this as well, for they were able to travel to Derby to play against St. Luke's and St Michael's (another ecclesiastical connection!) for whom Chris also played and they hope to make this an annual affair.

London Road/Murrayfield have always been an enthusiastic bunch of cricketers, and have a good reputation for sporting behaviour. They try to field three teams every Saturday, but admit this has been a struggle n recent years.Like many other Edinburgh teams who play on public parks, they have had cause to feel short changed by the Edinburgh Corporation whose fees rise and whose commitment diminishes.

Back to Headlines

Club Indoor net dates can be found below. Venue again will be the Edinburgh Academy Junior School Indoor Hall (Academy Sports) - off Arboretum Road. Juniors net session dates/times to be announced.

Sat 13 Feb - 1pm-3pm

Sat 20 Feb - 2pm-4pm

Sat 27 Feb - 2pm-4pm

Sat 6 March - 2pm-4pm

Sat 13 March - 2pm-4pm

Sat 20 March - 2pm-4pm

Sat 27 March - 2pm-4pm

Sat 3 April - 2pm-4pm

Sat 10 April - 2pm-4pm

Sat 17 April - 2pm-4pm

The 2010 Cup fixtures for the Cow Corner and the Masterton have been announced - with a CC game v Drummond-Trinity and mouth-watering Masterton mayhem in store with Mufs taking on the "auld friend and foe" Holy Cross. Draw details below:-

2010 Cow Corner Draw
Drummond Trinity v Murrayfield Dafs
Boroughmuir v Westquarter

Edin Accies v Holy Cross
Edin South v Livingston

Musselburgh v Old Contemptibles
Marchmont v Morton

Fauldhouse v Peebles
Leith FAB v Preston Villlage

First round by 18th June and the 2nd round by July 16th. Final hopefully at Myreside on a Sunday in August.

Holy Cross reaction etc etc can be found at their highly entertaining HX Blog which also covers some highlights of the ESCA AGM (saves me the effort of posting, ta!!) - main highlight was that the proposal to revise the points system was rejected.

Our final piece of cricketing action this year saw a well-attended (16 boys 'n' gal) MDCC Youth training session using the Academy Sports indoor nets on Friday 20th. It's been a great achievement to get this Section up and running and growing and very, very rewarding to help develop our future players. Thanks to all who have helped. And another plea - if you are interested in helping us in any way with next year's Juniors programme or perhaps to get a coaching qualification, please, please get in touch with either Ia(i)n !!

The main headline must be something like "Apathy Reigns!" The re-election of the Executive Committee and appointment of Auditor etc went through but we could not satisfactorily elect the Team captaincy/vice-captaincy positions due to a lack of clear candidates on the night, bar 2 proposals for 2s captaincy. An EGM will be called in January to hopefully resolve this matter. The plea for volunteers to step forward for the new Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer posts also went unanswered. That there remain so few people within a club of 70 odd members willing to help run this club is deeply disappointing particularly at a time when the club is continuing to progress and develop as a whole with "off-the-park" developments.

On the money front - main headlines are subs for for adults £80 (from £75 in 2009); Unwaged/Students be £40 (from £30); that unwaged U-18s be £25 (new category) and U16-s be £15 (from £10). Weekend match fees will be £6 (adult) and £4(concession) (from £6/£3) and midweek be £3 and £2. Muftas Awards ceremony should take place early in 2010.

Official notice of AGM from El Sec...

Dear All

As Secretary of Murrayfield DAFS Cricket Club, I hereby give notice that the Annual General Meeting of the club will take place at the Murrayfield Hotel on Thursday 12th November at 7.30pm.

Any motions or agenda items are now welcome - please ensure these are forwarded to me, no later than Tuesday 10th November.

Please note applications and nominations are also welcome for ALL roles within the club. A full list of these is available on the Murrayfield Dafs CC message board - this includes a few new roles - Assistant Treasurer and Assistant (Fixtures) Secretary. With the scope of the club growing it is vital that we have more members willing to lend a hand with the running of the club, so if you can spare a bit of extra time to help your cricket club thrive, this is your calling. Again please forward any applications or nominations to the Secretary, ideally no later than Tuesday 10th Novemeber, although applications/nominations will be accepted at the AGM as well. Each nomination will require a proposer and a seconder although again these can be obtained at the AGM itself.

If you wish to have more information about any of the roles at the club please give me a call/email on the contact details below.

See you all on the 12th

Yours In Cricket

Iain Martin
Murrayfield Cricket Club Secretary

The MDAFS AGM will be held on Thurs 12 November at the Murrayfield Hotel. Details on that tbc. Hope u are wintering well - Mr Belly is.

A youth indoor coaching session is being held on Fri 30th Oct at Edinburgh Academy Junior School Hall (Academy Sports) and then again on Fri 20 Nov - both at 7-8pm. Any volunteers wishing to help welcome - let me (Ian S) know if so.

With Kelburn beating Fauldhouse in the SNCL play-off, MDAFS Ones relegation to Division 2 is confirmed. Disappointing indeed, particularly as a final percentage of near 63% would have had us midtable in virtually every other division, but we have no-one to blame but ourselves and so mmust work harder next year to ensure we bounce back up. Winter well, Muffers!

And so to the season finale... Ones again in a must-win position to have any chance of survival. We won, in a slightly odd manner as Heriot's conceded on the 30 over (result) mark - just as the rain stops - with us 20 runs away from victory target of 100 but with 6 wickets in hand. We care not and bank the priceless 20 points, and with news of Boroughmuir's capitulation at Largo reaching us, we head to Myreside to see how our old chums/foes Holy Cross were faring against a strong Watsons 2s side, chasing 227. Not well, and it got rapidly worse in front of our eyes in the gloom as Holy Cross fall well short. And so Watsons and Largo keep their heads above ours and despite our late great rally its too little too late and so we find ourselves finishing in the drop zone. There is one final chance, Fauldhouse won the league by the skin of their teeth and play Kelburne in a play-off for promotion to the SNCL. If Fauldhouse win, we are saved as only one team will drop. Fingers crossed for DJ and all at FVCC - the play-off now postponed to Sat 12 Sept at Stirling.

Elsewhere... top marks for Danny and Sherri as they both sign off with centuries. Danny hit 4 huge sixes in his 106 as the Twos ended up on 229-9 off 50 overs, with Adeel with an unbeaten 25 being the next best individual score. The bowlers restricted Preston Village for 175-6 off their 50 overs with 3 wickets taken by Anand. 3s defeated Heriots 3s and poor old 4s endured a trip to Fife to look at a flooded pitch.

And so to the Sat eve... end of season pish-up and farewell to Phil and Cath at Berts... and later on at the Rat Pack Piano Bar. Suffice to say all had a jolly good time and a great send off for Mr and Mrs Claypole. Some piccies will be posted soon!

Thanks to all for their great efforts this year - most of you we will see next year all bright eyed and bushy tailed at indoor nets no doubt if not before (curry nights, socials, the Muftas etc etc) ... for those who are returning abroad then we bid you a fond farewell and I hope you take some great memories of us Muffers with you!

Now available: Twos Season 2009 Statistics.

The turncoats were vanquished in the end as Mufs prevailed over Bots in a midweek clash at a damp Roseburn. MDAFS post 114 off 18 overs with Luke a quickfire 23 retired, Tom and Banksy 20 retired. Bots finish on 86 with Maggy 19 top Bot but stumped Barker bwd Mizon trying to cart it while a single away from the 20 run retirement mark!

Another chance to sup in the Division 1 last chance saloon as another must-win game is won by Mufs Ones which also brings Watsons 2s right back into the relegation dogfight... skipper Wheels reports...

"MDCC 150-9 (50 overs) - Cruz Rocha 46, Scott 12, Hubbard 12, Akerkar 11; Boorman 2-28, Brooks 2-23, Cash 2-31

Watsonians 83 all out (35.2 overs) - Breach 36, Sevak 14; Clench 7.2-4-7-2, Scott 7-1-10-1, Wheeler 4-0-11-0, Cruz Rocha 9-1-26-3, Devanagere 8-1-21-4

Great effort from JP in particular with the bat on a damp and tricky track - although after all the recent rain, groundsman Hubbard did a grand job getting it to play as well as it did. Other smallish but vital contributions all the way down the order took us to a defendable if not dominant score.

Then Melv and Ads turned the game crucially in our favour, each removing an opener for a duck in their first overs, both smartly caught by a grateful Luke at mid on. Dave Breach, ex-Cramond/Roseburn colleague of several of us and all round good egg, led the rebuilding effort, but wickets fell regularly at the other end to Raj D and JP, who complemented each other perfectly to blast/strangle out the visitors. Dave's departure for 36 was probably the clincher and Melv eventally returned to polish off the innings for 83.

Great and crucial win, and a game played in excellent spirit. Mr Belly has already set out the maths - if we win and either Largo or Watsons lose (or are rained off) then the great escape will be a reality.

Tom "

Elsewhere... the 2s trip to Kismet was called off due to a flooded pitch and with Dunnikier scratching the 2s will be in Div 3 again next year; 3s had a easy (in the end) win over Accies 2s... MUFS 3s 137 ao (41.5 overs) rescued by Skipper Lacey with 63 and EA 2s 62 ao (26.5 overs) with Alan Patterson with the fantastic figures of 9-3-8-5 ! 4s were comprehensively whacked by DT2s.

MDAFS midweekers played the 'Men from Atlantis' at Roseburn and triumphed by 7 wickets chasing 80 off 18 overs. Morton won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Turton and Bell got Morton off to a solid start before Turton is caught by Raj S off Subhash for 10. Bell scores an agressive 23 until caught and bowled by Mr Belly. Banksy bowls Kinghorn for 14 but Morton at 61-3 with 4 overs to go are still handily placed. However a spell of 3-13 off 3 overs by Adeel Raza keeps Morton pegged back despite sound fine and aggressive running (Muffers take note). Morton finish on 80 off their 18 over allocation. MDAFS bowling figures: Tim Mizon 3-0-17-0, Subhash 4-0-17-1 (despite a 3 over per bowler restriction!), JNB an economical and unlucky 3-0-10-0, Mr Belly with 2-0-7-1, Banksy 3-0-13-1, Adeel 3-0-13-3.

MDAFS start steadily but with little exertion at first in the running between the wickets department by Jigar and Raj - in stark contrast with Morton's agressive running (lessons to learn, chaps)! 42 runs are accumulated in increasing tempo until Jigar falls for 26, caught by Farrell off Bell. Raj Sampath retires on a 31 lit up by some excellent straight drives. Adeel (2) and Reyaz (1) also fall to Bell and Nathan respectively but MDAFS are pretty much home and hosed. Anand, 9 not out and Banksy 2 not out see us home in the descending gloom well before the rains could arrive to help our aquatic-cricket specialist opponents.

Due to the heavy rain on Friday, all MDAFS Saturday League games fell victim to the wet weather.

Courtesy of OMH, 2009 Statistics to date for the Ones.

Glory and more squeaky bums at Myreside as MDAFS retain the Cow Corner 20/20 Trophy as OMH reports...

Details of Sunday's epic result:

Semi Final against Peebles and, with Raja not feeling fully fit, OMH took over Captaincy and won the toss. Batting first, we set off at 8 an over - and pretty much maintained that throughout, with good contributions from all our batsmen

L Hayes..............30
M Asif..................20
M Agerjar............43
J-P Cruz Rocha....26no
A Venkatesh.......29 no
R Black
R Devanagre
P Hubbard
P Rogers
A Scott
M Clench
Extras................ 27

Total...................175 for 3

In reply, Peebles gave it their best shot but were always behind the rate and wickets fell regularly.

R Devanagre.....4 - 0 - 21 - 0
M Clench...........3 - 0 - 20 - 1
J-P Cruz Rocha..4 - 0- 26 - 2
P Rogers...........3 - 0 - 16 - 2
A Scott..............4 - 0 - 37 - 2
M Asif................2 - 0 - 19 - 0

Meanwhile, Fauldhosue restricted Marchmont to 130 and knocked them off without losing a wicket. The final would be a different affair to the semis......

Raja returned for the final, but OMH retained the Captaincy and once again won the toss (lessons on how to do this for regular Captains available for a small charge). Decided to put Fauldhouse in and this appeared to be a masterstroke as excellent bowling, backed up by impressive fielding, saw fauldhouse stumble, fall and collapse their way to 93. A resurgent Raja spearheaed the attack, bowling his four straight through while Mel and the Raj bowled superb lines to restrict scoring at the other end. J-P followed Raja and Adam finsihed off form that end - their figures speak for themselves. All out for 93 and retention of the cup is in site....

R Sampath........4 - 0 - 25 - 3
M Clench...........3.2 - 0 - 13 - 1
R Devanagre.....4 - 0 - 16 - 1
J-P Cruz Rocha 4 - 0 - 11 - 3
P Rogers...........2 - 0 - 17 - 0
A Scott..............2 - 0 - 9 - 2

Chasing 93 should have been relatively easy, but we managed to provide a tense and enthralling finale to the competition for everyone playign and watching.

Bailey and Law bowled throught their allotted overs and with figures of 1 - 8 and 4 - 10 had us on the ropes at 19 for 5 after 8 overs. Behind the run rate, all our top order gone and staring a most unseemly gubbing in the face. The ship was steadied slightly and we made inroads into the runs needed. But wickets kept falling and we cam to the last over 8 down and still 12 shy of Fauldhouse's total. Adam out first ball brought Mel to the crease but as the batsmen had crossed, Phil was facing. A scampered 2 was followed by a four through square leg - the ball only just making it to the ropes. 7 (or is it 6) needed off three and a glorious drive over midwicket left 2 (or is it 3) off 2. Clarification obtained that if the scores are tied, the winner is decided first on wickets down and second on run rate at 10 overs. Fifth ball pushed to cover...yes, no, maybe confusion averted, but now we really are down to the wire and 2 stgill needed. Phil calm, collected and up for the challenge drives through cover and we have won. Cue much celebration from MUFS and complete disbelief and dispair from Faulhouse.

L Hayes............... 1
M Asif.................. 6
M Akerkar............ 2
J- P Cruz Rocha.. 0
A Venkatesh....... 4
P Hubbard.......... 10
R Sampath......... 17
P Rogers............ 27no
R Devanagre...... 7
A Scott............... 8
M Clench............ 0 no
Extras................ 11

Total.................. 93 for 9

After a couple of celebratory jugs at Myreside, someone suggested repairing to Casa Sampath for beer and food. Tall Raj probably won't remember the details, but he produced a marvellous curry while drinking himself to a standstill (JNB has a competitor in the "get drunk on a fiver" stakes) and we all eventually wandered our ways home. Hope all arrived safe and managed to get up for work today ;)

Well done to all; some great performances and a thoroughly deserved retention of our trophy.

OMH

MDAFS Ones emerged as the only League victors over the weekend with a squeaky-bum victory in a must-win basement battle over Largo by 1 run at Roseburn with MDAFS scoring 217 all out off 48 overs and restricting Largo to 216 for 6 off their 50 overs

MDAFS re-discovered some semblance of batting form at last with a 90 run opening stand between Danny Abrahams (53) and Paul Hubbard (26) before the wheels came off a bit until a 73 run 5th wicket stand between Luke Hayes (65) and Ian Shiels (23) rescued us. Just as we thought we might bat out 50 overs the wheels fell off again with us bowled out after 48 overs. Wicket takers for the Largonians: Nick Rintoul with 3-42, Chris Barclay with 4-25 and Bob Mowat with 3-38.

Largo's spirited run chase was headed by an excellent 112 by Ben Stinson, who's unlucky run-out was perhaps pivotal to the outcome (slipped half-way down the track on the 5th ball of the 49th over). 8 required off the last over and 4 off the final ball - but Tall Raj did the business, Scotty kept his nerve in the field to ensure a 3rd run (for a tie) was not taken and we squeaked home in what was an absolute must-win for MDAFS.
Raj D (1-33), Raja S (1-28) and Scotty (1-49) took 1 wicket each - the other 3 wickets were run outs.
Excellent game played in good spirit.

At the halfway point with our National League opponents restricted to 121 off their 20 overs, we were looking good. We were looking even better at 30 odd off 3 overs as Maggy and Luke were bashing it around. Sadly for us both departed quickly in succession and despite a battling 40 not out by OMH in the gloom we fell short by 9 runs. Tough luck chaps but a Parks Campaign to be proud of nonetheless. Thanks also to the large Mufs support on the night... even old Daffer Freddy was there!!

Wednesday's 20/20 friendly v Old Contemptible's was cancelled due to the Parks Final.

On Sunday we defend our Cow Corner Trophy at Myreside - playing Peebles in a semi-final at 12.30pm. If successful we would play either Marchmont or Fauldhouse in the Final at about 16.30pm. Raj Sampath is captaining in the absence of Tom. Good luck and the best of Mufs, chaps.

Another not terribly good day at the office as wet wickets and some more hapless batting saw losses all round. At least the Ones could not contribute to the hapless batting effort as the trip to Glenrothes fell victim to the heavy overnight rain in Fife. Twos were bowled out for 107 at Roseburn by Falkland 2 and lost by 7 wickets; Threes got the worse of a lost toss and their promotion campaign further dented by a 3 wicket loss manfully trying to defend 71. Similarly the 4s made a good fist of defending a loss total (74) and at one stage were favourites with Leith 3s 31-6, however some strong batting the Leith 3s tail saw them to victory.

In an otherwise gloomy day eslewhere, Dave Clifford took 7 wickets as the 4s won by 70 runs versus Largo 4s at St Andrews. MDAFS4s scored 175/3 (I Mahmud 51, C.Richardson 41, N.Cameron 37, and C Bascombe 16?) with Largo4 posting 101ao (D.Clifford 7/21, G.Zajicek 47no). Debut game also for new young lads Stuart Pringle and Tim Mizon.

Meanwhile at Roseburn, gloom all round as the Threes title challenge was dented by Holy Cross 2s - a loss by 8 runs with 8 balls left. Damage done in particular by our old friend Shannon Bonfield, who scored 38 and also took 5-15 including a hat-trick. A bowler perhaps a bit too hot for Div 5 but an early work commitment had meant he could not turn out for HX1s Division 1 top of the table clash with Fauldhouse. And more misery over the Park on a damp grass wicket that was tricky to bat on, as the Ones fell 38 runs short of Carlton 2s 126 all out (T Barrett a patient 37) with Adam Scott taking 3-26 and Tom 3-27. But in this relegation "40-pointer" our batting failed again with main scorers only Luke hitting a brisk 23 (with one 6 over and beyond the river!) and Belly stranded on 18 not out. The Ones' plight starkly seen in this unofficial Div 1 table.

The Twos game at Dunnikier was rained off.

The overnight and morning rain saw the trip to Bamburgh and also our Juniors visit to Craiglockhart for a Kwik Cricket festival both called off. Monday's Parks Trophy Cup Final is also in doubt as Newfield groundsman had apparently already called it off. Check the message board for updates in due course.

MDAFS news also nows appears on Twitter ! You can find us at www.twitter.com/MDAFS.

Our friends from the Cow Corner Cricket (and hockey) Shop are having a special 30% Off Ashes Sale. So if you need any gear replacing now is the time to do it. Please remember to mention you are a MDAFS player as the Club gets a 5% cash-back on all purchases made by our players/members/associates.

Those looking for Club Shirts (£26) or a Club fleece-style sleeveless jumper (also £26), need only to contact Trotter Enterprises (sorry Ian Shiels on 07730 074174 - with size details please) - also available some Club T Shirts too - as well as some Juniors Polos.

The 1s, 2s and 3s fixtures fell victim to the overnight and morning rain, leaving only the 4s in action with a stonkingly exciting finish as MDAFS snatch victory from the Badgers thanks to Irfan "Pocket Rocket" Mahmud's sublime spell of 5 wkts for 10... match report from Broon:

"The 4s have made something of a speciality of beating the weather this season and so it proved once again. Despite intermittent heavy showers the match against Kirk Brae took place and was completed at Roseburn in a wisely reduced 30 over match.

Another lost toss meant Mufs were put into bat on a temporarily dry wicket. However there was immediate joy for the Badgers as Neil Cameron was bowled by Mak Raja for a duck. What followed was steady batting and steady rain as debutant Shehryar Shah and the returning Nick Hill patiently put on another 85 for the next wicket. However both were to fall in the same Rasheed over as first Shehryar was caught for 45 as was Nick for 19. The partnership was far lower than it would have been with a dry outfield and a hard ball. Irfan immediately fell for 1 and Drew went a couple of overs later for a single too. Hary (Sreehary Kalichamy) was showing some bit hitting and dismissed one ball just short of the Stadium hedge for 6. Rob also added some late hitting and was dismissed off the final ball for 9 with Hary not out on 14. Mufs had thus reached an about par 116/6 which meant that Kirk Brae would almost need 4 an over.

An emergency tea courtesy of Anks, Siva and Sainsbury was polished off and Neil Cameron took the new ball with Gurjeet. The latter almost had Raja caught of a swinging delivery but was put down by Rob, although next over Neil had skipper Jones trapped LBW. Similar to the Mufs innings Kirk Brae set about building a solid partnership and it was the 22nd over with the score on 85 that the next wicket fell when Mak Raja was out LBW for 37 off Irfan. That was the same score as the Mufs 2nd wicket as despite some long faces in the fielding team this was an over more than we’d taken to get the same score. However with only 32 to get and 8 wickets in hand the game was in their favour. However excellent fielding had started to sew some seeds of doubt and erratic running resulted in Irfan running out McMahon for 6 and three balls later Neil claimed Ashraf for 37 off a c&b with the score on 96/4 in the 27th. That meant Kirk Brae needed 21 off 22 balls and the game was well back in the 4s favour as Tahir strode to the crease.

Just 4 balls later Boonie’s over had finished and there was another 12 on the board as Tahir’s 1st and 4th balls were hit for 6s towards the delighted Badger’s team and a slightly concerned Shielsy at the scoreboard. Irfan bowled Rasheed for a duck as his the 28th over only went for a single and it was in the balance again. Gurjeet who hadn’t bowled since the 8th over was handed the ball for the penultimate over and delivered a sensational set of deliveries with only 2 harsh wides coming from it. He also deservedly picked up the wicket of Kahn who was clean bowled for 1. With 6 needed off the last over Irfan took the ball and produced a brilliant 1st ball to bowl the big hitting Tahir for 12. A dot and single followed and that meant 5 needed to win off three. However that was never in doubt as both Clark and D1ckens were bowled to leave him with figures of 5-0-10-5.

That meant tables were turned on last weeks heartbreak and Mufs came out on top by 4 run. Total respect though to Kirk Brae, for an excellent game and for the way they congratulated our boys at the end. And also to every single player for the never say die attitude in the field. Up the Mufs !!!"

With a rare midweek off for Tommy's Cup Hunters, MDAFS midweek action men and (no) women were due to take on the bankers of HBOS in a 20/20 friendly. Unfortunantly heavy rain during the day saw hopes of play fade quicker than blue-chip banking shares. Of course, once we agreed to call the game off, out came the sun....sigh. Next week's action is the Parks Trophy Final at Newfield and then the 'steak sarnie' trip to play the Goblin Ha CC at Gifford, East Lothian. They will now be putting on alternative cuisine for the non-meat eaters I can assure you... £4/£2 match fee will apply.

Other action during the week was a friendly Juniors match v Corstorphine CC Juniors... which was quickly transformed into a general pairs game as only 3 players, and two apologetic Aussie coaches turned up from the opposition. Good fun had by all and a chance for some of our newer juniors to experience getting all the batting gear on.

MDAFS continued on with their scintilating 20/20 Cup form with a 24 run victory over Marchmont at a soggy Cavalry Park on Thursday night. Match details to follow. The final will not be played on this Monday but now on Monday 27 July at Newfield - big following required to cheer on the lads!!

On Tuesday, MDAFS Friendly Midweekers took on Holy Cross at the Arbo. HX scored 144 off 20 and MDAFS scored 100. Fuller details on the Message Board.

League week 11 saw further misery for Ones and Twos with very poor batting performances proving their undoing. A weakened 4s team lost narrowly against Morton 2s by 2 runs - Broon and Martin could not quite emulate the heroics of Anderson and Panesar. Again the Club standard bearers were the 3s with a comfortable win over Largo 3s, due in the main to a 103 run stand between Andy Lacey (57) and Anand (58) plus valuable runs from Adeel with 33.

Week 10 saw a close run defeat for the Ones against the auld enemy Holy Cross - defending 227 (probably 30 under par), we had Cross chasing up to 8 runs an over towards the end, but one horror over saw it back to less than a run a ball and a Cross victory secured by Dougie Russell with an unbeaten half-century. A BBQ and beer flowing into the early hours at the Arbo lessened the pain of defeat. At Roseburn, the Twos were defeated by 8 wickets by a decent Musselburgh team who easily passed the requied total of 113. Better news came from the 4s, who had an easy win over Leith 2, and then on Sunday a nailbiting win for the 3s at Carlton by 2 runs, having spurned a run-out and catch in the final over, the Threes scrape home when Anand took a catch off the second last ball of Dazza. Credit also due to great bowling by Vamshi and Adeel to peg back a runaway (at one point) young, but gifted, Carlton side back. As ever further details and commentary on these games is available at the MDAFS Message Board, Fixtures and Results thread.

More MDAFS Cup Heroics

In stark contrast to our League form, the MDAFS elite secured a place in another Cow Corner Finals Day with a comfortable victory by 42 runs over Edinburgh South. Maggy with 48 and Phildo 33 not the mainstay of MDAFS 146 off 30 overs. The Southsiders started well but great spells in tandem by Anks and Tall Raj totally derailed the South reply in the crucial middle overs.

MDAFS Juniors concluded our first-ever League campaign with a visit to Portgower Place to play Grange B in the LJDG U-13 B League. With showers inundating Edinburgh elsewhere, it was remarkably dry at Stockbridge and the game went ahead. Bright spots for MDAFS in another tough match versus more experienced opponents, was another good innings by Finlay Ross with 26 runs and excellent bowling from Joe Loughrey.

On Sunday 12th our Juniors were in action at the Edinburgh Accies hosted Kwik Cricket Festival. Having lost their opening game v Grange our lads and Holly won their remaining 3 games against West Lothian, Accies and Carlton, with several excellent captain's knocks by Ben Falconer in particular.

Not really breaking news now, but still worth reporting as the various grant giving bodies expect us to give a bit of publicity to these things... and perhaps a bit of modesty on the part of our arch form-filler, von Belly, in formally reporting the news... (and you thought the Committee twiddled their thumbs over the winter months, eh.)

We were delighted to be successful in all three of our grant applications made over the past few months - £9,962 from the Lottery funded Awards for All Programme which covered funding for such items as the new fine turf cutter proudly used by OMH; the new Bola Bowling Machine, and will also pay for Coach Education Courses (see below) and training venue hires. We have also been successful in applying to the CEC Community Grants Fund through the West Edinburgh Neighbourhood Partnership with an award of £3,623 which has been used to purchase youth cricket gear and training and coaching equipment. More recently, we have been able to use SportScotland funded Sportsmatch scheme to match fund sponsorship monies received this year most generously from the Murrayfield Hotel (£500) and from Farrer Consulting (£750) - the extra £1250 will be bundled with the sponsorship money to pay for the construction of two sight-screens (eventually) and to buy-in to a new CEC Community Youth Cricket Coach scheme which will help our Club support a number of mainly local primary school based cricket coaching sessions, so the likes of us don't need to use up so much of our annual leave and flexi-balances, etc to support these sessions. Of course we will still be doing plenty of them!

A total of £14,835 in grants received - which goes to show a) what you can get if you get your shit together (for other Clubs' players idly browsing our website) and b) the wider value in developing a youth section as this is an important funding objective and likely to be more key to the success of A4A, in particular, than my skill in writing a persuasive application form. Thanks also to Steve Paige (and Drummo) of Cricket Scotland for his help (and you thought what do CS do for us?, eh!.... of course, they could do more!)

All grant monies are either already spent or earmarked - so don't go thinking the club is suddenly awash with cash as an excuse to forget that match fee! And of course once we have a lease finally sorted out with the Council (we're getting there!) for the Armoury Building, then there will be a very major funding requirement for the re-development of the Armoury into a proper functioning Pavillion.

Coach Education Funding

As stated above, we have some of the A4A grant to use for coach education purposes... the youth section has grown well this year but as it grows further we will need more help. Remember someone (probably!) taught you cricket once upon a time... The club will part fund (50%) formal coaching course costs and refund the full cost once we are satisfied you have made a significant input into the overall coaching effort. Details of formal coaching courses can be found on the Cricket Scotland website and this CS Coaching Programme document. And do please discuss with either myself (Ian Shiels 07730 074174) or Iain Martin if you are interested. It's actually useful for your own game, honest as you pick up things you may never have learnt yourself... and seeing kids, some of which may never had the opportunity to learn cricket, develop and bond together as a team is very rewarding. Go for it!

Latest news round at 3 July... Week 9 of the League campaign sees Ones match against winless Heriot's 2s drizzled off, but the other teams' matches survive with big wins for Twos at Prestonpans and Threes at Goldenacre but a narrow loss for 4s at Roseburn. Highlights were Darryn Kidd's 100 not out v Heriot's 3s where he shared a 166 opening stand with Chris "Pav" Donaldson who scored his maiden 50 as 3s cruised to a 9 wicket victory in just over 20 overs chasing 168.

MDAFS 2 batted first at Preston Village and posted 229/8 in 50 overs with runs shared around: Phil Hawkins 20, Danny Abraham 24, Ankeet 32, Sutha 19, Lindsay 13, Siva 28 not, Adam 18, and a 14 ball 30 not from the great entertainer, Rafic. Preston Village scored 124/10 in 44.2 overs (C.Dixon 35 and M.Brunton 28) with wicket takers Raj Singh 4-18, Scotty 2-26, Ankeet 3-24, and Sutha 1-27. Raffles also bowled 10 overs for just 25 runs.

Master Broon reports on the 4s fine performance in the loss against table topping Peebles 2 which included an unbeaten 50 for Pickles and a running masterclass from Alan P:

The 4s were beaten but there were so many positives to be taken from the games against league leading Peebles County 2s. Batting first in the drizzle there were not many that thought we'd get a game in but the one we did was a cracker that ebbed and flowed until the final couple of balls bowled.

Indeed had it not been for the Astro wicket we'd all have been sitting in the Murrayfield Hotel with the Ones watching the Lions. However with only a 30 minute delay and agreeing a shortened 35 over game Graham and Irfan took to the wicket. A decent start saw the score ticking nicely but Graham chipped one to mid-on, which brought Charlotte to the wicket. Irfan though went on to score 27 until he edged to the keeper with the score on 39. Brad fell for a duck and at 18 over drinks the score was a modest 55 for 3. Subhash on debut hit a creditable 16 in a 45 run partnership but his wicket brought Alan Paterson to the crease in the 28 over with the score on 92 and Pickles already on 31. What followed though must rank towards the very top of Mufs batting displays. In the 7 overs Charlotte and Alan put on 69 runs with a demonstration of brilliant running including 3 off a ball that didn’t leave the square and was never more than 10 yards from the bat. Alan’s personal 43 came from only 27 balls and included 4 fours and a 6, but far more impressive was the pressure put on the fielders. Finally out going for another big hit Alan departed, and the incoming Rob took a quick single and all was that was left was for Charlotte to complete a maiden 50 for Mufs. Batting from the 6th over Pickles was unbeaten on 53 and her innings concluded 2 fours, 3 threes and 10 twos. That meant Mufs had a creditable 167/5 off their 35 overs and with batting and wickets in hand could have gone onto a far bigger score.

After tea, a sprightly Mufs took the field and were celebrating almost immediately as some sharp work from Rob at slip gathered the ball and ran out opener Murray. Further success wasn’t far behind as Alan bowled Ainslie and Rob’s catching accounted for Wolfe-Murray (slightly) junior off the skippers bowling. After that Mufs took steady wickets and Peebles got runs quickly. Amongst that Brad took his first Mufs wickets on his way to 3-33 including another slip catch from Rob. At drinks County were well ahead of the run rate but were 7 down after Angus Wolfe-Murray was finally out for 25. Tight but wicketless overs followed from the returning El Sec but Mufs thought they’d just nipped ahead when a full toss from Irfan bowled Betteridge for 36. That left them to get 16 and us to get 2 wickets. However some tidy batting saw them home with Pace (9) and Entwhistle (10) unbeaten with 13 balls to spare.

All in all though, this was a very creditable show by the Mufs taking half points against a team very likely to occupy one of the promotion spots. However we have a chance for revenge as the fixture quirks mean they come to us again in August.

On Sunday at Roseburn, the SCU Trophy Match ended in a thriller as the game ended in a tie of 213 each. However, The North of Scotland Cricket Academy (NoSCA) progress due to less wickets lost, 7 to our all out.

A proud 'keeper and then Skipper report...:

"If it is possible to enjoy losing, then I enjoyed today. Good match, played in good spirit; it came down to the last ball and we came second only by virtue of NoSCA losing fewer wickets.

Fabulous performance by all involved. Everyone played a part and it was great to see concentration and effort extending throughout both our own and the opposition innings. Saturday league teams should take note.

OMH"

"Hear hear. As soon as the winning (or rather tying) run was scored I told everyone on the team that I was extremely proud to have captained them - a credit to the club in performance, attitude and behaviour. For what on paper was a weakened side - but on the pitch was anything but - then to run a very strong NoSCA side so close was a tremendous effort. Hope everyone else enjoyed the day as much as Hubbs and I did.

Best of luck to NoSCA for the rest of the competition - a talented and thoroughly nice bunch, and we'll keep in contact with them with a view to a possible post-season tour one year.

Thanks to all those who came to support and help out, and particularly to Iain M - official MDCC King of Catering - for his sterling efforts all day.

Scores on the doors:

MDCC

P Hubbard c Rafique b Gerrard 15
J-P Cruz Rocha c Laidler b Walton 8
L Hayes c Laidler b Goodwin 52
S Dahiya c Rafique b Walton 27
C Donaldson lbw b Goodwin 20
A Venkatesh c Laidler b Crabtree 34
C Bascombe b Nixon 9
R Devanagere c Stockwell b Nixon 14
T Wheeler b Crabtree 5
V Sunki c Laidler b Walton 2
H Batwell not out 1

Extras 24

Total 213 all out (49.1 overs)

Bowling:

Nixon 10-2-37-2
Crabtree 10-3-35-2
Walton 8.1-3-28-3
Gerrard 4-1-20-1
A.Stockwell 10-2-43-0
Goodwin 7-1-39-2

NoSCA

J Crabtree b Sunki 35
R Main c Batwell b Cruz Rocha 39
D Walton c Batwell b Hayes 59
S Laidler run out 1
M Stockwell c Hubbard b Devanagere 0
A Stockwell b Devanagere 13
R Nixon run out 7
D Ross not out 9
H Gerrard not out 5
Rafiq R DNB
K Goodwin DNB

Extras 29

Total 213 for 7 (50 overs)

Bowling:

Devanagere 10-1-46-2
Sunki 10-0-46-1
Wheeler 10-0-27-0
Cruz Rocha 10-1-52-1
Hayes 10-1-35-1

Match tied - NoSCA win due to losing fewer wickets.

As Paul said, all 11 players played significant parts and looked entirely at home against a high quality side. Very well done all.

Cheers
Tom"

Good luck to NoSCA in the next round - a thoroughly decent bunch by all accounts.

In midweek, MDAFS played Scottish Widows in a friendly 20/20 at a soggy Inch Park. MDAFS batted first and posted 108-10 off 19.1 overs. Scottish Widows played the game a bit 'harder' in spirit than us let's say, and reached their target with relative ease for the loss of 5 wickets off 15.4 overs. An enjoyable game nonetheless, despite the midpoint downpour which made bowling and fielding very, very tricky with a bar of soap. Everyone had a part to play which is the main thing in these midweek friendlies.

MDAFS scorecard:
Anand bwd 8
Belly run out 24
Westy bwd 18
Pickles ct 0
Adeel ct 15
Gjis ct 0
Regan bwd 3
Drew run out 0
Lea not out 4
Jigar ct 0
Sutha bwd 17

MDAFS soap-ball bowling
Sutha 3-0-10-0 (celeb fielding captain)
Jigar 3-0-20-1 (first ever career wicket we believe)
Adeel 3-0-20-1
Regan 2-0-12-1
Gijs 2.4-0-24-0
Lea 2-0-15-1

2 catches to Regan, 1 catch and 1 stumping for Charlotte.

For Widows batting wise, 30 retired for Watsonian E. Robertson, 24 not for R Hannam, and 20 not for Bala Chandrasekaran(?). And a lot of grumbling from Scott Miller about our over rate - the guys needed to try to dry the ruddy ball before trying to bowl it, for heavens sake!

Final bit of midweek action was our juniors pitting themselves against Edinburgh Accies A in the clammy mist on Monday. We lost in a total utter mis-match which makes a mockery of what is supposed to be a developmental B league - future holiday absences or not, Accies should never be in that B League rather than the A one. Some of their U-13s would hold their own in senior cricket! Next Juniors action is on Sunday morning at a Kwik Cricket festival hosted by Grange at Portgower Place and then our final (re-arranged) league match on Monday also at Portgower Place v Grange U-13 B.

Of up coming Seniors matches, we are due to play Edinburgh South next Thurs in the Cow Corner at Roseburn - this replaces the friendly match we had arranged with the South for that date. Next midweek friendly is thus v Holy Cross at the Arbo on Tues 14 July - availability to Mr Belly on 07730 074174. On Sunday 12 July we take on Dunnikier at Roseburn in a friendly match - match organiser to be organised yet!

Please find a link to an updated MDAFS fixture list.

Finally anyone looking to buy playing kit should contact Ian Shiels on 07730 074174.

That's all folks. Good luck at the weekend - note 3s are playing Sunday at Carlton (Grange Loan) for those bereft Andy Murray fans amongst you. They have a telly down there anyway I think for those who do want to watch a bit of tennis in between watching our Club's form team ....

MDAFS second 20/20 midweek cup clash with Musselburgh saw Tom's team emerge victorious, this time much more comfortably... as Tom reports....

"Result from a now-not-flooded Roseburn:

Musselburgh 108 for 6 (?) - 20 overs
MDCC 109 for 2 - 12ish overs

A very comfortable and professional (honest!) win - tight bowling and fielding restricting the visitors to 20-30 runs below par, then Asif going massive once again in 20 over cricket (44 off 23 balls including four sixes of varying hugeness). Good support from Luke (33) and Maggy (a number of runs not out -20 odd?).

You may by now have worked out that I don't have the scorebook in front of me...

Upwards and onwards to the semi finals - away to Marchmont or Scottish & Newcastle I believe.

Cheers
Tom "

Apologies again for the sporadic web-updates - PC lying on floor in living room not the most convenient to use - new home office coming soon-ish. Anyway, the Message Board, which can be updated by anyone with an account on it, should be referred to for news of fixtures and results.

Latest round up... Week 8 of the League campaign saw only the 3s claim a victory; our Juniors had another game in their league campaign: another tough match against Carlton B with a highlight being Findlay Ross's innings of 30 retired - but good signs of improvement and development all round. The Centenary Sunday event went off really well with an excellent Junior Kwik-Cricket Festival in the morning (well done IJM and all the helpers) and two games in the afternoon versus Morton and a strong ESCA Select XI... the latter game a nailbiting finish as veteran Daffer (or should that be duffer), Mr Belly, with 55 not out, saw MDAFS home off the second last ball, chasing down ESCAs 40 over total of 186 from an unlikely position at one stage of 62-5 !

MDAFS advance on with their defence of the Cow Corner Trophy with victory over Musselburgh in a humdinger of a match. Match details from victorious skipper, Tom Wheeler:

MDCC 147 for 5 (20 overs; M.Akerkar 83*, N.Bhaktar 2-37)
Musselburgh 144 for 9 (20 overs; E.Gatner 46*, N.Bhaktar 24, JP Cruz Rocha 4-27, P.Rogers 1-17, A.Scott 1-18, M.Clench 1-23)

"Stats don't begin to tell the story of a thrilling game - Maggy dropped first ball before going on to smash 83 not out, giving him a career Cow Corner average of approximately 250 (!). Mangesh nearly perished just after going to 50, but the fielder (sorry, don't know who) was carried over the boundary by his momentum after taking a stunning Kyle Coetzer-style one handed catch. Good support and excellent running by Phil Rogers at the end - think Maggy has just about got his breath back now.

The hosts went for the runs from the start and remained up with the rate despite regular loss of wickets. Excellent ground fielding from Luke, JP, Sunny and others kept us in the game, then the penultimate over from JP saw three wickets and a huge six, leaving Musselburgh needing 9 from Melv's last over.

Great bowling and fielding under pressure - save for a "tactical" overthrow from the second last ball - left number 11 Akshay (not that one) needing four from the final ball to win, but Melv zipped it past the outside edge and victory was complete."

Apologies for the lack of web-updates lately - the home PC been lying in its constituent bits due to a home decoration project - for match results and reports you can always check the Message Board where the skippers etc will post up results and availability/selection information. In brief to catch up.... week 6 of the league campaign saw victories for Twos and Fours but losses for Ones and Threes - a reversal fortunes in week 7 where the Ones finally broke their Roseburn duck and Threes cruised to victory. MDAFS Juniors continued their first ever league campaign with a tough visit away to an Accies Juniors team who really should be playing in Division A rather than the more developmental Division B. Monday 15th's junior match v Grange B fell victim to the weather - as did a friendy at Peffermill v HBOS on Wednesday.

This Sunday as part of our Centenary events (100 years since the founding of London Road CC which became Murrayfield CC) we are hosting a 10 team kwik-cricket festival in the morning (from 9.30) and then playing 2 games in the afternoon - one versus an ESCA Select XI and the other v Morton. Availability to captains please for this - see Message Board thread on this in Fixtures and Results.

MDAFS are taking part in the first ever Edinburgh Festival of Support being supported by ActivCity and Club Sport Edinburgh. We have two of of youth sessions listed in the Festival programme and also our Centenary Day activities. More details of all the sporting events can be found at: the Club Sport Edinburgh website.

Report from Tom of the Parks Trophy Rnd 2 clash from Roseburn on Wed:

MDCC 120 for 7 (20 overs; R.Devanagere 26, J.Patel 26, L.Hayes 22, R.James 2-19)

Casuals CC 88 for 5 (20 overs; C.Munro 22, R.James 22, Asif Mohammed 2-22)

"An enjoyable game played in a good spirit, and in the end a good and relatively comfortable win for MDAFS, thanks to a great start from Luke, excellent acceleration by Jigar and Tall Raj, and tight bowling and fielding (except when it got too dark to see the ball in order to catch it). Excellent spell by Asif that deserved more than his eventual two wickets.

Well done everyone on a good team effort. Details of third round fixture to follow (I think against Musselburgh if I understand the draw correctly - which I probably don't).

Also a Cow Corner game coming up away Musselburgh on Tuesday 16 June - will be in touch about that one too. Strong side needed if we're to give ourselves a chance of retaining the trophy we lifted in April.

Cheers all
Tom"

The previous night, a MDAFS XI took on Edinburgh South in a friendly 20/20 at the Meadows (3 overs max, retire at 30 rules)
MDAFS scored 108 off 20 with Irfan, 31 retired, and Anand, 33 retired, main scorers. ESCC reached their target in the last over. Main wicket taker was, err, Mr Belly with 3 wkts for about 9 runs. Game played in splendid spirit.

MDAFS Juniors took on Carlton B at Roseburn Park on Monday - brief details:

Carlton B 111 for 4 - 20 overs
O.Brown (Carlton) 32 rtd (not out);
Ben Falconer (MDCC) 3-1-3-3 and 1 run out!

MDCC 50 for 9 – 20 overs
B Falconer (MDCC) 13;
D. Mitchell (Carlton) 2-0-6-2, R Alladyce (Carlton) 2-1-12-2; O Fenton (Carlton) 2-0-5-2.

Poor day at the office for all bar 4s who were the only Saturday victors - full details on the Message Board under Fixtures and Results.

Our youngsters played their first ever U-13 League B Division game on Monday 25 May versus Grange 'B' at Roseburn Park. Murrayfield DAFS batted first and scored 46 for 8 from their 20 overs. Max Hancock took 2 for two, and Jack Mullins 2 for six for Grange. Grange replied with 73 for 5 from their 20 overs. Max Hancock scored 12. For MDAFS, Daniel Barker took 2 for two and skipper Ben Falconer took an excellent tumbling catch at square-leg/mid-wicket. Every player on both teams contributed in some way to the game, and despite the cold and drizzle in the closing stages everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

On next Monday our Juniors take on Carlton B at Roseburn at 6pm

Cow Corner are sponsoring the Junior Leagues and have produced an excellent website for the Lothian Junior Cricket Development League.

All teams bar the Twos notched up victories in Week 4 of the League campaign. The Ones snatched victory for the proverbial jaws of defeat as a fine late 27 not out from Tom sees us to victory chasing down 142 against Carlton 2s, having been a sorry 57-6 at one stage. Mo with 28 and Raj D with 25 also contributed well as did an important 15 not out from Raja S. With the ball Mel, Raj S, Tom and JP each took 2 wickets. Twos were defeated by 5 wickets at the Beast's lair at Dunnikier...ex-Muffer the Beast of Sorrell claiming 3 wickets in the rout of the Twos batting for 65 runs. Raj Singh took 3 wickets and Adam 2 wkts. Threes won comfortably scoring 162 for 9 off 45 overs (Dazza 30, Banksy 28) and nailing Holy Cross for 132 ao off 37.4 overs (Dale Simpson with 5-0-32-3). The Fours, chasing Kismet 2s 160, won by 6 wickets with 5 overs to spare thanks in the main to 96 not out from Anand Venkatesh. Good to also hear that the game experienced no problems from the 68,000 rugby crowd with huge cheers ringing round Roseburn Park when Fothers took a sharp slip catch off Anand.

Our correspondent, Chris Brown, reports from the Roseburn front-line:
“An experimental Mufs XI lost to the Scotsman by 21 runs. The members of the 4th estate posted 101-5 off their 16 overs. Wickets for Kelly, Barker, Willis and Humphries with Vipond (26) and Fernandez (28) batting very well including a couple into the river. Mufs in reply lost regular wickets and in the gathering gloom and increasingly heavy rain managed to get to 80 for 6 with Graham Watson having retired for 26. Apart from that it was fairly uneventful apart from one of our Ned friends doing a rather pathetic streak”.

Scoreboard details can be obtained from the message board at Scotsman Scorecard

Bit of a repeat of last years exit without the damage to adjacent greenhouses as MDAFS exit the Masterton at the hands of Penicuik again. MDAFS limped to 75, losing our last wicket in the last over, but the loss of early wickets had fatally holed us. An early wicket of Willie Morton for Melv was MDAFS only cheer with the ball as Penicuik won with 6 overs to spare.

Almost a clean sweep as Twos, Threes and Fours notch League victories but the Ones slump from a good position to defeat against a Boroughmuir side featuring a couple of familiar faces.

Boroughmuir posted 187 for 9 off their 50 overs with wickets shared around, with everyone who bowled getting some reward - Wheeler 3-35, Clench 2-31, and a wicket each for Sampath, Davanagere, Cruz Rocha and Banks. At 82 for 1 in the 25th and with Hubbard (42) and Hayes (33) starting to get on top of the bowling, the home side were narrow favourites, but tight bowling from man of the match McGrath (4-21) and Docherty (3-27) pushed the run rate up and total collapse was the outcome, including the loss of 5 wickets for 9 at one stage and an eventual capitulation to 141 all out with five overs still remaining. Regan Black (13) and Siva Jayahanthan (12) were the only two other batsmen to reach double figures.

Twos played on Sunday against Grange at the neutral venue of Goldenacre. Batting first MDAFS posted 244 for 6 from a well-paced innings, notably using up their full allocation of 50 overs. Ankeet scored a brisk 27 up top; Belly anchored the innings with 40, ably supported by Sivaram with 26, before Sutha (52) and Reyaz (58) accelerated the innings superbly with some fine strokeplay in the last 15 overs aided by a quick 15 run cameo from Rafic. Grange 3 started well with their openers in threatening mood, but a smart catch by Sunny off Adam opened the door for us. Scotty was the pick of the bowlers with a fine spell of 10-1-21-3, closely followed by Kamath with 10-1-19-3. Raj picked up two wickets and Sutha claimed the other wicket with a fine run out. However with the game won 10 overs out, we switched off and allowed Grange to pick up extra batting points by finishing on 175-9 off 50 overs. Still a fine victory.

Threes won by 73 runs at Falkland defending 143 ao. Runs from Lindsay (17), Pav (22) and Joe (19 not) in the middle and late order saw MDAFS to a defendable total. Falkland were blown away by fine bowling from Stuart Coulland Joe reaching only 60 off 17.1 overs. Stuart claiming 5-32 off 7 overs and Joe Gordon 3-14 off 6. Henry and Dale both took a wicket each.

Fours continued the cheer with a 6 wicket win at Roseburn over Carlton 4. Carlton dismissed for 99 - with the innings finished off by a Neil Cameron hat-trick (against youth for last 2 wkts - shame on you Mr Youth Development Officer!!) with Neil claiming 4-18 off 6.5 overs. Vamski and Gurjeet took 2 wickets each and Anand 1. MDAFS cruised to victory thanks to a fine 44 from Graham Watson and 17 from Irfan Mahmud.

Further details and match reports can be found at the MDAFS Message Board Results Thread

MDAFS advance to Round 2 of the Parks Trophy after a hard fought victory over Scottish Widows at a chilly Roseburn on Thursday. MDAFS batted first and posted an imposing 154 off 20 overs - Widows chased this enthusiastically for a while under key wickets saw them fall away at the end by about 20 runs (sorry don't have scorebook so guessing a bit!)

On Wednesday in a friendly 20/20 at an equally chilly Roseburn, Boroughmuir (plus MDAFS guests) posted 88 off 20 overs but lost to MDAFS who reached the target of 89 for the loss of 8 wickets off 19.2 overs. MDAFS batting was dominated by Danny with a stylish 32 (retired not out) and an aggressive 23 by Sutha in a 55 run stand between them for the 3rd wicket to rescue MDAFS from 5-2. Little wobble at the end made it a bit more of a struggle in the cold and gloom than what it looked like being earlier.

MDAFS1 beat Edinburgh Academicals by 39 runs at a lively Newfield on Sunday. MDAFS limped to 104 ao off 44 overs (JP a fine 26 not, Belly a marathon 18 (off 38 overs!), Luke 13 and Raj D 11) having lost a succession of early wickets, but we sensed we had given ourselves an outside chance of an unlikely victory if we bowled really well and took early wickets. That indeed was the case with Raj Sampath and Melv Clench were in sensational form with the ball as the Accies top and middle order was routed - Raj 4 wkts and Melv 3. JP kept the pressure on with 2 wickets plus a wicket for Tall Raj. A fantastic victory given our poor batting performance. Fortunes reversed in the pub quiz at The Standard later however.... brief match details:

MDAFS 104 ao off 44.4 overs. J-P Cruz Rocha 26 not, I Shiels 18, L Hayes 13. A Carmichael 4-11, K Woodmansey 4-25.
Edinburgh Academicals 65 ao off 34.4 overs. A Moffat 15, P Taylor 11. M Clench 3-12, Raj Sampath 4-28.

All the Saturday games were rained off or abandoned at an early stage - 4s reached 46-2 before abandoning and 2s played only 2 overs. 3s had a lovely trip to Largo but no play was possible.

Mixed fortunes on saturday as the Threes provided the only victory. Dazza's first knock of the year (who needs practice eh?) realising 82 runs and with support with the bat from Reyaz of 55 and debutant Russell Beretta with 21 not out, a total of 202 ao off just 35 overs was posted. MDAFS 3s then bowled Carlton 3 out for 147 with a first Pfeiffer of the Year notched up by JNB (9-1-18-5) and so a 55 run victory. Meanwhile gloom elsewhere as 1s lost to Holy Cross by 15 runs, 2s lost to Musselburgh and 4s to Drummond-Trinity. More match details are posted on the MDAFS message board.

On Tues eve MDAFS take on Scottish Widows at Roseburn Park in the Parks Trophy.

With half an eye on next Tuesday's Parks Trophy fixture, a solid MDAFS Midweek XI emerged victorious in a 20/20 friendly v Currie and Balerno. Main stay of MDAFS batting were newcomer Luke Hayes (26 retired) and Sutha (25 retired) as MDAFS closed on 98 off 18 overs. CnB fell well short in the gathering gloom with wickets shared around.

More details and pictures to follow of MDAFS lifting the Cow Corner 20/20 Trophy after hard fought victories in a semi-final against Drummond Trinity and in the final against Marchmont by 18 runs - Mangesh Akerkar in superb form with the bat with 70 runs in the semi and 66 not out in the final. Well done Tom and all the lads.

Cow Corner Semi-Final at Craiglockhart - MDCC beat Drummond Trinity by 13 runs. MDCC 111-5 off 20 overs. Mangesh Akerkar 70, Jean-Pierre Cruz-Rocha 19 not out. Drummond-Trinity 98 for 6 off 20 overs : J Nasir 36, S Pollitt 19; Mangesh Akerkar 4-1-10-2, Jean-Pierre Cruz-Rocha 4-1-14-2, Melv Clench 4-0-10-1, Rajnish Singh 3-0-23-1.

Maggy bowling versus Drummond Trinity

Cow Corner Final at Myreside - MDCC beat Marchmont by 18 runs. MDCC 127-7 off 20 overs. Mangesh Akerkar 66 not out, Paul Hubbard 17, Regan Black 10. Marchmont 109 for 8 off 20 overs: Aaron Sardesai 30, S Peachey 17, A Wilson 12; Raja Sampath 4-0-12-3, Ankeet Vora 4-0-21-1, Tom Wheeler 4-0-22-1, Melv Clench 4-0-23-1.

Mangesh on route to 66 not out in the Final

Raja Sampath in full flow

And Maggy, the Man of the Finals, is carried off by his jubiliant team-mates

A proud skipper with the Cow Corner trophy

A great team effort across the CC 20/20 campaign is rewarded with silverware

Never mind the IPL.... this Sunday sees our Club compete in the 2008 Cow Corner 20/20 Finals - carried over from last season due to poor weather - the semi final v Drummond Trinity will be played at the Watson's Craiglockhart ground at 1pm. Big support required for Tommy's troopers as we have an early season tilt at some silverware. Team details will be announced by Tom on the Message Board in due course.

On Saturday there will be 3 teams in action; what is sure to be an ultra-competitive game takes place on the grass between the 1st and 2nd XIs and on the artificial there will be a friendly game against a Peebles CC XI. Anyone who played last weekend should already have given their availability to the captains on the day, but can anyone else who has not specificed their interest in playing please let Chris Brown know by email to cpb_100@hotmail.com or text to 07808776157. Last weekend's games were over-subscribed so please note that this will merely confirm your interest. The nets will be already set up for anyone who can only come down for part of the day. Games will commence around 1pm.

Also on Saturday morning we are holding an outdoor nets practice session for our Juniors from 10.30 to 12.30 - anyone wishing to help out with this session should contact Ian Shiels on 07730 074174.

MDAFS 1/2s and 3/4s were in action in a double header pre-season friendly versus Corstorphine CC at Roseburn Park - 1/2s notching up a useful 5 wicket win chasing 99 (MDAFS batting highlights: Paul Hubbard 23 ret, Mangesh 27; bowling: Mel Clench 7-2-9-2, Raj D (Tall Raj) 7-4-9-0, Raja S (Thin Raj) 5.4-3-7-1, Phil Rogers 6-1-17-2, Adam Scott 7-1-14-3, J P Rocha Cruz 7-0-31-2).

However a 1 wicket loss for 3s/4s having posted 120ao in a 12 batsmen-a-side game. Batting highlights: Chris West 20, Chris Banks 27, David Clifford 19, Neil Yelland 12*, Extras 36!; Bowling: Neil Yelland 4-1-13-2, David Clifford 5-0-19-0, Iain Martin 5-2-3-1, Joe Gordon 5-0-17-1, Stuart Coull 7.5-0-35-3, Heath Batwell 6-0-31-3.

Fuller reports and scores can be found on the Club Message Board

Seniors Outdoor practice starts up again from Monday 20 April at Roseburn Park from 6pm. Juniors practice will again take place on Thursdays - starting Thurs 7 May from 5pm.

A MDAFS XIII 'squad' travelled to Westquarter for the first outdoor action of the year and recorded a comfortable win in a friendly match. Batting first on a soft and slow early season wicket, MDAFS batsman took a while to adjust from the harder indoor surface used during winter training onto the usual more pudding-like outdoor surface. Regan Black after hitting an impressive straight six, was the first to fall, bowled by Chadha for 11. Chris Banks found timing the ball difficult and fell to a top edge for 4, possibly his concentration worn-out by an astonishing 17 ball over by WRCC youngster Peter Hamilton, who discovered the umpiring spaceman, Asif, administering a very harsh line on leg-side wides. A tactical replacement of umpire was swiftly executed. The Belly was next to go for 16, wildly hitting across the line to Colin Fox, who was proving to be hard to get away on the slow wicket. Mangesh Akerkar started slowly as the Westquarter slow bowlers kept MDAFS scoring rate down, but although Maggy lost regular partners (Sutha 5, Asif 7, JP 3, Scotty 0, and Tall Raja with 5), his scoring rate accelerated to see MDAFS to a pretty competitive total given the conditions of 140 for 8 from 40 overs, Maggy unbeated with 54 including 3 fours.

Westquarter started solidly against MDAFS attack of Clench and Scott, until Adam claims the breakthrough with a sharp CnB to dismiss Sajid for 8. Debutant Vinod runs himself out next ball having advanced too far down the wicket and finding Raja's throw too sharp - good work too with the gloves by Charlotte. This brought the dangerous Mumtaz to the crease who kept Westquarter up with the rate but an accurate MDAFS attack saw him lose partners regularly as Melv claims the wicket of the other opener, Aslam for 7, and Chadha for 1, before debutants Raja and Joe Gordon are brought into the attack and claim a wicket apiece. Finally skipper Tom and JP enter the attack and finish off the home side with two wickets each - Mumtaz falling to Tom for 31 - to claim a 67 run victory; JP shamefully bowling a youngster first ball to end the match (we called him back for a bit of end-match practice for him and his fellow youngster). MDAFS bowling figures: M Clench 5-0-16-2, A Scott 5-0-12-1, Raja 5-0-15-1, J Gordon 5-0-18-1, T Wheeler 3.1-0-8-2, JP Cruz-Rocha 3-1-4-2. Catches: Regan 2, Melv, Joe, JP, Raja, Sutha 1 each. A good warm-up game played in good spirit and very useful to get the winter nets out of the system.

More friendlies take place this Saturday at Roseburn with a double header v Corstorphine XIs. On Sunday more volunteer labour is required for work at Roseburn installing fence post system for the cricket square - work starts at 10.00am.

All the known Club matches - League, Cups, friendlies and also youth matches can be found in the link to MDCC 2009 Fixtures List (excel spreadsheet).

Andy Lacey has been appointed as 3rd Team captain after Stuart Coull stood down due to work reasons. Thanks to Stuart for his great efforts and good luck to Andy.

Pre-season "warm-up" fixtures have been announced as below. Contact Tom Wheeler for details and availability. Home matches at Roseburn Park.

Sunday 12 April - Westquarter (a)
Saturday 18 April - 2 games v Corstorphine XIs (h)
Saturday 25 April - Peebles (h - artificial) and interclub (1s-2s level - grass)
Sunday 26 April - Cow Corner finals day

Back to Headlines

MDAFS Juniors are entering the Lothian Junior Development Group U-13 League - in Division B. This sees us play likes of a Grange B, Carlton B and Edinburgh Academicals Junior teams in a number of 20/20 fixtures. Slightly disappointing is the number of teams in Div B compared to Div A. However, it's the start of a journey for our Club - and some good grounds for the Juniors to visit too. Please find link to the full U-13 League fixture list. Games are generally played on Mondays at 6pm.

After coming close to victory in last weeks' game, MDAFS Juniors notched up their maiden victory with an win over Watsonians by 18 runs. The boys have been learning fast with each game and were rewarded for their efforts and spirit with this landmark victory. Well done lads. Details below:

MDCC 257 (8 wkts)
Watsonians 239 (8 wkts)

MDCC win by 18 runs.

Watsonians won the toss and fielded first.

MDCC Batting pairs:
Joe Loughrey and Antony Ozkan 26-1
Ross Coats and Abhilash Baradwaj 20-3
Ewan and Mark Adamson / Brennain Fraser 22-3
Ben Falconer and Finlay Ross 31-1 (including a big 6 by Ben)

Watsonian's bowling:
Patrick 2-10-2
Christopher 3-23-3
David 1-7-0
Aidan 1-9-0
Cameron 1-8-0
Kathyrn Bryce 2-13-3
Matthew 2-27-0

Watsonians Batting Pairs:
Aidan & Patrick 24-2
Kathryn & Ross 15-2
David & Cameron 17-1
Matthew & Chris 19-3

MDCC Bowling:
Finlay Ross 2-17-1
Antony Ozkan 2-18-2
Ben Falconer 2-8-2
Abhilhash Bharadwaj 1-8-0
Joe Loughrey 2-10-1
Daniel Barker 1-3-1
Ross Coats 1-5-0
Mark Adamson 1-6-1

Lea Tsui has been appointed as the first ever Cricket Scotland dedicated officer for girls' and women's cricket development - further details can be found at this link to the news article on the Cricket Scotland website. Well done, Lea and good luck with the post.

Tom Rutherford (ESCA Secretary) has produced a guide to the Laws of cricket, providing practical guidance on the Laws, and how they can be applied in an ESCA game (typically) in the absence of independent umpires. The document can be found at this link to ESCA Cricket Laws Guide. Give it a read, chaps.

MDAFS Juniors have been in action again - coming close to their first win in a narrow loss versus Penicuik and battling hard against Carlton the previous Sunday:

Sunday 15 March 2009 - MDCC v Penicuik CC - LJDG U-11 Indoor 8s

MDAFS continued to show improvement with a close finish in this game with MDAFS needing 11 off the final over to win. But a couple of run outs and good bowling by Penicuik's Scott Charleston saw Penicuik to victory.

Wicket takers for Penicuik:
Euan 2 for 7
Jack 1 for 11
Henry 1 for 12
Scott 3 for 16

Sunday 8 March 2009 - MDCC v Carlton CC - LJDG U-11 Indoor 8s

Another brave attempt by MDAFS Juniors against a superior outfit - Carlton. MDAFS Juniors showing great team spirit and learning fast with each successive game.

Carlton won toss and elected to bat first.
Carlton 296 with loss of 4 wickets.
MDAFS 215 with loss of 13 wickets.

Carlton pairs batting:-
Oliver F and Milo 26-1
Rory and Harry 16-3
Calum and Joe 38-0
Oliver B and Archie 26-0

Wicket takers for MDAFS: Ben Falconer 3 wkts for 19 and Finlay Ross with 1-31. Also worth mentioning a tight single over from Joe Loughrey with just 4 runs of it. Excellent commitment from MDAFS boys in the field who are learning fast.

MDAFS pairs batting:
Antony Ozkan and Joe Loughrey: 19-6 - but were up against excellent fast bowling of Rory and Oliver B in particular.
Mark/Ewan Adamson and Abhilhash Bharadwaj: 23-2
Ross Coats and Faisel Javed: 12-3
Ben Falconer and Finlay Ross: 21-2

Wicket takers for Carlton:
Rory 3 for 12
Oliver B 3 for 10
Joseph 1 for 9
Harry 3 for 7
Calum 3 for 11

2008 Season Final Statistics for MDAFS Twos have finally been received - and can be found at this link to 2008 Twos Statistics. Just waiting on the Threes now!!

The remaining indoor net sessions - being held at the Edinburgh Academy Sports Centre (off Arboretum Road, Edinburgh) are:

As agreed again at our AGM, these nets will be free to paid-up Club Members. £5 charge otherwise.

MDAFS Juniors sessions will be running from 12-1pm before each of these sessions.

Our next Juniors game in the LJDG Indoor 8s on Feb 22nd was predictably tough as Grange ran out comfortable winners, due in the main to their excellent and accurate bowling.

In Grange's innings - two main stands of 23-0 by Jack and Lorne and then 32-1 by Aseem and Oscar saw Grange up to 281 for loss of 3 wickets (note: each innings starts on 200 runs with 5 runs lost for each wicket). Wicket takers for MDAFS were Faisel Javed, Ben Falconer and Joe Loughrey. Good bowling from Grange caused problems straightaway for the MDAFS batsmen and wickets fell steadily as MDAFS tried to play aggressive strokes. Only the pairing of Joe Loughrey and Brennain Fraser managed to keep the Grange bowlers at bay, losing just the one wicket in their partnership of 11. For Grange, top bowler was Oscar with 5 wickets for 7 runs, Sandy, Max, and Lorne each took 3 wickets and Azeem 1 wicket.

MDAFS have a drawn a bye in the first round of the 2009 Lloyds TSB Scotland SCU Trophy 2009. Draw details below:

First Round:
Holy Cross Academicals v Dundee H.S. FP
Irvine v Glasgow Academicals
Hillhead v Gala
Strathmore v Huntly

Matches to be played on Sunday 7 June (reserve date Sunday 14 June)

Byes: East Kilbride, Helensburgh, Murrayfield-DAFS and NoSCA

The draw for the Quarter Finals will be made on Monday 8 June

Subsequent rounds will be played on the following dates:
- Quarter Finals Sunday 28 June (reserve date Sunday 12 July)
- Semi Finals Sunday 19 July (reserve date Sunday 26 July)
- Final Sunday 2 August (reserve date Sunday 9 August)

Balgreen Primary School - After School Club

MDCC will be supporting Balgreen Prmary School in the running of an After School Club from March 2 repeated on Mondays from 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Full list of dates as below:

2 March
9 March
16 March
23 March
30 March
27 April
11 May
25 May
1 June
8 June
15 June

If there's anyone in the Club with some spare time on their hands when these sessions are running, and would like to assist, then get in touch with Ian Shiels asap as we will need to get you Disclosure Scotland cleared.

For further details or queries please contact Ian Shiels on 07730 074174 or ian_shiels@hotmail.com

A small but significant landmark for the club was reached today (Sunday 1 Feb), as MDAFS fielded it's first Youth team in competitive action. We played Edinburgh CC Youth in our first fixture in the Lothian Junior Development Group U-11 8-a-side Indoor Tournament at West Woods. The format is 12 overs a side - with 4 pairs of batters having 3 overs each - runs scored off walls etc. Both teams start with a score of 200 - with a 5 run deduction per wicket. MDAFS scored a net 282 runs (losing 7 wickets) off their 12 overs and Edinburgh 304 (losing 4 wkts)- so a 22 run win for ECC. For MDAFS there were partnerships of 33 (no wkts) between Finlay Ross and Joe Loughrey and another 33 partnership between Ben Falconer and Antony Ozkan (2 wkts lost).

Next up in 2 weeks time (Sun 22 Feb) is Grange.

A photo-journal of the September 2008 Club Tour to Somerset can be found at this link to The Boney Muflins Tour - it's also at our photo galleries page.

Note: the page may take a while to load fully as there are a load of photies (and I couldn't be arsed to divide it up into separate pages). Enjoy - we all certainly enjoyed the trip!

2009 subs are indeed now due, and as has been the normal practice in previous years then the club offers FREE indoor Club nets for paid-up Club members. So there's an incentive to bring your subbies with you to nets. As agreed at the AGM, 2009 membership subs are now £75 for waged; £30 still for unwaged/students. £10 for U-18/youth.

A reminder that Club Indoor nets start up on Saturday 24 January 2009 from 1pm - 3pm at the Academy Sports centre, Arboretum Rd. Bring your membership subs cheque/cash - see above. Nets free to paid-up Club members. £5 non-members. See you all there !

The 2009 League Fixtures have now been published on the East League website. MDAFS Ones kick off hosting our auld foe, Holy Cross, at Roseburn Park. Twos travel to Musselburgh, Threes host Carlton 3s at Roseburn, Fours travel to Inverleith Park to take on Drummond-Trinity 2s. The first round of matches are scheduled for Saturday 2 May. We are, of course, aware of the use of Murrayfield for major rugby matches/events in May - and are currently in liaison with the Council over what, if any, issues these may cause for our games at Roseburn Park. There is thus a possibility a game or two could be moved in terms of dates or location. Once we know for sure we will of course let you know.

Former club secretary and player of what was DAFS CC, Hector Mackenzie, has been awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours List - see link to the relevant Scotsman article. Well done, Hector.

A Happy New Year to all Murfs past and present wherever you are!

The ICC World Twenty20 is being held in England next year - Cricket Scotland have been allocated a limited number of tickets for sale - as a member club of CS we have received this offer - some of you who took out the Saltires package may also have had a letter too. The games involving Scotland (v NZ and then SA) are on 6 and 7 June at the Oval - also playing will be Aus v WI on the 6th and England v Pakistan on the 7th.

The attached World Twenty20 pdf document has details plus a form that needs to be sent back to CS by Mon 5 January (yes, I know it's upside down - but that's how IJM scanned it!! - just rotate it in your pdf viewer)

With Xmas nearly upon us, then if you are ... ahem... searching for the perfect gift, or simply distraught that Santa seemed to skip by your chimney stack this year, then you can always make amends by buying one of the shiny new club Ram cricket shirts that were being modelled by persons large and less large at the very end of last season. The new shirts (Club/sponsor badged) cost £26 - they look great (IOHO) and are made of excellent sweat-wicking material - just right for those blazing Scottish summers. We are also have a limited stock of sleeveless Club/sponsor badged sweaters too (also £26). Contact me (Ian Shiels) on 07730 074174 or ian_shiels@hotmail.com for orders. We will bring some stock to indoor nets too.

Talking of Xmas and all that... festive, seasonal, xmas greetings to you all and here's to a great New Year for you and Club alike.

There are a number of developments and opportunities coming up for our Youth Sections. We have been invited to enter a team into the Lothian Youth Development Group Indoor 8 a side tournament starting in January. Cricket Scotland is also running a series of Youth Coaching Camps - further details can be found on the Cricket Scotland Winter Coaching Courses webpage. Incidentally Lea Tsui is part of the coaching staff for these sessions.

We also have taken a provisional booking for the hour in front of some of our senior Indoor Nets sessions which we will use for Youth development, if there is sufficient demand from our Youth section.

Finally you may have noticed on their website that there is a big push from Cricket Scotland for developing Girls cricket in 2009.
Gordon Drummond (Edinburgh Council Cricket Development Officer) is running a Girls Cricket Development Centre, aimed at girls aged 9-13, at Westwoods Health Club at Fettes on January 18th and 25th, February 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd; and March 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th. Lea is also helping with these sessions too. If you know of anyone who may be interested in this course, indeed any others listed, then please do bring it to their attention - here's a link to the Girls Cricket Development Centre Publicity Flyer (word doc). For more details and bookings please contact Gordon Drummond (Edinburgh Council Cricket Development Officer) at gordon.drummond@edinburgh.gov.uk (tel: 07771 666614)

Cricket Scotland has published its 2009 Cricket Coaching Course Programme. As you should all be aware we have made good progress in establishing a new Youth section. To help us to develop that further then we need more qualified Club coaches - so if you are interested then let us know - if you need to discuss this then either of us Ia(i)ns would be more than happy to help. It's also good for learning more about your own game! The Club will also contribute towards your Coaching costs.