We are the champions!
2003 NEWS ARCHIVE |
Previous years' news can be found at the following links News 2002 and News 2001 .
Well as 2003 draws to an end your dutiful webby would like to thank you all for reading this site, for your magnificant efforts on the pitch, for providing me with much comic material to work with both on and off the pitch (much self-generated or via alter egos such as "Hat"). Looking back over the year... it was one where MDCC Ones, led superbly by Rich, finally fulfilled their potential and were worthy Div 3 Champions. Twos recovered well to hold their Div 4 status and, given the precarious state at the start of the season, an achievement was that the Threes kept going - much credit to Don for that. We should thank all the Committee for their tireless efforts and in particular our organisational superstar in Iain Martin.
I actually write this while watching on Sky News the Sydney New Year fireworks (some display - perhaps one should have gone there rather than linger in Melbourne this time last year!). We all look back over a year as a new one starts - for me cricket wise 2003 will take some topping - started with a Test win versus Oz at Sydney in the joyous company of the Barmy Army, a championship finally for Sussex, 3rd Div Championship for MDCC and a bountiful year for runs including a couple of records with Andy. How does one top that?
Looking forward... we should be facing 2004 Season with enthusiasm and a desire to push ourselves to greater things, and have a lot of fun on the way. The club is in a healthy state - let's keep it there - not rest on our laurels and look to strengthen ourselves in terms of finances and playing squad. Recruit and retain is the key. For this we all have a role to play, the Committee, regular core players and the more occasional or fringe players (stick with us - it all counts). Finally, I wish you all a fantastic 2004. Cheers, Sicknote. (And see you at the Nets!)
Your dutiful webby and Mr Martin ventured recently to where the Scottish Cricketer mag seemingly reckons is territory only for old men who have long hung up their jockstraps. We went to the Scottish Cricket AGM on Tuesday. And indeed we might have lowered the average age somewhat from around over 50 poss even 60 !!
Anyway a few highlights from what was quite surprisingly for me quite a fascinating evening...
Chris Carruthers, the outgoing President, who I believe OMH had an interesting debate with once at Grange, made a wee speech. One thing of note was that he mentioned that the Scottish Cricket Guide was being considered for a comeback - according to the previous minutes this was something that someone (come on - own up whoever u were!) from Murrayfield CC (sic) had complained about! He urged us to pass on two main messages to our colleagues - firstly that players must observe the spirit of cricket - please do not question and challenge umpires as this is only going to drive away star umpires of the future. (I believe that there is quite an umpiring crisis - partic at the higher levels where neutral umpires are needed. Of course we all know the problems with player-umpires. I think we are as a club reasonably fair - lets continue to be so.)
His second message he wanted us to take away was "Support the Game"! At all levels! But specifically, encourage people to take out the Saltires packages. This will provide us the funds to develop the game at both top and grass roots. Also, he wanted us to urge our members to volunteer themselves to help with the stewarding and the "little jobs" at Saltires games next year. I think we should follow this up - I'm certainly game to help out - Chris was keen that we have in future minimal need to use the commercial security companies who were perhaps not as sensitive to cricketing niceties as our own stewards would be!
He then invited a few words from his successor, Tom Anderson, who in turn said that Scottish cricket had come along way in recent years with the National Leagues and the Saltires - generally it had been a success story but more to do at all levels. Scottish cricket has had its profile raised of late - indeed he remarked who would have thought that Craig Wright would be listed at 31 as most eligible bachelor in Scotland (behind Simpson of course).
Officials were duly proposed and elected as one would expect at an AGM... it was noticeable for one of the more humourous moments of the evening... Chris unintentionally read-out Belvoir Corstorphine as "Beaver" Corstorphine! Now there's an obvious merger target for us Mufs!!(the slip-up probably did not help the mood of the rep from Beaver Corstorphine who was not a happy bunny with respect to the League re-organisation)
A few prizes were duly dished out... both U-16 and U-19 District Champions were West District; Groundsman of the Year was (amateur) David Christie, Freuchie and (professional) Robert Chief(?), Glasgow Accies; Young Player of the Year was Madjid Haq; and the Basil D'Oliveira Cup (Presidents Award) for Outstanding Personality of the Year went to Jim McFadyen.
Much time was spent on the Draft Accounts. Highlights of these of note were:
The message we got was that having produced a small surplus was an achievement given some of the funding trials and tribulations. Positive news was the 3 year deal with Lloyds TSB who will be actively raising the profile of Scottish cricket and their connection with it. However the extra funding from them might be wiped out by loss of ECC Special Grant and budget pressures due to some likely fall-out from the Zimbabwe affair at the World Cup and the impact on ECC budgets and thus grant to us. Tough times still lay ahead
Some mention was made of a Player Registration Fee Scheme... though this is still at an embryonic stage. They did talk about that if there was a fee levied there also has to be a package of advantages and rights/priviledges to go with the fee. Watch this space I say
There was one main vote of note - it concerned a change of the Constitution so the President serves 2 rather than 1 year but also that a President-elect is determined mid-term and this person serves on the managing committee. Helps handover and continuity of effort I suppose and makes sense. We voted in favour of the motion
Membership fees were kept the same - Life £150+VAT, Personal: £15inc VAT by standing order or 20 inc VAT, Club fees at Class1 £136, Class2 £94 and Class 3 £47 inc VAT
The majority of the rest of the meeting (AOCB) was taken up by protracted and at times heated contributions from the floor about the restructuring issue. Beaver, sorry, Belvoir Corstorphine's representative was particularly angry about it, i.e. they were now in a Regionalised "National" Division 1 below the Premier Div whereas they were Nat Div 1 before (I think... one's attention began to wonder to beer and pies at this point). Gwynne Jones, the SCL CE, made the point that such regionalisation was common in other countries (e.g. NZ) as necessary step on way for Scotland to obtain fuller international status - i.e. your regional and district leagues feed a Regional top team that competes against the best in the other Regions. Some people simply were not convinced.
Someone asked about the position on Edinburgh Cricket Club. Sub-judice!
And that was that. Overriding personal impressions... yes lots of old people - we younger (i.e. under 60) and still PLAYING members really ought to get more involved in the game we PLAY. I was also left with the impression of a tension between the aims of a managing committee thrusting a sport into the spotlight with all the professional financing, media and business planning requirements that needs, against a rump of small time/old-time amateurism and club self-centred interest. Not sure that makes sense but you'll catch my drift, brothers.
Sicknote
Iain Martin has come up trumps with nets again...
"Thanks to our previous custom, our promotion to Division 2 and to the secretary "sweet-talking" (ahem) Judith Kisby We have been rewarded with the following dates and times at the MESC National Cricket Academy for indoor nets this pre-season.
Please note (Chris Brown) nets start on 6th January so don't eat too much turkey...."
January 2004
February 2004
March 2004
April 2004
See you all there, folks. Small charge on the night. Couple of quid or so per hour. Webby
A message from Eddie Clarke... perhaps the Clarke and Sorrell Families are conspiring to create a MDCC womens team for 2020??...Again, congrats from us all.
"It's good news, folks... Ali gave birth to a baby daughter, Catriona Rose, here at home in North Berwick (as we'd hoped) on 7th November at 7.07am, weighing 9lbs! Mother and baby well. Big sister managing admirably. Dad pretty much staying on, rather than over, the edge."
Always nice to catch-up with former players so the Web Newsdesk is delighted to report that Richard "Brains" Body will be back in town...(as a reminder of his special Kiwi lunacy, Brain's player profile can be found here.)So, this gives us a good excuse not only for a few beers but we thought our very own Mufs Xmas bash on Saturday 13 December at Berts - back room is reserved for us! Mr Hubbard has kindly agreed to knock up some pre-drinks curry at his pad beforehand and yours truly may add to the catering effort. Grub up lets say at Pauls (7a William Street) at 7-ish. Beers thereon in Berts daresay from 8:30? Let us know if you are wanting curry.
Message received from a proud new father...."Viv had a girl this morning. Holly Nicole was 7 pounds 3 ounces with loads of hair! Mum and daughter doing great."
On behalf of the whole club we would like to send our congratulations to Mr and Mrs Sorrell. Jolly well done.
A bit of a rotten one (again) for your enjoyment, sorry......
A bloke starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks.
First is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds. As he does this a huge fish jumps out and bites him. To show who is boss he beats it to death with a spade. Realising his employer wont be best pleased he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything.
Moving on to the second job of clearing out the Chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps who pelt him with coconuts. He swipes at two chimps with a spade killing them both. What can he do? Feed them to the lions, he says to himself, because lions eat anything. He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure.
He moves on to the last job which is to collect honey from the South American Bees. As soon as he starts he is attacked by the bees. He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp. By now he knows what to do and throws them into the lions cage because lions eat anything.
Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo. He wanders up to another lion and says "What's the food like here?"
The lions say: "Absolutely brilliant, today we had Fish and Chimps with Mushy Bees."
Courtesy of El Statto (Mr Piggott) some stats to warm the heart on a cold winters day....
London Road/Murrayfield/M-DAFS 3rd XI Top 10 (1989 - 2003)Games
Runs
Wickets
We'll be posting some Dafs statistics up as well soon...
PS while here... Richard "Brains" Body is coming up to Edinburgh soon so a chance to have a few beers - will let you know once details confirmed.
Iain Martin reports again (good work fella)....
Another one of the impressive venues your Sec gets to go to in the persuit of a cricket meeting...
After an interesting sausage and mash at the Craggs Inn or Scream or whatever they call it (nice barmaid though, Tony) it was off to one of the better than most meetings in that you get to sit on comfy armchairs and take part in the cup draw aka the old fashioned FA Cup draw.
I know you can't wait any longer so here is the 2004 EPPCA: Parks Trophy Draw in Full:
First Round
Games to be played by 21 May
Second Round
Game to be played by 4 June
Third Round - 25 June
Semi-finals- 8 Jul
Final - 19 July
The draw for the Terry Newcombe Trophy was also made:
Iain Martin reports....
The Scottish Saltires have announced their 2004 NCL schedule:
With thanks to Scottish Cricket for the reproduction of these fixtures.
Venues and supporter packages tbc.
The SCU AGM takes place on Tuesday 9th December 2003 at 7:30 pm at SCU HQ, MESC. SCU members are entitled to attend as are member clubs. If any club members wish to attend to represent the club please get in touch with club secretary, Iain Martin.
Scottish Cricket Ltd (SCL) has announced that 27 year-old Ryan Watson has been appointed regional development manager for cricket in the East of Scotland. The post, partly funded by sportscotland, was previously held by Craig Wright, the Scottish Saltires captain, who will now fulfil new responsibilities within the SCL's marketing function.
Watson, who will start in his new post on 10 November, based at the SCL's Edinburgh offices, will be primarily responsible for driving the grassroots development of the sport in schools and clubs in the east of Scotland. Geographically, his remit will extend to the Forth estuary in the north, Livingston in the west and the Borders in the south.
Please note MDCC's development work for 2004 never rests and we will be meeting Ryan on Thursday 27th November with a view to the initiation of a MDCC Youth Section and other developments. The club has recently secured funding for such activities (more details to follow) and are keen to develop further in this area. Anyone wanting to get involved in this area of MDCC, please contact the club secretary, Iain Martin.
Club member Andy Knight is near to completing his ECB Level 1 Coaching course. The whole of the club wishes Andy well in his assessments over the next 2 weeks. With the successful completion of the course MDCC will have 3 recently qualified Level 1 coaches to work with the proposed Youth Section of the club.
As the nights draw in and memories of summer glories slowly fade, a few previously unpublished photos from the joint Doune/Reivers CC tour to the lake district. Mufs interest with JNB, OMH and myself in the ranks of tourers, also ex-DAFS and Reivers stalwart Dave Jamieson present.
The photos can be accessed from this link to photos or from the "gallery" found in our sitemap. Cheers to all Sicknote.
The 2003 MDCC Annual General Meeting Minutes can be accessed from this link to minutes. Apologies for the delay in getting them up... been bit busy of late!
Breaking news from Mr Martin from the ESCA AGM.....
At the East of Scotland AGM held at Watsonians last night the draw was finally removed from the East League. So next year its win/lose cricket and indeed I think we, as club, and as individuals, all need to think about this before next season.
The proposal put forward by Carlton and seconded by Murrayfield-Dafs CC whereby a losing team could end up with 15 points lost out however, as the meeting seemed to think the system was too complicated - it wasn't but the requirement to use numerical tables to ascertain point scoring targets were obviously too much for some. Winning by 13 votes to 11 the new system we will be using in 2004 was proposed by Falkland and sees the bonus points up to a possible 12 (6 bat/6 bowl based on numbers of runs scored and wickets taken) with 25 points for a win.
More detailed explanation of the 2004 points scoring system will be available soon.
Also confirmed last night were the league tables and promotion/relegation issues. Our top team's promotion to Division 2 is confirmed. The 2's will once again play in Division 4 (joined by Grange 4, Edinburgh 2, Glenrothes and Dunikier). The 3's provisionally lie in Division 8 but with currently16 teams this will be looked at by the East League Committee.
We as a club also need to pay our league and Masterton Trophy subs by the first Sat of the season or we lose points so an early challenge for OMH..... and to all members to pay their MDCC subs as soon as possible in 2004.
Hope all are hibernating well.
THE SEC.
PS NEXT MDCC SOCIAL EVENT IS A FUNDRAISING CURRY NIGHT IN JANUARY 2004 - WATCH THIS SPACE.
Ricardo Martino doth reporto....
Scotland is poised for its first taste of Twenty20 cricket when a star-studded Lashings line-up takes on the Saltires at The Grange next June. The world's most famous pub side, who have the likes of Brian Lara, Richie Richardson, Mark Waugh and Phil Tufnell in their ranks, are in the midst of finalising a week-long tour of Scotland from June 21-28, and will also play games against a Scottish Schools X1, a collection of the SNCL's best performers, and a match on the beach at Elie against the Ship Inn team.
The Saltires should find out their NCL fixture list for 2004 in the next fortnight,but the prospect of a money-spinning Twenty20 tussle, starting at 5.0 on Friday the 26th, clearly appeals both to Lashings and the SCL. "We had a great time when we came up in June, but it was just for one match, and ideally, if we could organise some kind of mini-tour, that would give many more people the chance to watch some of the world's best cricketers in action," said David Folb, the millionaire benefactor of Lashings, who is hoping to persuade the Australian captain, Steve Waugh, to join the litany of superstars who have turned out for his side, ranging from Shane Warne to Sir Vivian Richards. "The highlight would obviously be a tussle with Scotland and I like the idea of preaching to the unconverted, so the notion of staging the match on a Friday evening has lots of merit. We all saw what a big hit the Twenty20 tournament was in England and how it brought some razzamatazz into the sport and I'm sure that Scottish supporters would be equally keen, especially with us committed to bringing up a full-strength squad."
As matters stand, Scotland are shaping up for their biggest-ever schedule in 2004. Yesterday, they learned they will be in the same group as World Cup finalists, Australia and India, in next September's Champion Trophy if they win the Intercontinental Cup in Dubai this winter. "The more opportunities we get on the big stage the better," said the Scotland captain, Craig Wright. "I knew that Lashings enjoyed their first visit here and it would be tremendous if we were involved in a Twenty20 contest."
Who needs Beyonce and Cristina Aguileira ? Mufs brought their own unique glitz and glamour to the Murrayfield Hotel on Friday with our Awards Dinner.
In front of a number of other bemused diners, Mufs superstars were supremely feasted and watered by the most excellant Carol from the Hotel. Certainly our boys like their red meat! Special lager coffee liqour as well for Dazza. Then the awards themselves.
Winners:-
We are the champions!
Tuesday's Annual General Meeting saw this season's all conquering One's Captain step down in order to concentrate on his bowling (god help Div 2 batsmen then!!) and enjoy his cricket. New One's skipper is yours truly. If one can come any near to matching Richard's drive and leadership then I'll be doing well. JNB remains at VC. Two's continue to be led by Iain Martin and Phil Rogers and for Three's Don Wilkie is supported by Chris Brown.
In the other main development on the night, Paul Hubbard takes on the Mufs Treasury from Gordon Dalyell. Minutes etc to be posted onto website when received.
Twos end-season statistics have been added to the Stats page.
Since sticking a hits counter on it last April, our website registered its ten thousandth hit this week. The visitor to clock-up the magic 10,000 being our very own John Norman Baikie.
Courtesy of Club Statto (elect) Mr Piggott... 3s averages are now available. See this link to 3s statistics
Also you've already seen some of the best of photos from the ESCA Dinner.... here are some more of your heroes...from this link to Awards photos.
Furthermore don't forget the Club AGM this Tuesday at 7pm at the Murrayfield Hotel and our Awards dinner on Fri 7 Nov.. same time, same place..
And finally I have moved earlier News items (June to Jan) into their own archive file ... link above.
I apologise for the following joke....
Frank was excited about his new rifle and decided to try bear hunting. He travels up to Alaska, spots a small brown bear and shoots it.
Right after, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned around to see a big black bear.
The black bear said, "That was a very bad mistake. That was my cousin and I'm going to give you two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have sex." After considering briefly, Frank decided to accept the latter alternative.
So the black bear has his way with Frank. Even though he felt sore for two weeks, Frank soon recovered and vowed revenge.
He headed out on another trip back to Alaska where he found the black bear and shot it dead.
Right after, there was another tap on his shoulder. This time a huge grizzly bear stood right next to him. The grizzly said, "That was a big mistake, Frank. That was my cousin and you've got two choices. Either I maul you to death or we have rough sex." Again, Frank thought it was better to cooperate with the grizzly bear than be mauled to death. So the grizzly has his way with Frank.
Although he survived, it took several months before Frank fully recovered. Now Frank is completely outraged, so he headed back to Alaska and managed to track down the grizzly bear and shot it. He felt sweet revenge, but then, moments later, there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to find a giant polar bear standing there.
The polar bear looked at him and said, "Admit it Frank, you don't come here for the hunting, do you?"
The CSOS kicks off again next week with Scottish Youth Development manager and Saltires coach Peter Drinnen. More importantly he may be joining the list of notables with an association with Murrayfield Dafs if our plan to get bowling machine practice sessions at MESC during November comes to fruition.
Anyway, come and hear what this straight talking Aussie has to say at Edinburgh Accies Clubhouse on Tuesday 14th October 2003, 730pm.
Other speakers are:
Membership of the association is £12 for the year.
Tuesday 29th June 2004.
International Cricket returns to the Riverside for the NatWest Series. England defend their unbeaten Riverside record against New Zealand in a One Day International under floodlights. Early booking is advisable and tickets are now available online. Buying tickets online is easy. USE THE LINK ON THIS WEBSITE AND YOU CAN BOOK ONLINE. Adults - Premium Seats - £32.50 North Terrace (temporary seating) & South Terrace
Adults - Standard Seating - £27.50 -North West Terrace, County Stand, Don Robson Pavilion & South East Terrace
Adults - Temporary Seating - £25 - T1, T2 & T3
Junior - All Seating - £10 -Under 16
Iain Martin
A few photos of your heroes at the ESCA Awards Dinner.... more to follow soon. Bonjour Le Shark.
Assembled Mufs in their smart clobber... bar scruffy ol' me behind the lens!
Triumphant Skipper receives the Div 3 Trophy.
Andy gets his Player of the Month Award from George More, ESCA Sponsor..
Court Jester, Claypole, is in attendance.
JNB wins a most excellant raffle prize !!.
Andy's Award and the Div 3 Trophy in their full glory!.
Some Merry Mufs and their Prize. And a happy shark...
Sickie and Shark ... and a hard-earned trophy.
A once in 113 year occurance... maybe less frequent than Halley's comet?? So moved by his team's success Sicknote could not resist the call of home and Hove and jumped on the earliest morning flight to see that historical trophy lifted. A magic day with some interesting characters encountered later in the Hove Jungle...all caught on camera for your entertainment - see 2 pages of photos at this link to Sussex photos. "We'll never play Hants again" we sang, as well as the hearty "Sussex by the Sea". If only I was there the day before. And who cares about one-day cricket? We don't at Hove (for now).
Some dates for your diaries.... the MUFS AGM will take place on Tuesday 21st October and our End of Season Dinner and Awards will take place on Friday 7th November- both at the Murrayfield Hotel - both 7:00pm starts.
Anyone thinking of taking a Level 1 Scottish Cricket Coaching Course should contact SCU at their Mary Erskine School Centre. Being run by Peter Drinnen. Dates are Oct 6,13,20,27 and Nov 3,10,17.
By the way... for those pining for cricket already... I've stuck links to this year's various photo-shoots in the sitemap. A glorious summer's cricket in muf-ni-color.
Courtesy of Iain "Ricky" Martin... details of the ESCA Dinner can be found from the following links to PDF files - invite details and dinner menu.
If you don't have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader (get it from www.adobe.com) try this text file of both invite and menu.
In brief.... the Annual Awards Dinner will take place on Friday 3rd October in the Heriot’s Rugby Football clubhouse, Goldenacre, Edinburgh (7:30 for 8pm). The upstairs bar will be open from 7pm.
The Dinner is the social event of the Association’s 70th and the League’s 50th Anniversary and not only provides your club with the opportunity to thank our generous sponsor, George More & Co, in their fourth year of sponsorship, but also to acknowledge the efforts of the winning teams and individuals.
Tickets for the Dinner are priced at £26.50. Guest Speaker Sandy Strang.
Final Tables for Div 3 and Div 4 can be found at this link to tables
The prize winners are as follows:-
Div 3 Batting - B Lockie (Carlton 2) - 576 runs ; Div 3 Bowling - J Murray (Townhill) - 34 wickets
Div 4 Batting - G Ross (Heriot's FP 3) - 359 runs ; Div 4 Bowling - J Nicholson (Edin. Univ. Staff) - 42 wickets
Personal congrats from me to Brent who certainly went run-crazy at the end of the season! I was only 194 runs behind him!!! Sickie.
In a friendly match played in good spirit, a Mufs Select XI were beaten by Broomhall. Chasing 107 Mufs could only reach 85(?)and that we got that close was due to a fine partnership between Gus Maclean and Neil Cummings. After all the glory glory this year... our Web-meister was reminded of the fickle fates of cricket as he contributed a 3 ball duck to the Mufs effort. Ooops. However, the game was overshadowed by a painful blow to the nether-regions for Cliff "Buster" Graham which unfortunantly has seen hospital treatment for his very tender parts. We all hope everything recovers ok. Brutal game cricket can be at times.
Photos of the Botanical Mufs Tour of Argyll can be found from this link . Includes the glorious moment of Henry Collin's maiden hatrick and other daft bits and pieces... Match reports to follow soon too,
A Mufs Select XI is taking on Broomhall (I think) over in the Kingdom past Limekilns on Saturday. Spectators welcome... phone Iain for directions if need be. I think they are even laying on a barbie...! No doubt some of us will end up in Berts possibly.
As the warm glow of a successful season is still with us here's a link to a few action photos from last weekend...
A combined Botanics and Mufs expeditionary force will be setting out west on Sat for a mini tour v Innellan and Cairndow... tour diary to follow in due course
We are rather short of Twos and Threes match reports and Statistics... any volunteers to pull these together? Perhaps we need an Official Club Statto...
An old Muffer of ours, Rich Body, has found his new Mufs Shirt to be of great inspiration for him... recently scoring a career best 55 inspiring his teamWallingford 2's to finally move off the very bottom of the Oxford-Cherwell league. A photo of Brains in action below...
Richard "Brains" Body Displays the Power of the Mufs Shirt
The 6 points gained against Stenhousemuir were enough to take the second string above Edinburgh University Staff to finish in a creditable 7th place and well clear of any relegation issues. Well done to all 42 players yes 42 who represented the team this year (the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and selection perhaps?). A Jubilant 2nd team captain, Iain Martin, commented that "We go into 2004 with great expectation remembering that if we repeat our record of the second half of 2003 we could be looking at promotion to Division 3 - availability is the key and I hope everyone will remember that while planning weddings, holidays and s*x during the winter - no summer babies please guys".
After a couple of shandys, and considering availability issues, skip appeared to be suffering a condition of not making sense while quoting playwright Harold Pinter, "I tend to believe that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth, certainly greater than sex, although sex isnt bad either. But, everyone knows which comes first when its a question of cricket or sex - all discerning people recognise that. Anyway dont forget one doesnt have to do two things at the same time. You can have sex before or after cricket (webeb.... witness Graham Milne's pre-match warm-up???) - the fundamental fact is that cricket must be there at the centre of things."
Something for folk to ponder for next season....Mr Martin thinks.
Visiting hours for those wishing to visit Iain in Carstairs to be announced when I receive them.
Talking of emergency wards.... actually I did miss something from Saturday... sometimes in sport there are moments of abject incompetence that become a proud badge of honour... personally speaking I will always puff my chest out in pride in memory of my pivo inspired display of bowling in Prague where I managed to concede 26 runs from one over. Step forward onto the podium Martin Ward with the incredible figures of 2 overs, 0 maidens I daresay, 1 wicket for 50, yes 50, runs. Take a bow, Martin ... we salute you. Can anyone in the club beat that? Is this the true entry requirement of our 50 Club???
As the Ones sat down to feast on well-earnt steaks all round at their Lunch of Champions, the Twos were taking on Stenhousemuir at Muirhouse safe in the knowledge that the much improved performances of late had ensured them Div 4 cricket again next year. Unfortunantly instead of fireworks the season finale fizzled out after a hefty defeat was inflicted by Stenny.
Stenny reached 222 in 50 overs helped greatly by a century by S.Duncan (?) and generous non-catching by Mufs. In reply and cheered on by the feasted Ones, we could manage only 135 in reply. High points were Murdo's blistering start to the innings (20 odd), Dazza's quickfire and entertaining 41, and a fine 20 not from Tom Wheeler.
Details sketchy at this stage but against Kismet our Threes were beaten by around 140 runs chasing around 250 I believe with a 30 from El Presidente the high point.
A fine gathering was held at Berts, continuing on to Teuchtars and finishing off for a select few in Mad Dogs to watch the Tony Simpson Show. The Festival may be over but Tony can entertain all-year round.
Ones finished off their champion season with the best of the draw against a dogged Stirling County in a game with a touch of end-of-season party in mind. Mufs batting first saw the Sickie v Knighty run-chase finish well in the favour of the Sussexman, though the Baggie finishes with the better average. Knighty perished on 17 and Shiels going on to 41. But star batsmen on the day were Graham Watson with a well crafted 51 not and JNB with a blistering 44 who came together with Mufs in some trouble and added 80 for the 7th wicket to help us up to 198 for 7.
Graeme Milne was giving the honour of opening the bowling in what may be his final appearance in a Mufs shirt. The G-Man it said on the back of his, G for generousity towards batsmen perhaps as the Midwife delivered a bit of a wild one going all out for pace. Stirling off to a bit of a flyer despite the usual nagging accuracy from Norm A. Martin Ward bowled a tidy spell but the charge of the County Dogs was ended with Norm A taking a sharp c&b to remove the dangerous Cilliers and then The Beast of Sorrell took over. Wicket with his first ball and a fine spell of fast bowling netted him 4 wickets. Sickie given a rare outing with the ball took one and JNB took two. However the young Stirling tail hung-on at the death finishing with 125 for 8 so Mufs were denied a 100% season winning record at Muirhouse but remain unbeaten there since June 2002..
Twos were gifted a valuable maximum points as Accies bizarrely did not show up at Raeburn Place. Points welcome as Twos inch their way further to safety but I think on a day like Sat one would rather have played.
Threes managed to hold on for a draw at Dunbar with Ali taking 4 wickets in Dunbar's 231 for 8. Mufs responded well to finish on 194 for 6 with Nadeem again impressing with 52, the Don himself in a star-cameo of 30, Ali with 29, Paul Leonard with 25 and Matty Boyd with 23. El Presidente had earlier got a nasty finger injury trying to balance a ball on the end of his digit rather than catching it. No break thankfully.
A whole day's drinking in the sun led to some bizarre behaviour in Berts later (photos can be accessed from this link to the pictures) from those of the Twos still standing- OMH (also now known as Thora Hird for reasons best left to them to explain) chief entertainer. Ed apparently managed to sell his other half for the price of several camels to OMH. Finally a limited edition Up The Mufs 2003 T-Shirt (size XXL - see photos) is up for grabs before we auction it off on E-Bay. Seven Quid to Knighty secures this collectable item (...sorry Andy I couldn't find a Korean Fringe Tourist stupid enough to buy it...!)
A previously rained off game for the Threes against Dunbar has been re-arranged for Saturday 23rd August - availability to the usual suspects please.
Matty Boyd has brought to our attention a Charity Social night at the Muirhouse CS club on the 22nd, for anyone from the club who want to go its £3 a ticket and its a disco, karaoke night.
Also... Congratulations to Chris Wigan who represented East Of Scotland U-16 vs Northamptonshire U-16 at Dunfermline last week.
Some of us are headed off to see Eric Bogle on Wednesday... meeting 8pm at the Doctors Pub...one shall get to hear "and the band played Waltzing Matilda as the ship...etc" sung properly. No doubt we'll sing it again on Saturday !!
For those who don't fancy the Muirhouse Social but fancy seeing some free top class acoustic blues guitar (and some folk) ... check out Adrian Byron Burns at the Guildford Arms this Friday. Folk/Blues festival (free!) on there all week... good local Folk band Yard of Ale top and tail each nite's set. Sickie/Gilly will be there later on (after some comedy next door at Cafe R)
Sometimes its hard to cross that winning line and against a spirited Dunfermline Carnegie the Ones were made to sweat before Super Skipper Sorrell drove the championship clinching boundary. Mufs restricted Carnegie to 132 off 50 overs with a fine bowling display on a spicy Pitreavie wicket, the pick of the Mufs attack being Dickie Park with 4 wickets but mention should also go to some fine aggressive bowling from Dunc and the Skipper who forced a "nutted" Carnegie batsman (Honeyford) to storm off at one point in search of a helmet.
Our turn to bat on a deteriorating wicket (so our chums from Fife kept on reminding us!). And spicy it was (our webed has a collection of bruises to wear). Chasing smallish targets can often be problematic and so it proved as we hit our target after a few alarms. Some of us (Liberty) couldn't even bear to watch as wickets alarmingly started to be shed with victory in sight after top scorers Sicknote (31) and Duncan (30) departed. Lucky Pants were being sought after. However with two wickets in hand it was fittingly left to the Skipper to bring home the bacon and cue champagne celebrations. Hurrah and well done all on an immense Team performance this year.
Some photos of our triumphant chaps can be found here.
Twos added to the sense of joy with a nailbiting vital one wicket victory against an ill-tempered Westquarter team that deserved all they got. That is, defeat. Star man in destroying the Westquarter batting was Darryn Kidd with a hat-trick amongst his 5 wicket haul. Chasing 79, we lost early wickets but Chris Wigan's 27 tilted the balance back our way and although the game was poised on a knife-edge (!) some stubborn resistance ensured victory was achieved by one wicket.
In a "friendly" challenge match, Three's made 145 for 9 chasing Livingston Seconds's (not Leith FA as previously reported) 220. Our top bowler was Nadeem with 3-51 and another wicket for the "secret weapon" Neil Yelland. On the batting front El Presidente made 30, James Wignall (20) and Henry Collin (17 not) made career-best knocks (good show chaps) and Ali Amjed made 16.
In the second of our Sunday friendlies against opposition from Argylle way, Tony Simpson retains his 100% captaincy record. The star of the day though was Matt Boyd who followed up his earlier fine bowling (3 wickets) with his first ever century (just!... following an agonising recount by the scorers who had previously had him out for 99!). Chasing Innellan's 154 off 40 overs, things were going distinctly pear-shaped for Mufs until the Matt Boyd Show as he hit 14 boundaries in his 100, including one over with 5 successive 4's (then a cheeky single to keep the strike) to put us right back in it. Sadly Matt could not lead us all the way, perishing to a steepling catch. However, in a final nerve-jangling over, with 7 required, Ian Oliver and Paul Leonard scampered us to victory off the final ball with the cheekiest of byes and an incredible missed run-out by their keeper. Jugs all round from Matt. Well done big wee Boyd fella.
Ones returned to their devastating form as West Lothian were defeated by 120 runs (or so) at Muirhouse. Batting first Mufs posted 234 for 6 with the reunion of the Knight-Shiels partnership for once not proving profitable as Andy departed for a comparatively cheap 13 in comparison with his previous 2 century knocks. Shiels (46) and Milne (69) push Mufs into the comfort zone for the big hitters to drive us past 200 with JNB starring with 32 not. A good all-round bowling effort with Duncan taking 3 wickets saw Mufs home and hosed with 10 overs to spare.
Chasing 208 at the Aboretum our Twos upset Holy Cross (not hard) with a 3 wicket victory. Chris "Hairy Monster" Watling chose an opportune moment to return to form with a patient 55 well supported by Murdo's 35, but it was Boris Hothersall's quickfire 35 that tipped the scales for Mufs. Dazza (18 not) returning from injury saw us home against Holy Cross who had bizarrely declared earlier on 49 overs. A chicken-counting lesson inflicted. Mufs old-boy "No Two" Praveen again did us some damage with a knock of 40
A last wicket stand of 40 proved the undoing of the Threes as they lost by one wicket against Musselburgh. Earlier Mufs posted 120 with Cliff Graham (21) and Rob Fotherington (20 not) top scores other than Mr Extras with an incredible 51 ! With Ali taking 5 wickets and Henry Collin 4, Mufs looked set for victory but alas chances were missed to wrap things up and the Honest Toon's last wicket pair made us suffer.
I dunno... turn yer back for one weekend... tut tut ... etc etc (as if one would have made much of a difference). Well it was going to happen eventually, the Ones Great Run finally came to an end at Freuchie and unlike a Spinal Tap amplifier we could not go up to eleven ! Batting frailty, evident once or twice this year, was the culprit with 125 never enough to hold off Freuchie on their own turf. Phil Rogers with a defiant 41 exhonorated from the poor show... summed up in a text to me by Richie that night of "we were crap!". Duncan took the 3 wickets to fall.
Twos ran Drummond close before losing by 19 runs at Muirhouse (with another half century for OMH) ... but the bright sparks in a weekend of gloom were Don's Destroyers with a thrashing of Mitre 2's. Good work chaps.
With Thanks to Mr Martin for penning this report on the game v Cairndow...
Sunday Success And so the winning run continues! With the ones and twos winning on Saturday and the threes showing some signs of improvement, the Sunday XI set out to continue the victory momentum. A mixed team was selected featuring one first-teamer, six second teamers and four thirdteamers. The fact that Cairndow captain, Barry Rowlands, was suggesting on the 'phone earlier in the week that we should pick a weak team was ignored principally because of the Yorkshire accent... never believe a Yorkie and his views on cricket... and we knew they had humped Morton a few weeks previously!!! And just as well, as Cairndow started well, bowling tightly and fielding very well indeed. Shielsy and Tom opened the MDCC innings. Tom was looking confident; Shielsy was looking errr... rough as the ball missed his bat on a number of occasions in the opening few overs... the light was fine but the previous nights IPA seemed to be taking effect! Ian soon seemed to recover hitting his first 4 of the day and a good start seemed on the cards until he skyed one which was caught very comfortably off the bowling of Maddox. Matty Boyd came in and soon experienced the fielding skills of Cairndow with a direct hit run-out. There was a strange willingness to umpire during our innings which of course had nothing to do with the Civil Service Strollers-Kilmarnock ladies football match on the adjacent pitch? or did it Matty?? This brought El Presidente, strangely short of runs this year, to the crease. With his personal trainer on the sidelines the pressure was on. Tom, meanwhile was quietly accumulating runs, hitting the bad balls to the boundary and anchoring the innings. Yelly snr had found the boundary 3 times before holing out to another good catch for 24 off the bowling of Hutton who was to remove Don Wilkie a few balls later. When Tom was out for a patient 41(or rapid if you were watching the ones the day before!!), the score of 100-5 was looking a bit short considering 32 overs had gone. However, as in the twos game on Saturday the tail wagged with new signing Cliff Graham scoring a quick fire 21 and Paul Leonard, Edwin (tweety pie and) Silvester, Nightbus and yours truly all contributing to bring the score up to 142 all out off their 40 overs. It was noted that I had scored more runs (7) in 3 balls than all season... True! I even had to buy a computer memory upgrade for my computer to cope with my personal stats spreadsheet!
Tea was as splendid as ever and went down well with the Cairndow guys who had travelled such a long way to play us. It was soon evident that Cairndow were not used to a flat dry quick(ish) pitch when it came to batting. I think they were hoping to play out the opening bowlers and score runs off the later ones. This never materialised as all 10 yes 10 Murrayfield-Dafs bowlers kept it tight. After 16 overs, Cairndow had only scored 30, but they had batted very sensibly taking no chances and only losing the one wicket to Edwin. Shiels and the "Don" made the breakthrough with Ian bowling Dando for a patient 7 and Wilson for 6. Tierny complete with odd West Coast accent (West Coast Australia) was looking dangerous before miss-timing a pull shot off Wilkie which I caught with my forearm!! Unorthadox but at least I did catch it! Drop a catch off the "Don's" bowling at your peril!!!
And then came the moment the crowd (Tom, Lindsay and "Mrs" Edwin) were waiting for..... time for...... THE COACH to bowl. Fresh from coaching Steve Knox to 99 for Grange in the National League a buzz of anticipation rebounded around Muirhouse... or was the midges? Cairndow wicket keeper McDairmid's eyes lit up.... another misjudged pull shot.... the ball skyed to the under pressure keeper (Dad) and .... caught it! Neil sprints down the wicket and launches himself into El Presidente's arms... winding him in the process, but surely the champagne moment of the game! Matty Boyd bowled really well to remove Schmol as Cairndow finished on 99-7 off their 40 overs. So a comfortable win for the Sunday side by 43 runs.
Thanks to all who played, Nightbus for captaining superbly - ensuring a win and that everyone got a bat and a bowl and of course to Cairndow who played well, in a great spirit and the Botanics amongst us look forward to seeing you at the end of Loch Fyne in September. Next in town: Innellan on Sunday August 10. Availability to me please cheers. Iain Martin.
Some photos from the game against Desert Youth Club can be found at this link to a photos page .
As a teaser... here's one of Phil "Foggy" Rogers demonstrating how not to play spin...and JNB unruffled by a fiery delivery
Please note your dutiful webby is away from Thurs 31 July to following Thurs... any communications to my hotmail account per-please
Ones took a huge stride towards promotion after gunning down their closest rivals, Townhill on a spicy wicket at Muirhouse and extend their magnificent run to 10 victories out of 10. It was a close run thing with Mufs players pacing around like expectant fathers as we inched our way to victory from the edge of the abyss.
Townhill were inserted on a damp wicket but Mufs could not make their usual early in-roads, not helped by some indifferent fielding and several missed chances (mea culpa for one!). Once the breakthrough was made Townhill rapidly lost wickets with in particuler JNB bowling a splendid full spell to take 4 wickets; Lindsay put in a contender for catch of the season. Townhill routed for 111.
Mufs reply started disastrously as a bit of tea-time rain had seemingly spiced up the wicket even more. We lost both Monty West and Jaya in the first over, slumped to 26 for 5 at one point and then when muggins 'ere went for 18 we had hit 46 for 6 off 20 overs. Tom Wheeler joins Lindsay Town who hits several fine shots in his 27 before getting himself run-out. Tom is the immovable rock upon which the recovery is based as then Phil Rogers also hits 27 to take us close before being stumped. Nails were getting chewed at the end as we crept closer but the Skipper (11 not) and Tom (7 not in a tremendous 30 overs stay) see us home with 4 balls and 2 wickets to spare. Phew!!
Richie Counts the Victories
Twos made it back to back wins in a vital relegation clash versus Edinburgh University Staff. Like the Ones they had made a terrible start but the tail wagged big-time to post 128 with Chris Wigan with 28 and Tony, 19, the stars. Tony then bowled an excellent spell of 15 overs taking 3 for 8 to lead us to victory by some 38 runs.
If I were to say to you that after Graeme Tait's 9, Andy Piggott was next top scorer (excluding Mr Extras) for the Threes with 6 then you might be able to conclude that they did not post a competitive total. So it proved as they only reached 42. A defeat by 8 wickets unfortunantly.
Sunday's friendly match versus Cairndow was played in an excellent spirit and for the record Mufs, led by the talismanic Night Bus, finished on top. Mufs posted 142 off 40 overs with Tom Wheeler (41), Phil Yelland (24) and Cliff Graham (21) the pick of the batsman. However probably the most memorable point of the match was a Yelland family moment. Caught P Yelland - Bowled N Yelland goes down into cricketing history. A triumphant leap by Neil into his father's arms would have been a picture perfect moment (if we had a camera on us). Thankfully for Phil, Matt Boyd did not follow suit when taking his wicket. Cairn Dow finished on 99 for 7 off their 40 overs - other wicket takers being Sicknote with 2 for 4, Edwin Silvester 1 for 6, Don Wilkie 1 for 15 (plus a run-out direct hit) and Matt 1 for 5. Everyone got 4 overs - well skippered Tony.
A midweek game of near 300 runs of entertainment was dished up at Muirhouse as Mufs took on Edinburgh CC. Mufs batting first saw Judas Sicknote return to their ranks to stride out with Montgomery West. They set Mufs solidly on their way against some swift ECC bowling until Westy was caught for 16. Out came Dizzy Peake in splendid, aggressive form and the rate was pushed up to 7-odd an over in a 56 run stand with Sickie. Our webed takes one too many swipes to leg and is bowled for 37. Debutant Edwin Silvester is run out for 4, Rich bowled for 5 and Duncan reaches an excellent 54 before being castled. With JNB (13 not) at the wicket Mufs set an impressive 145 for 5 off our 20 overs.
Although confidence is high, there is of course ECC's Raja to contend with. And rightly so we were to be wary. Raja set off at a blistering pace against some wayward bowling- particularly merciless on an unprotected Nightbus whose two overs astonishingly disappeared for 34. Raja, hotter than a Dave Fisher Vindaloo, is splendid entertainment to watch (unless you are bowling at him) and has ECC up to 112 off only 10 overs as Iain, Phil and Edwin were all to feel the heat. But fear not, enter JNB, the Clansman... and like a large dollop of cool cucumber raita the fiery heat of Raja is extinguished as Dizzy swoops to take a spiralling catch at point. Duncan himself has put the brakes on - conceding only 4 runs in 3 overs. However, ECC still seemingly have enough left and are still closing in on victory. However as the gloom descended, Tom Wheeler Dealer had a few aces up his sleeve to tip the game back towards Mufs with 3 wickets for 3 runs in 2 overs. With ECC reinforced by a late arriving batsman, they require 7 to win off the last Norman Allan over. Surely beyond these youngsters against the wile and craft of the Stormin One. Think again as the lad crashes a fine drive for 4 through the covers. It eventually comes down to 2 off 2 balls- and the younger one painfully scrambles a leg-bye to tie the scores - a worthy bruise to wear. However his partner cannot connect with the final delivery so the match finished with honours even.
Updated with apologies to Arfan and Rafiq (or Arfiq?) for previous mix-up.... webby
Mufs emerged victorious against the Bots in a derby game of excellent intensity and rivalry on Tuesday evening. RBG skipper, Neil Cummings, decided to bat, fearful of a repeat show by Richie Sorrell who had recently bludgeoned 97 for Reivers against the RBG. However, the Mufs attack found itself under instant barrage from Arfan who, with "Judas" Sicknote in support, raced RBG to 79 off 11 overs. Arfan blazed shots against all the premier Mufs bowlers before departing for a rapid 48. Sicknote kept the score ticking mindful of a long RBG tail; some comedy running moments generated with Shoaib "Crazy Horse" Farouki and then Ian "Rick-aaay" Martin: run out while admiring his attacking shot as Sickie unwisely called him through for a single; successfully testing the accuracy of Jaya's (sorry, I mean "Geoff's") aim. Sicknote presented young Iain Oliphant with a couple of golden opportunities to claim his scalp, however, thankfully (for me) much enduring mirth was spared as the luckless Iain passed up both chances (phew!). Sicknote's relief was short-lived as the creakin' old man of DAFS, Freddy Victor "Never Ever Forget a Drop, Run-out...etc" Robson-Meldrew weaved and span his ol' black magic. (Being run-out by women is easier to take). And so the run-rate continued to fall, another comedy moment of running by Anders - waiting until Tom Wheeler "Dealer" had picked up in the deep and thrown half-in before starting a second run that had turned from comfortable to now ludicrously suicidal. And so it proved. With a chosen whack or two from Frank "Frankie" Boyd jnr and James Wignall, the Bots reached a testing 123 off 20 overs.
Early pressure was put on Mufs as Arfan continued in fine fettle to trap "Geoff" leg before early on and a clearly pumped-up "Ricky" Martino pressed the advantage further in his last of 4 excellent overs by removing JNB just as the Clansman looked like fully getting into his bludgeoning stride. However, Monty West proved to be the stubborn root that the Botanics just could not dig-out and with Botanics bowlers feeding his favoured leg-side pull and slog-sweeps, Mufs were rapidly chasing down the Botanics score. Then a double-break for the Bots... the Beast of Sorrell belied his dodgy shoulder and hammered Shoaib for what looked like a towering six. However, he left with much the same feeling as no doubt Dickie Park had a few weeks before as Arfan defied gravity to pluck the ball out of the air on the fence. Then suddenly Graham Watson found himself bowled round the legs next ball to leave Tom facing the hat-trick ball. And that was as close as the Bots got as Tom gave Westy admirable support as Westy continued to thrash the Bots. Desperate times called for Sicknote to bowl but Westy and Tom saw Mufs home and hosed with 17 balls to spare. Chris finishing on a excellent 67 not out. Well done all.
Web-ed (with apologies for less than perfict speeling before Pheel points them owt most excellently (no, not Yelly !)
Corstorphine Twos were imperiously swept aside by Mufs at Barnton as the Ones hot streak now stretches to 9 in a row. A tactical shift by the Skipper saw the opposition inserted and quickly routed by the superb Norman Allan and Duncan Peake. Corstorphine found themselves 7 for 5 at one point. Only a fighting knock by Brian Potter got them any sort of total (54)- JNB used the heavy atmosphere to swing it through the rest of the batting - both Normans with 4 wicket hauls to add to Duncan's two victims. Jaya (4) was our only loss chasing... Graham Milne making short work of the total with a swashbuckling 42 not with sedate support from Sicknote (10 not).
The Ones were thus back at Muirhouse in time to support the Twos chase a total of 149 against Trinity. Chief amongst the wickets had been Iain Martin with 4 scalps. Tom Wheeler and the Hairy Monster, Watling depart cheaply but OMH and Jacques steady the innings with a fine partnership before Hubbard is caught for 28. The middle order cannot stay with Jacques for long enough until the arrival of the Night Bus. Perhaps a knock to the head keeps Tony's head down as he and Jacques take us to victory. Jacques' unbeaten 62 a most splendid effort.
So as a happy Ones and Twos sat supping their ale in the Muirhouse sun, the Threes were licking their wounds after a calamitous defeat- being rolled over by the Cask and Barrel for just 28. C&B lose two wickets to Tom Hothersall on their way to victory. A further 20 over match is played - this time we score 76 - but still lose!
The evening ends with a huge gathering of Mufs and partners at Berts to celebrate Chris Watlings' 40th. Excellant stuff
Well what a great day and great honour that was for Mufs to play the Desert Youth Club of India. DYC eventually triumphed by 20 runs or so but not without being given a very competitive workout by Mufs, defeat with much honour.
Again the main strength of Mufs was evident as we worked our way steadily through the DYC top order... a wee waggle of the later order seeing them to 169 all out - but a very creditable performance from our attack who bowled with craft and guile (partic Norm A) and much fire in the belly (Dunc and Rich peppering their openers with some short stuff off a lively Muirhouse track... this would of course be returned with some interest later by THEIR even faster bowlers at our openers, etc... i.e. me,...thanks guys). A visit from an Indian Minister - we stopped for 10 minutes to greet him - added even more to the majestic sense of occasion.
Tea was a most splendid effort by Frank snr, the campaign to get pakoras and samosa alongside the traditional Muirhouse pie starts here. Franks piece-de-resistance was to come later.
Now it was our turn to bat on what one of the Indians had said to me was a "firecracker" of a wicket. Our ranks had been boosted by a couple of lads from West of Scotland CC... both had put in a fine effort when we were in the field... however both were lost reasonably early. I have to say personally this was the fastest stuff I had faced for a very long time... and I think the chaps on the sidelines were kept amused as one had to duck and dive around in the crease to avoid various projectiles aimed at the nostrils. A call for a helmet had been ignored much earlier from the sidelines. Westy was giving as good as he got with some splendid hooking...for me it was just survival! We were inching into a good position when unfortunantly the wheels came off against the spinners and the middle order was vanquished. Dunc with a belligerent 31 not, well supported by JNB took us into respectability but the run-rate just ran away from us at the end.
Then it was back to the pavillion for a fine pot or four of curry from Frank, beer, speeches, and the swapping of Mufs shirt/DYC track-suit to complete the formalities. A hearty thanks to Iain Martin from all of us for his sterling efforts. More action/reaction/photos to follow soon
Some photos from the game can be found at this link to a photos page and a link to the Programme here (note: this file is quite large to download!).
A sunny day for cricket, and an excellant pitch at Goldenacre that offered a rich harvest of runs. However only the Grim Reaper was smiling as Twos were buried at Goldenacre by Heriots FP 3s by 8 wickets. Mufs 2s posted 172 for 9 from 50 overs... at one point with OMH (71) and Jacques Cilliars (36) going well at 120 odd for 2 we seemed set for the large total the pitch deserved. However a familiar collapso saw us digging in just to use up the 50 overs. Mufs attack could not penetrate through the Heriots top order, Chris Wigan being the pick of Mufs bowlers, but Heriots coasted to victory.
Both Ones and Threes had been given walk-overs by opposition scratching, a shame on such a nice day.
Well, the season is more than halfway through and as Club President I thought I should pen a few lines about the issues affecting the club. The good news is that this year we have actually been able to play some cricket. Last season the First Team played only six League games all season. This time around they played their seventh game of the campaign last Saturday. The fact that all three Saturday teams are playing regularly, together with the midweek team hopefully means that members are able to play as much cricket as they want. Its important to remember that we are a members based club and the fact that so many people have paid their subscriptions on time this year has made life a lot easier from Treasurer, Gordon Dalyell. If you haven't paid up, yet, could you please do so as soon as possible.
The First Team have enjoyed an excellent season to date. From what I've heard it has been a real team effort with many of those playing contributing good performances week in, week out. As many of you might know, Andy Knight has won the East award for the 'performance of the month' in June. Andy scored centuries in successive weeks and with Ian Shiels has shared two hundred plus opening stands including the club record against Stirling County. On the bowling front Richard Sorrell, Norman Allen and Duncan Peake have excelled whilst others have done the business when called upon. I really hope they continue their current form and win promotion to Division Two.
The Second Team have not been without their problems as a result of departures over the winter, injuries and illness. One of the problems that Iain Martin and Phil Rogers have not been able to field a settled side and the batting performances have been very patchy. Newcomers Richard Scott, Tom Wheeler and Matty Boyd have showed some decent form but we need to carry it on every week and not occasionally. Tony Simpson has also bowled consistently. The return of Paul Hubbard has strengthened the batting also and if they can win three of four of their remaining games, they can avoid the threat of relegation.
It happens in any club but the Third Team, have struggled, on occasion, to raise teams. However, at the time of writing we have scratched just once. Looking back over recent years we have always struggled to field a third team at the start of the season and this year was no different. I was saddened by the decision of Breck Stewart to stand down as third team captain early in the season. Breck has served London Road, Murrayfield and Murrayfield/Dafs for the best part of twenty years and will be missed. I'd like to thank him for his efforts and wish him well. He has joined Livingston although I am pleased to report that Colin Stewart will continue to play for us. Chris Brown was ready and willing to take charge only for him to be injured in a midweek match. At the time of writing Don Wilkie has agreed to full in the gap and we are grateful to him for doing that.
The Midweek Team have enjoyed mixed fortunes. They bowed out of the Parks Trophy to Cramond whilst in the Masterton Trophy, the Firsts put up a great performance against Dunfermline (formerly Fife County), a side that plays four Divisions above them.
If you have any queries about team matters, you should approach the relevant captain for help, assistance or information.
Last year, we had certain concerns about the arrangements at Muirhouse. I don't believe we can have any complaints this year. Brian, the Groundsman, has produced a series of good cricket wickets and the outfield gives value for money for shots which are played. The teas, too, continue to be of a high standard and very filling !
The wicket at Roseburn is passable although there seems little likelihood that the facility will be upgraded or that the vandals can be kept at bay. The reality is that one Local Authority venue (Union Park) seems unlikely to be opened for cricket again. However, we need to keep our options open for the use of Roseburn for the future.
Last autumn, Paul Hubbard suggested we get cricket shirts with the club badge and indicated that he thought that Bert's Bar would be prepared to provide some sponsorship if their logo also appeared on the shirts. The project didn't get going as quickly as it might (me to blame, I'm afraid) but we got there in the end.
Thanks to Paul and Ian Shiels for their help on this and to Dip Madahar at Anything Goes for their help. We can get more shirts, in small quantities. If you haven't played your subscription, you can get a shirt as part of the deal and if you already have a shirt and want another one then that can be arranged for a reasonable price. Contact me for details.
Now we have a badge set up, we can think of other things e.g. caps, polo shirts etc. If you have suggestions, let me know.
As we are now into the holiday season, its really important for members to keep captains appraised about their availability. The captain's really should not have to make a stack of calls, every week, to check matters. Everyone who plays has a responsibility in this area.
If you know anyone who would like to play, even occasionally, please let the captains know, as we need as many bodies as possible to get sides out on Saturdays. We have scratched just once this season so far and I'd like to think that will be the only occasion where that happens. I believe that if a club intends to field three or however many teams they want to, they should only go into a League if they genuinely can fulfil their games.
In the east, at the time of writing, five teams have already scratched three or more games and will be automatically relegated if they are not in Division Eight. I am aware of two other clubs on the verge of being relegated for the same reasons. This is really disappointing for those who want to play cricket. We have been on the wrong end of one scratching this season but at least the opposition gave us three days notice of their problems.
Looking at the fixture list, I reckon our third team may lose a couple of other opportunities to play because the opposition will scratch. It’s a difficult problem to tackle from the League's perspective and even re-arranging postponed games to fill some of the gaps is not straightforward.
There may be some changes at Roseburn in the next 12-18 months as a result of the flood defence plans but I doubt that will see an improvement of the cricket facilities.
At Muirhouse, we are talking to the CSSA about acquiring a container to store equipment that might be put beside the 'bus shelter' and could also be used for scoreboard purposes.
The 50 Club is continuing to thrive, even if it doesn't have 50 members (yet). It costs one pound per month to take part and the pool of money received each month is paid out 50% in prize money and 50% to the club. A decent sum of money his held for the club in this account with a view to use for a facilities project. This is where we will pay our share of the cost of the container.
If you want more details of the scheme, please contact me.
I have been approached to see if we would be interested in a tour to Derbyshire in mid to late September. Our opponents might be Belper Meadows. Shirley Warne, mother of Chris who played for Murrayfield in the 1990s before dying tragically from CJD would like to see the Chris Warne Shield revived.
I know from our trip two years ago that for the trip to be viable, most players would want two games, one on a Saturday and a second on a Sunday. If you are interested in this stage, please call or e-mail me. I don't want Shirley to go to a lot of trouble to try to arrange something, if there is insufficient interest at this end.
Enjoy the rest of the season.
Phil Yelland - Hon. President. - 10th July 2003
Ones go a stupendous EIGHT in a row without lifting bat or ball as Watsons scratch due to many of their club being away abroad on some tour (or something)... the lengths people go to avoid a steamrollering by the Mighty Mufs Machine. Threes were also stood-up so lets get a good crowd of support for the Twos against Heriots at Goldenacre
Iain Martin reports on some big money signings for Mufs for Tuesday...
Murrayfield-Dafs today announce the signings, subject to personal terms (number of Muirhouse pies) of Saltires squad member Steve Gilmore and West of Scotland overseas amateur (Australia) Andrew Ross for the game vs Desert Youth Club of India.
Further, news reaches us that DYCI are now in the country and will play their first game vs Boroughmuir on Sunday at Meggetland, before taking on Murrayfield-Dafs on Tuesday.
Courtesy of Iain, some lowdown on our opposition from India on Tues... get the body armour on, eh??....
Due to a delay in obtaining their visas, they will not arrive in Scotland until Friday 11th July. This means that the schedule of matches now reads : Sunday 13th July v. Boroughmuir at Meggatland, Tuesday 15th v. Murrayfield/DAFS at Muirhouse, Thursday 17th v. Heriots at Goldenacre (1 p.m. start) Sunday 20th v. Fauldhouse at Fauldhouse, Tuesday 22nd v. Watsonians at Myreside, Thursday 24th v. Clackmannan County at Alloa. Still to be arranged is a fixture against an East of Scotland select.
Their squad, most of whom are aged 17 - 25, consists of 20 people, as far as I am aware :
(webed -Bloody hell.)
After his back to back centuries Andy Knight has received the well earned accolade of the More and Co East of Scotland League Performance of the Month. Well done Liberty.
"Get ahead... get a hat" someone did say... well, fresh from his adventures at the Stairway of Heaven, The Bushman Hat once again found himself at the centre of attention. Having watched Scotland get crunched by the w*nky-w*nky-w*nky-w*nky-Lankyshire... Hat and friends had a wee pint in the sedate beer-garden at the Raeburn Hotel with his master and a few chums...JNB, Boris, Browny, Willie and Dafs stalwart, Bob Wilson. However, "Hat's" charm proved irresistable to , how should we put it, a rather inebriated and somewhat top-heavy young lady. Having snatched "Hat" from his bemused master she decided to unleash a couple of her own bouncers in front of a clearly stunned table of Mufs. "Hat" emerged unscathed in the end despite an attempt to abduct him. If only we had Night-bus in attendance to have brought this unruly pair of mammaries under control earlier. Definitely not cricket, but more memorable than Scotland's performance.
The Ones continued their magnificent winning streak with a crushing 137 run victory over Carlton. Mufs posted a total of 197 with contributions all round and Richard Park starring with an excellant 49 - poor Dickie caught right on the boundary going for a flat hit 6 ! Carlton simply could not cope with Norman Allan who exploited a lively Muirhouse pitch with a masterclass of bowling. Norman finished on 6 wickets for only 10 runs in his 15 over stint as Carlton were demolished for 60.
Twos however slumped to another heavy defeat. Restricting Preston Village to 169 for 8, with debutant Chris Whigham taking 3 wickets, Tony and Iain 2 apiece, Mufs could only muster 58 in reply, not helped by three run-outs including the chief batting artillery, the poor OMH, without facing a ball. Matt Boyd top scored with 18 and Nightbus with 12 being only other contributor of note.
A little girl walks into a pet shop and asks in the sweetest little lisp,
"Excuthe me, mithter, do you keep wittle wabbits?"
The shopkeeper gets down on his knees, so that he's on her level, and asks,
"Do you want a wittle white wabby or a soft and fuwwy black wabby or maybe one like that cute wittle bwown wabby over there?"
She in turn puts her hands on her knees, leans forward and says in a quiet voice,
"I don't think my pyfon weally gives a phuck"
In front of a live Murrayfield Hotel CCTV audience of 17, Don Wilkie passed his medical and was unveiled to the press as the new Murrayfield-Dafs CC 3rd team playing captain last night. Don commented "I am excited by the challenge and see no reason why we cannot make advances in this league". Don revealed he had a number of new signings in the offering, after being given a huge budget from the board (well Yelly). Don's first actions were to reveal plans for 7 central contracts to a core of players believed to include himself, Andy, Rob, Colin, David, Frank and England OD captain Vaughan to continue our sexed-up image! Full list to be unveiled soon. Chris Brown,making great steps to recovery, remains club 3rd team captain.
Meanwhile, regular readers will be relieved to discover that AP is feeling much better and managed to go the whole night (including food and drink) in the Murrayfield hotel without spending any money!
Iain Martin
Match report for Threes arrived ... see match reports!
Hot off the press from the SCU and a potential Mufs nite out??....."Indian Star and curry spice up Scottish Saltires Tommy Miah, the Edinburgh restaurateur and entrepeneur, has lined up a winning way to welcome Indian test star Rahul Dravid to the Scottish Saltires team for their debut season in the National Cricket League (NCL). At a press conference on Monday 30 June in the Raj Restaurant in Leith, Edinburgh, Mr Miah outlined plans for three fund-raising dinners aiming to raise at least £20,000 for the Saltires NCL campaign. Rahul Dravid will be the principal guest at dinners in Fochabers (Friday 11 July), Edinburgh (31 July) and Southampton (4 August). Lovers of food and first-class cricket will have a chance to chat with one of the world's great batsmen and other notable guests while enjoying Tommy's award-winning cooking. Tickets for this unique event are priced at £25 a head, with all but the bare basic cost of materials going directly to Scottish Saltires.
Fundraising Dinners: Friday 11 July: Inch Berry Hall, near Fochabers, Grampian (Paul Gaywood, Tel. 01343 821326 for reservations and tickets). Thursday 31 July: The Raj Restaurant on the Shore, 85-91 Henderson Street, Leith, Edinburgh). 7 for 7.30 p.m (Tommy Mhia, Tel. 0131 538 7900 for reservations and tickets). "
While Ones had a day off and Twos were rained off, it was thus up to the Threes to carry the torch for the Mufs. Unfortunantly it got dropped in the Kingdom as our chaps were heavily beaten though not after a little controversy. Having reduced Broomhall to 15 for 4, a deadly Wheeler fulltoss is caught however the umpire somehow had our off-spinning Tom classified as a quick and a no-ball is called. Maybe this was the pivotal moment as Broomhall recover well to reach 161 for 8. Tom Wheeler finishes with 5 for 39, a wicket apiece for Iain Martin and Andy Piggott. Mufs batting is sweep aside by the Broomhall attack, slumping to 66 all out with Lawrence West starring with 16 ably supported late on by wee Colin Stewart with 7. A loss by 95 runs despite a rearguard action by Andy P to salvage a draw... fell 15 balls short apparantly. Some cheer for the lads later as Mr Piggott, obviously still affected by his batting efforts, bought a round of beer.
Other news... Mufs game versus this Indian Touring Team has been confirmed but the date has now moved to Tues 15th July, venue Muirhouse, contact Iain Martin if you wis to play, if not come and support.
Spotted at the Grange ...... wearing the colours of Sporting Club Heriot Twos was a certain Barry Locke. Barry who, you say? Barry, a Kiwi, who had stumbled upon us via the web had come down to a Monday nets practice, then after stating he was keen as mustard to play for us promptly joined Heriots wishing to apparently play at a higher level. Pretty swift he was indeed yesterday (though no more as our Beast I say) ... and also pretty swiftly did the Grange batsman periodically club him and the rest of the Heriots attack to the boundary in a 9 wicket win. Not a good day at the office as he got a duck too... and seemed to be pretty much ignored by his team-mates from what we saw... hmmm Baz maybe you should have stayed with us afterall.
Finally, Knight and Sicknotes mugshot finally appears in the Evening News - Saturday Pink- one does ones best to cover our shirt sponsors logo with my bat while posing...d'oh. Photographic evidence of Piggott's round of beer to follow.
Roy Castle (gawd bless him) would be playing about twelve trumpets simultaneously in honour of Mufs RecordBreakers.... thanks to Andy P for peering through the archives back into the murky depths of London Road but it seems Knight and Shielsy latest opening stand is indeed the greatest ever in new/old club history.
LONDON ROAD/MURRAYFIELD/MCC-DAFS
1st wicket partnerships of 100+
| 170 | A Knight/IR Shiels | Stirling County 2nd XI | 21/6/03 |
| 166* | J Webber/J Rhind | Greyhounds | 7/7/85 |
| 162 | SS Duncan/EH Robson | ICI Grangemouth | 25/8/62 |
| 161 | A Knight/IR Shiels | Dunfermline Carnegie | 14/6/03 |
| 147 | DB Edwards/CS West | Edinburgh Uni Staff | 29/8/81 |
| 114 | SS Anderson/JK Stevenson | St Modans HSFP | 24/8/75 |
| 111 | PSG Leighton/PJ Anderson | Holy Cross 3rd XI | 13/5/95 |
| 107 | SS Duncan/EH Robson | Dunfermline Carnegie | 30/4/66 |
| 105 | CS West/SS Anderson | RBG | 22/5/84 |
| 104 | EH Robson/SS Duncan | Carlton | 24/6/67 |
| 101 | SS Duncan/SS Anderson | Stewarts Melville 2nd XI | 12/5/73 |
| 100 | SS Duncan/SS Anderson | Castings | 12/6/71 |
Spotted by Iain Martin ... in his own words..."shurely shome mishtake.... West shows the way forward as he keeps claiming prize scalps "
CRICKET BY BILL LOTHIAN
HIS skipper described him as "at times unplayable" such was the penetration obtained bowling down the slope at Carlton this week.
And, as dissatisfaction grows at the performances of the Saltires and in particular the bowling figures returned when defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory at Somerset last weekend, many critics are wondering when Heriot's new pace ace Chris West will get an opportunity at top level.
News of our dynamic duo travels far and wide... we hit the press with a piece by Bill Lothian in the Evening News... also available online at The Scotsman Online . The phrase "let rip" certainly struck a chord with Gilly but I fear in a different sense. Furthermore the paparazzi of the Evening News descended upon us at practice to take photos of Messers Knight and Shiels... centrespread in PlayGirl and Cosmo to follow (maybe not).
We have the immense honour of playing an Indian touring team on Tues 15th July...(confirmed date - not Wed 16th as earlier reported)... most probably at Muirhouse. Availability to Iain Martin per-please. Hopefully we might be able to get a certain Raul Dravid to come along...not sure where we would bat him though.
Mufs version of Total Cricket was inflicted in merciless fashion on the Dogs of Stirling as the Ones continued their steam-rollering of Division 3. The run-machine of Knight and Shiels took last weeks opening stand record and ripped it up, this time adding an immense 172 for the first wicket. Sicknote departed on 80... run out by Ms Anderson... Knighty rolling on to another 100, brought up on the very last ball of the 50th over (phew!). A final total of 238 for 2 set thanks to an excellant cameo of 30 from Macleod and Graeme Milne with 10 not, trying his best to get the knackered Knighty on strike! Then it was the turn of the Beast of Sorrell to go for the throat ... far too hot for Stirling with a haul of 6 for 10 and a mightily impressive display of pace bowling. Norman Allan chipped in with 3 and Dickie with the other wicket. Stirling crushed by 162 runs.
Jublilation too at Muirhouse as the Twos finally recorded a victory with an impressive 83 run win against Accies 2. The batting finally clicked as Old Mother Hubbard made a great return from Gulf duty with 76, Tom Wheeler in an opening role hit a fine 56 and Matt Boyd chipped in 35. Mufs 2 finished on 206 for 7. Now it was the turn of the Night-Bus as Simpson spearheaded the attack and claimed 6 for 53. Zorba the Rogers claimed 2 and Tom capped off his fine day with the other wicket. So it was a very happy bunch of chappies who sat in Muirhouse and later Berts Bar supping from numerous jugs of beer. It doesn't get much better than this! Well done, chaps.
On Sunday our Threes took on Holy Cross 3 in a re-arranged match. Jacques "Jock" Cilliars gave an impressive all-round display in the winning draw. Batting first Mufs made 172 for 8 with Jacques scoring 28, newcomer Shoab Farouki 25, and both Charl Cilliers and El Presidente Yelly 27; other scores from Hugh Craig with 18 and Jaya, 16. Jacques then starred with the ball taking 4 for 25 and Jaya 3 for 29. Although taking no wickets, Shoab had the HC batsmen in awe with his promising leg-spin. In the end Holy Cross managed to hold on to a finish with a draw. A welcome boost of points and hopefully a corner turned.
Finally, continuing our series of bizarre and unfortunant injuries this year... Darryn Kidd enters the Physio Room having managed to break a finger while watching Golf at St Andrews (not Gleneagles as reported earlier), apparently struck by a wildly driven golf-ball. We believe he was injured while bravely trying to save his pint of lager from danger. Thankfully the lager is reported to have emerged unscathed.
The Threes have a re-arranged game set for this Sunday (22-6). In his own words ..."Third team play re-arranged game vs Holy Cross on Sunday 22nd June at Muirhouse 1:30 start. Come and have a laugh, enjoy the sun, oggle at the barmaid and support the grassroots or should that be deadwood (?) of the third team. Also if you are unable to play on Sat then come and help the 3's by playing. Contact Iain Martin."
All Hail El Presidente Yelly... the club shirts as sponsored by Berts Bar have arrived. If your skipper has not got a delivery then contact Yelly direct for a shirt. Remember to qualify for one you must have paid your clubs subscriptions (and told us from the numerous reminders what shirt size you were!). Further merchandise may follow. Hearty thanks from all to Mr Yelly.
In a neat co-incidence of timing, Paul "Old Mother" Hubbard has arrived back from the Gulf - plunged straight back into action before we can debrief him- Paul was the original instigator of the sponsorship deal with Berts Bar. And in the very same bar you will be able to find him and us tonight... "OMH" can enlighten us all no doubt as to where he has hidden Saddam and his WMDs. Rumours of a swarthy, heavily mustachioed Arabic new recruit (left-arm quick) for Mufs are circulating.
Mufs batting went astray at Roseburn in the Parks Trophy and despite tigerish bowling Cramond move through to the semis. Mufs could only post 59 on an unfriendly wicket, with Murdo (16) and Westy (11) top contributers. Ferocious bowling from Dizzy and Stormin Norman had the Cramond openers in all sorts of trouble and at the half way point well behind the asking rate. However, they tucked onto Jaya somewhat and despite Richie bowling fiercely with a gale at his back and some outrageous swing bowling from Phil it wasn't to be, Cramond winning with 2 overs to go. Roseburn pitch and outfield were a bit of a shocker. Hard luck chaps.
With thanks to Andy Piggott (and I think one or two others...Yelly methinks), the Club History page has been updated with the tale of London Road and Murrayfield CC, before they lost their collective marbles and merged with the lunatic fringe called DAFS. Club History page can be accessed from this link here (or use the side nav bar, chappies).
More player profiles have arrived on the web-desk...The Hairy Monster and Dizzy... good stuff fellas... keep them coming- dinnae be shy!
Other news... remember your Team take on Cramond in the Parks Trophy on Wed at Roseburn... come on down to cheer us on against our great rivals and neighbours.
Seems though the season is beginning to inflict a bit of wear an' tear on our athletic bodies... top of the creaking crocks is probably lil ol me with not one but three different injuries to one leg (amputation is due- at least it halves the chance of LBW - "Legs" Milne to take note?) as well as my usual variety of back, side and mental ailments; Phil Rogers skipping nets with a bad back; Westy's popping digits; poor ol Browny; Iain Martins chest, and latterly the Beast of Sorrell... bizarrely injuring his back on an airplane today?? Was it an attempt to get into the Mile High Club perhaps?? The newsdesk will dig further...
The pattern of mixed fortunes for our Teams continues along increasingly familiar lines as the Ones defeat Dunfermline Carnegie to go 5 in a row, but Twos and Threes are heavily beaten.
At Muirhouse, the Ones batting finally clicked into gear with a club record breaking 161 opening stand between Knight and Shiels. Shiels departed to a super C&B on 69 (the sod ! - just as I was starting to really enjoy myself- webed) and Knight went on to make a magnificent 104 before falling to another superb catch. With such a solid start the next few batsman could make a bit of hay in the sun with Graham Milne (keeping his legs out of the way for the change... but another victim of a blinding Dunny catch), Lindsay Towns and Dickie Park all contributing well to take Mufs to 262 for 4. Carnegie, despite getting off to a bit of a flyer, were never really in the hunt but battled manfully against some aggressive bowling from Mufs. Victory achieved with 8 overs left... a vital breakthrough engineered by "Bicycle" Towns in a bowling cameo. Top dog was Norman Allan with a 5 wicket haul. A word of thanks for our groundsman... a cracking carpet-like outfield, - full value for your shots! And sunshine too! What a great day of cricket. Some photos taken, including the now legendary Carnegie "Lucky Pants", more to appear in match reports (when posted).
 Liberty Knight is well chuffed... |
 Record opening stand... good work fellas |
 The Legendary Carnegie Lucky Pants couldn't weave their magic... |
Twos chasing 200 against Westquarter fell well short, making only 99 with Richard Scott the only main scorer with 31 not out.
Threes lost against Edinburgh 4 at the Meadows. Mufs Threes restricted Edinburgh to 164 with Andy Piggott taking 4 for 30. However the batting wilted in the heat making only 60 allout.
Several beers (but no pies- they had run out- scandalous!!!) were quaffed at Berts Bar later (see pic below) with an adjournment across the road to Teuchters.
 The Berts Bar Beautiful People |  Not seen at Berts that night.... (shocking), so a suitably decorated Muirhouse Pie instead. |
As you can gather by now by the thrust and counter-thrust of debate on this website we had a free Saturday. To which a select merry band ignored the temptation of a lie in and made their way over to the Dark Lands of the West at an ungodly hour in the morning (for a Saturday). Dark indeed are the clouds around Falkirk High. Thankfully it brightens up as Messers Baikie, Simpson and Shiels arrive at Glasgow Queen St. A short hop to Partick and hey... we are in Greggs feasting on a bit of late brekkie. Can anyone resist a Greggs Sausage Roll? Not me or Night-Bus.
And so to the game.... warning of no alcohol to be brought in is received too late from Iain Martin, but the depths of the Baikie Bag proved invincible. The Carling Lager was safely taken in (they didn't really look!) and to our semi-surprise there is seating free all around - despite the segregation of the ground by zealous stewarding. We sit in what seems a bit like a builders yard.. skips an all. Close though to beer and curry outlets so mustn't grumble too much.
Scotland bat first... sticky start and losing Rahul to a 3 grand goldie duckie sees a mix of jubilation from the Pakistanis and despair from the rest of us. Can't see many (any) Indian fans. Scotland recover well before losing their way a bit.. a total of 169 is crafted amongst several (for us) rounds of Asian Lager and a wee sneaky curry from the Van.
To amuse ourselves we decide to think up what song should accompany many of our Mufs players on their way to the crease... i.e. we were taking the piss. Results to be displayed on the website oh so very soon. Pakistan make slow progress... we share some banter with Dunny Carnegies sitting in front of us... we play them next week so a few pyschological blows are traded. Apparantly if I am greeted by a variety of chat out in the middle comparing my mothers fragrancy to some skanky fish then I am not to take it personally, the Lang Spooners say. Simpson, armed with JNBs binoculars is in his element- tottie-scope on full magnification... "under the first tree, behind the speaker" or similar was oft quoted to locate a specimen of female semi-undress, or just large jubblies.
The tannoy announces that the hitherto 15 quid curry eat-all-you-can buffet - temporarily reduced to a fiver- is now free for the first 50 customers. I need no invitation to scavange on curry and find myself sat with the very same sozzled Carnegie crew and on same table with some of Strathclyde's finest and most humourous police officers. We ask whether they would prefer chasing Nazi football thugs or sitting on their fat behinds on double-time eating curry at a cricket match. We all receive a predictable response from the gathered constabulary, not aided by one of our Carnegie boys subtle request to wear one of their hats. Suitably stuffed with fish pakora, naan bread, chicken Korma and what seemed like a Lamb Roghan Josh amongst other things less identifiable one returns to the seating... Baikie and Simpson are regretting not taking the gluttony option I think. Pakistan are making quite a mess of the chase and excitement gathers apace as Scotland are right back in it. Pakistan fans cheer passionately, Carnegie boys go topless to inspire our team. One of them has "Lucky Pants"... seemed that every time a wicket fell he had had his speedos exposed. Barmy Army style chanting picked up... "Craigie Wrights....Barmy Army...etc etc". It almost worked. Scotland one agonising wicket short of a tremendous victory. Though the way the Pakistan fans celebrated you would have thought they had beaten Australia !!
We leave the semi-naked Fifers and make our way back to town. Now joined on the undieground by a rather sunburnt Messers Martin and Pigott and another chap. We part at Queen St, Baikie and myself placing our trust in Simpson's select choice of hostelery. All Bar One is first up, remarkable for its organic ale and the woman who you could park your bike in. Next up is what Simmo had been hinting at all day. A bar (Foo-quets or something) containing the "Stairway to Heaven". We step on down said staircase to the bar... strategically positioned of course. Now the Aussie Bushman hat of mine comes into its own... they all seem to want to wear it, and it generates plenty of chat as the hours go by... Baikie sensibly goes in search of train... bag weighing him down, less than sensible we don't. Hat still weaving its magic, we drink on and on. It dawns eventually that Simpson has left the building and that can only mean the last train has also left.... more beer "clarifies" thought-patterns... now where is that late night bus?? Was it worth a day off from the rigours of League cricket... debateable.
Following the savagin' by the Beast.... a bit of background and explanation from woor Yelly as to the East League's position....
"The east League did not make this decision off its own back. As you may know Scottish Cricket is struggling for sponsorship and it originally appeared that although the Saltires were to play in the National League, there would be no visit by a tiouring team this season.
At that point England arranged the one day mini series with Pakistan and they indicated they needed warm up games. My understanding was that SCotland wanted to play on the Sunday but pakistan were not prepared to agree to that. It became a case of take it or leave it. The match is beng played in glasgow because basically the local Pakistan community is prepared to fund it. It is there fore potentially a game that will make money for SCottish cricket, something that the early national league games will not.
Unfortunately SCotland are not yet strong enought to dictate to tourists when to play. The visit of germany to Hampden was known about at the time the game was arranged but as I have said it was a case of take it or leave it. What then happened was that SCottish Cricket asked Leagues to postpone their normal Saturday cards to allow as many as possible to go to Glasgow to wacth a top touring team. That request wasa agreed to before pakistan flopped at the World Cup and thye now come with a largely unkown young squad.
AN alternative that was discussed was switching League games to this SUnday. That option was dismissed becasue there are various cup competitions running on Sunday and because technically the season started early this year, there was still a Saturday left in August which could be used for League games. That is why we would have finished 1sts games on 30th August but for the demise of Mitre.
That brings me to the other point. To be a tad frustrated after another team dropped out of Division Three at short notice is understandable but, again, the circumstances are unusual. Last season, Grangemouth dropped out on the eve of the season. THis time Mitre looked at their circumstances and came to the League with a proposal in light of the fact that they had lost over a team of players for a variety of reasons. IF the League had not allowed them to drop down, the club would probabaly have folded which would not have been good for cricket in the East in the long term.
AT least they were up front. Already two teams in the lower Divsions are on course for relegation for scratching three games and another team may have folded without telling anyone. " Yelly.
Rich Sorrell has a point to make....
"Top of the league after over a 1/3 of the season is a good start for Mufs who have a week off (crazy crazy) in the middle of the summer before a game against Dunfermline Carnegie then Stirling County and then another off week (crazy crazy) due to Mitres and the East leagues incompetence.
The first week off is because the East League decided to cancel all games due to Scotland playing Pakistan in Glasgow. I personally find this a bizarre move. The old farts in suits attempt to get a good crowd for a meaningless friendly by cancelling competitive and enjoyable games for the mass ranks of Scottish cricket playing enthusiasts.
So some solutions (I'm not just a moaner): Play Pakistan on the Sunday (apparently Pakistan wanted to play on this Saturday only!) Don't the ECB/ SCU decide the tour fixtures and agree them with Pakistan, not vice versa. Cancel the top level games in Scotland only. Letting the top players play for Scotland and other "proper" cricketers (or at least those that have a good pro at their club) can watch a high standard of the game which they can more easily relate to their own performance.
Rearrange all the league fixtures for a 10a.m start, play the Pakistanis in a day nighter starting at 5PM Thereby creating even more enthusiasm for the fixture. (Yes this would be more expensive to organise but as with Dravids signing, you speculate to accumulate). And great experience for the Scottish players to play under lights for the first time in Scotland with a enthusiastic and guaranteed boisterous crowd giving them full backing.
I wont even go into the incompetence of arranging the Pakistan game on the same day that Scotland football team play their most important game since beating England at Wembley and beating them with a great Don Hutchison goal. Doe a deer a female deer...
OK I will, bonkers decision, any other day in the sporting calendar, this cricket game might have got publicity but not this day. Every sports page will be concentrating on football, every tv sports station will be concentrating on football, almost every sports fan will be more concerned with football.
And if that wasn't enough Scotland Rugby team is playing South Africa in a test match for the first time in 40 years in South Africa. The arrogance and incompetence of the administrators of the Scottish game beggars belief. I believe that of the circa 700 players in the East league who have had their fixtures cancelled on the 7th June, at the very most 20% will watch and be enthralled by the Pakistanis. Around the same number will be glued to the Rugby and the vast majority will watch the football. So where's the benefit in cancelling the fixtures? ".
Richard Sorrell.
Do you agree with the Beast? Have your say ... you can email me at ian_shiels@hotmail.com or....use the Message Board which is open to all as well as the usual looneys.
Actually some of us are taking advantage of the free Sat to go and watch the Saltires game in Glasgow... meeting at Waverley at 8:45 am (!) to get the 9:00 train... possibly squeeze some beers and a curry in later....
Chris Brown came down see us all at Nets on Monday ... good to see him cheerful despite the eye injury which is still very much a cause for serious concern. We wish him the best.
Chris as you know had taken on the Threes Captaincy, we will now unfortunantly most certainly be looking for a successor as 3s captain (and a new Vice-skipper)... any volunteers out there (?) should let a Committee Member know.
Finally, congrats to Norman Allan for getting TWO midweek teams out for the same night (thurs 4th)!!!
Mufs Ones continued their winning streak at Boghall by defeating West Lothian by 22 runs. Mufs posted 159, a score somewhat under par following another batting collapso when in a promising position. Chief scorer on the day Andy Knight with 31 - most of the rest of us got in and going but got out in the teens! Bowling again was strong and at one point we had WL at 81 for 8. However a certain Chic Johnson just couldn't be dislodged and he led their tail closer and closer. Finally, after us missing around 6 chances to win the game on 9 wickets down, most off the luckless Dizzy Peake and denying him a deserved 5 wicket haul, the Fabulous Baikie Boy trapped Johnson LBW for 84 and victory was ours. Phew!
Twos lost at Muirhouse, posting only 80 with Lindsay Towns top score with 28. However the visitors,Holy Cross, were made to struggle and lost 7 men in passing the total. A certain old friend Praveen in the HC ranks had the audacity to smack Night Bus for two sixes before Rogers blew him away with his first delivery! Threes lost by 130 odd runs - chasing 200 Mufs3 could only manage 70 - debutant Tom Wheeler making 35. David and Colin were amongst the wickets in the other bright spot for Mufs 3s.
Web news desk is shocked to report that Chris Brown, while batting for RBG, incurred a serious eye injury that has required hospital treatment for him. We all wish Chris well and hope he has a speedy and full recovery though it appears he will be missing from our ranks for the rest of this season.
Midweek victory for Mufs against Edinburgh CC due to ace bowling from the Beast and Dizzy Peake and great batting from Jaya ably supported by Monty West and "Midwife" Milne. Previous midweek reports now added to Match Reports.
Heavy morning rain wipes out play again... great shame given strong teams were available across the board and 1s certainly red-hot favourites with the bookies to cuff Freuchie and make it 4-in-a-row (maybe). An early start to the beer thus to ensue... Berts Bar from 4-ish...pie and mash ...mmmmmmm...
Messers Brown, Baikie and Shiels competed in the charity sports quiz at the Peacock Inn, Newhaven... somewhat disadvantaged by not being over 50 years old nor Edinburgh born and bred given the nature of the questions ... we rather struggled to sixth out of seven. Winners were a team from Edinburgh Evening News, including Mr Lothian. It was the taking part that mattered... though at the time dark mutterances were being uttered at our Presidente for volunteering us!!
Speaking of which... congratulations to Mr and Mrs Yelly on another addition to future MDCC Youth Policy .
Mufs cruised through into the next round of the Parks Trophy after a convincing 8 wicket win versus Peebles. Peebles were restricted to 80 by fine aggressive bowling by Mufs with wickets shared around and 3 run-outs executed. Mufs recovered from the shock of losing Murdo in the first over, caught quel surpris at mid-on - Milne and Sicknote took Mufs to the cusp of victory at a canter - Milne bowled by the steady Peebles lady-bowler (not a bad bat either) for a fine 39. Sicknote finished unbeaten on 37. Some comedy moments with the running as Graeme had Murdo as a runner... exhorting us up and down with a gym-masterly bellow of "push-it.. push it" tempered with a "...but LOOK !" as we were about to turn for many a suicidal (for Graeme) extra run. Hopefully a next round tie against Cramond... wouldn't it be nice to put one over on the West of Edinburgh "Super-Club" !!!