Having arrived at the ground in cloudy conditions the weather continued to cool down and the wind increase during the morning. In spite of the unseasonal ‘midsummer’ weather 10 players turned out for the Carlton Girls team. The first decision we had to make though was who would play for the opposition team, Edinburgh South, who only had 5 players.

Gabriella and Sasha kindly volunteered and this proved to be a good decision on their part as their new team was successful winning the first two games they played. In Carlton’s final game against Hawick Gabriella and Sacha returned to the Carlton team and Holly and Saskia went to play for Edinburgh South, again tasting success. The Carlton team played 3 matches in all, against Edinburgh South, Stewart’s Melville Royals Gold and finally against Hawick. There was some keen batting with Carlton scoring between 227 and 240 in each game, hitting a number of boundaries in the process, we also had some bowling success taking at least 3 wickets in each game.

Unfortunately the opposition put on more runs than we scored in each of the games however the availability of free snacks appeared to offset any disappointment in the results. Overall it was a good performance by the Carlton players (both for Carlton and Edinburgh South).

Coach Eric Edwards reports on the 2016 girls’ indoor season

Fixtures at Loretto March & May - read Eric's match report

List of fixtures

Eric’s efforts to get a girls’ kwik cricket tournament up and running finally bore fruit, with an entertaining morning’s play at Grange Loan. His report of proceedings – plus a Wagnerian digression – can be found here.

The Carlton Under 16 girls kicked off their season with a Sunday trip to Dollar for a double header.

Our film critic has submitted his match report.

The Carlton girls beat the winter snow with a couple of indoor events hosted by our old friends at Loretto.

Here's Eric report of both day's matches.

After the wettest summer in memory, the Carlton Girls enjoyed the late summer sun at Perth for the national girls' kwik cricket festival. Here's Eric report of the day's proceedings.

Carlton were delighted to be asked to send a girls' team to take part in the Kinross mixed kwik cricket tournament. Happily, the sun shone and ther Carlton team turned in a number of good performances.

Eric's official match report

The Carlton girls graduated to hardball cricket with an inaugural match against Kinross at Grange Loan.

Eric's official match report

The Carlton girls brushed off their winter cobwebs with a couple of indoor kwik cricket matches against our old friends at Loretto School.  The good news is that the girls' seem to be on form for the coming season.

Coach Eric Edwards reports on the matches in his own inimitable style, showing an in-depth knowledge of the current financial crises at Ibrox and in Greece (while also owning up to a deep crush on Greek songstress Nana Miskouri):

Eric's official match report

After their last rain hit encounter, the Carlton girls were delighted to see the sunshine at Barnton for this tournament.

Neighbours Watsonians gained revenge for their recent defeat at the hands of the Carlton girls in the first game, before enterprising coach Eric nabbed the Edinburgh Accies boys for a bounce game. This seemed to be the ideal warm up for the girls, as they surged to victory over the hosts in their final game.

Eric's official match report

Carlton entertained two teams from Loretto and our old friends from Watsonians on a grey morning at Grange Loan. While the weather grew rapidly worse, the performances of the Carlton girls improved as the morning wore on, as they shook off their early season rustiness.

Carlton’s first match was against one of the 2 teams from Loretto, the “Royals”. While some of the Royals’ bowling actions might have upset Darryl Hair, they were powerful batters, ran well between the wickets and were excellent fielders.  Their hockey training certainly came in handy, with their ability to smash deliveries that were low and running out of steam over the boundary.  Nevertheless, some superb catching from Carlton (Iona defying practice night form) saw five wickets taken.  In our innings Carlton lost 8 wickets and never got near the Royals total, instead opting to give the opposition plenty of catching practice.  However, Carlton finished in style with Jennifer showing her commitment by narrowly making her ground (at least that’s how a generous umpire saw it) with a baseball style “feet first” slide. 

In the second match, against the other Loretto team, the “Marvels”, Carlton actually bowled and fielded much better.  We were doing well with an early wicket from Fliss and another excellent over from our colourfully dressed debutante Zoe, but the last 2 pairs from Marvels lived up to their name and batted superbly, leaving us to chase a daunting total.  Carlton never got close, as we lost 5 wickets and at times found it hard to get the bat on some quite pacy deliveries. 

Carlton’s final match was against Watsonians.  Batting first, all our pairs added useful runs and in all we smashed 7 fours.  This time, we found the gaps in the field and only lost 1 wicket, allowing us to add 45 which matched the best total of the day.  Despite the worsening conditions, we took to the field where for the third time I had eight volunteers to keep wickets.  Watsons never got close to our total as we bowled and fielded superbly, with some inter-match coaching from Kasper on backing up paying dividends.  The 3 elles, Lucy, Laura and Lisa all bowled excellent, accurate overs, as they had done throughout the tournament.   

Meanwhile, across the other side of the ground, a decider was being held between the two unbeaten teams from Loretto, with the Royals coming out victorious.  See how happy they look at having classroom bragging rights over the Marvels!

And there was more big girls' cricket at Carlton 2 days later when Kasper ran the first ever girls' hardball coaching session at Grange Loan. Well done to Eric, Leigh and the coaching team for all their great work!

(Coach Edwards has also produced a Fantasy Bob-esque formal match report for those of a mathematical or literary persuasion. Read it here.)

The Royals

The Marvels

Carlton girls had their second double header against a strong Watsons outfit.  Having a 9.30 start meant there were some bleary eyed players - I mean senior pros Harriet and Hannah had only just finished a night out clubbing in town.  However, it did have the advantage that the midges were not brave enough to face the single figure temperatures and allowed everyone to finish replacing the blood lost last Wednesday at the final junior practice session.  In the opening match, Watsons batted first and reached an imposing total of 48.  Again, Carlton did not manage to take any wickets, though there were tidy overs from Fliss, Ellen, Susan and Laura who all conceded no more than 4 runs from their over.  Our only pairs who kept up with the required run rate were Lisa/Lucy and Hannah/Harriet.  Lisa hit some great fours on both sides of the wicket and Harriet was in Jonathan Trott like form.  She had the vast crowd running for their car keys as her first ball almost cleared the wall for an opening six, and added a couple more superb boundaries.  Carlton ended on 32, with the 15 runs lost through 3 dismissals proving crucial.  A special mention must go to the match highlight which was a running one handed catch by Georgia from Watsons.

The second match was of even better quality.  Again Watsons batted first, but lo and behold, for the first time this weekend Carlton girls took some wickets.  Laura took a superb reaction catch, and warmed up her hands, for a memorable caught and bowled and Lisa threw down the stumps for a run out.  Susan, in only her third ever cricket outing, bowled another excellent over and Hannah was really unlucky, with a couple of great deliveries just shaving the off stump.  The 2 wickets meant we were chasing a more manageable 40.    Lucy/Lisa again combined well and Iona/Fliss added an excellent 14 with some great running between the wickets, which was no mean feat because in comparative stride lengths one run for them is like Kevin Pietersen running a mile.  Senior pros Hannah and Harriet came in at last pair with Carlton 14 behind, but this time Harriet had brought out her Alastair Cook form, not helped when the Watsons bowler did that most unsporting thing and bowled the ball outside off stump.  However, this time the mantle was picked up by Hannah, who struck some superb fours.   Needing 4 to tie off the last ball, Hannah formed a cunning plan.  As the fielders covered the boundary, Hannah's extravagant swing blind-sided their wicket keeper who let the ball through for 4 byes and left the match tied.  Having said that, police have tried to interview the Watson's wicket keeper over match fixing allegations, though she was out with her parents at the Aston Martin show room when they called.  

In a world first (well no-one has told us any different) the Carlton girls team took on their mums in a bitterly contested match full of sledging and controversy.

A fascinating contest went down to the last ball but on the specific request of the girls the result cannot be revealed here. (If you must know, the mums won - Biz being runout by her mum off the last ball ... can you believe it!)

In an attempt to leave the controversy behind, a second game took place, which saw mum and daughter batting together in pairs. This was no less controversial, however, with the Helen and Iona pairing being particularly volatile; the discussion about who was to blame for the last runout is probably still going on as you read this ...

In homage to Fantasy Bob, our Head Coach (Ladies' Cricket), Eric, has put together a highbrow review of proceedings for Mums Only.

Carlton's junior girls had their second (and third) all girls fixture in a double header against a strong Watsonians side at Myreside.  In the first match, batting first, Carlton put in a superb performance, scoring 53 runs off their eight overs.  The main feature of the innings was the number of boundaries, with 8 hit in all.  Cow corner was well represented, though watching talent scouts noted a superb boundary from Hannah carved through the covers, who added a decisive 22 in her two overs with senior pro Harriet.  Louise and Ellen continued their great partnership from the match against RHC, adding 20 with the help of three boundaries from Louise.  Newcomers Lauren and Verity did really well, especially as they had only been to one practice session before.  When Lauren connects, it goes like a rocket and she smashed 2 boundaries.  

A tidy bowling performance ensured that Watsonians never got near Carlton's total.  Our most economical bowlers were Laura and Iona.  On Iona's first ball, the batsman hit one straight up into the sky.  Two years ago you would have got longer odds on a catch than on Heskey being the top scorer in the World Cup.  However, Iona has greatly improved this aspect of her game and makes regular appearances as our honorary "Queen" during catching practice and never looked like dropping it.  

In the second match, roles were reversed and Watsons posted a total of 53 which Carlton never looked like reaching.  Perhaps the team was tired and worn out after a long, hard season?

 There was intense debate from the assembled spectators on whether Carlton would do better fielding with 3 on the off-side and 3 on the leg-side, or switch to a 2-4 set up.  We also lost senior pro Harriet half way through, though I can't remember if that was because of a school sports day or because Heskey fell on her during the warm up.  The massed media throng covering the match were calling for the introduction of Joe Cole, though Carlton's coach pointed out he was no better than anyone playing, hadn't turned up because the appearance fee on offer was too low and besides, was the wrong sex.  Iona and Laura were again our most accurate bowlers, and in the field Laura had a couple of great efforts at difficult catches.

 
Batting second, none of our pairs really got going, and there were too many dot balls to challenge Watsonians' imposing total.  Watsonians had learnt from the first game and had their leg side field much deeper, epitomised when, on the last ball of the game, Louise had the best strike of the day caught on the Cow Corner boundary.  So the unbeaten record is gone, and the Coach is now looking for the backing of Carlton's senior management.

History was made on Saturday 12th June with the first ever all girls fixture involving Carlton.

Eight of Carlton's burgeoning number of junior girls travelled to Barnton to play Royal High Corstorphine (RHC) in a Kwik Cricket fixture.  Excellent Carlton bowling and fielding restricted RHC to a total of 23, without conceding any boundaries.  Highlights were the opening overs from Fliss and Charlotte that conceded only 1 run each, and a smart run out from Biz off her own bowling.  Charlotte also upset the massive spread betting market on the match by taking the first and only catch of the match.

 
Carlton's batting and running between the wickets was more aggressive, with the tone being set by a Fliss boundary off the second ball.  The match turning point came with our second pair, Ellen and Louise who each smashed a boundary and added an impressive 15 to our total in their two overs.  Elisha and Sara kept the total ticking along nicely despite coming from the Inzamam school of running between the wickets - luckily they were both much faster.  Facing the toughest bowling, Biz and senior pro Harriet saw the team home, bringing our total up to 27 for a close victory.