The Carlton 3rd XI travelled to the short distance to Peffermill for their opening game of the 2012  season having been promoted to Division 3 ready to face the Gala Cricket 1st XI, a club founded in 1853 but a new team to ESCA having played in the Border League until season 2011.

Stephen Halls, the Gala captain, won the toss and on a damp, soft wicket sent Carlton into bat. From the start the Gala opening bowlers kept the Carlton opening pair of Ani Majumdar and Dougal Balfour under control with a tight opening spell, both batsmen watchful and patient with run scoring proving difficult due to the conditions. In the 10th over however Gala eventually made the breakthrough they were searching for with Ani yorked with the score on 13.

Gala then introduced spin from both ends and a flurry of wickets ensued. Balfour providing a return catch to Crooks, Bij drove on the up to caught at mid-off and Newman was caught & bowled to a fine one handed catch by the young off-spinner Ormiston. Carlton 19 for 4.

Everett and Shah then provided what was to be the only fight back of the innings with Everett keen to use his feet to the spinners. Unfortunately this proved to be Craig’s downfall, with the score on 37 Craig left the crease once too often and was stumped. Shah was to follow two runs later with Allardice and Arvind following shortly after without troubling the scorers.

Unfortunately the procession of batsmen back to the pavilion continued with Euan Everett falling the same way as his elder brother, stumped, while Greg Murdoch and Shaz Gulzar each playing their first game for the 3rds, managed to hit a boundary each before the Carlton innings finished on a disappointing 50.

Early wickets were required if Carlton were to have any chance and in reply Gala also struggled to get to grips with the wicket with the Carlton openers of Gulzar and Bij (below)keeping the Gala openers guessing with the awkward low bounce, but the Gala opening pair took the score to 16 before Gulzar had Boland trapped leg before with a perfect in-swinger for 11. The Gala number 3 followed soon after, unluckily bowled off his pads, again by Gulzar, without scoring while Euan Everett picked up a wicket when Crooks scooped a full toss to square leg for 8, bowling in tandem with Rory Allardice who exhibited great control bowling his well flighted off-spinners. However a patient innings by the Gala captain, Halls, saw Gala home to a seven wicket win with 22 not out. 

While it was a disappointing start to the season plenty of lessons were learnt by this young Carlton side in how to play in trying conditions and their enthusiasm for the game and willingness to encourage their teammates were all positives to be taken with us as we face Livingston next week.   

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MATCH CANCELLED - waterlogged outfield

MATCH ABANDONED

With a strong wind sweeping across Grange Loan and a forecast scheduling rain, the toss was lost by the home side and Carlton were sent into bat. The opening combination of Ani Majumdar and Ali Shah quickly came to terms with the pitch and posted a fine opening partnership of 67 that was sprinkled with both front and back foot attacking shots from both players reflecting the trueness of the pitch, given the horrendous weather conditions experienced earlier in the week.

Ali Shah was the first to go, bowled trying to hit over midwicket. This brought Amit Bij to the crease, who quickly settled only to be given LBW to Ul Hamid the Grange off-spinner. Ani then became the 3rd wicket to fall, when after a patient and mature 47, he was out caught. Carlton 113/3 (31 overs).

This brought the pair of Craig Everett and Grant Newman together who immediately took advantage of a tiring Grange attack, with Craig (41) in particular playing some lovely drives through both the off and on sides until he fell to the ball of the day, a beautiful off-cutter that jagged back from outside off, took an inside edge and cannoned into the stumps.

Eric Edwards and Cheeky Gosain came and went quickly and it was left to Shaz Gulzar (17 n.o.) and Grant Newman (60 n.o.) to see the home side through to the end of their 50 overs and a decent total of 233/6.
Unfortunately, as Carlton completed their warm-ups after the tea break, rain began to fall and continued until the game was called off at 5:00pm.

There were many positives to be taken from the batting display this week, with the batsmen exhibiting the discipline and patience expected of cricketers playing at this level on a pitch that favoured the bowlers. This can only be of benefit, as the 3rds look forward to playing Drummond Trinity next week.

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MATCH CANCELLED - waterlogged ground

A beautiful day at Grange Loan greeted Carlton 3s and RH Corstorphine 2s. Such a sunny day is rare in Scotland, yet it is even rarer to have a cricket match happening as well! Grant duly accomplished his first task of conning the opposition skipper into winning the toss and asking us to bat. This suited the home team, as we all know the great pitches that get prepared at Grange Loan, and on such a sunny day, it was bound to be a road.

Ani and Craig set off well, playing very sensibly, but with a bit of freedom. They seemed to be well set, until both got out in fairly quick succession. A couple of more wickets fell, until finally Amit and Grant came to the crease. Amit hit some lusty blows all around the park, and also got some help due to the waist high no-balls coming down at him every so often. Grant was his usual methodical, no risk self, playing everything on its merits and hitting some powerful shots along the ground, as well as some deft cuts. Both batsmen got to their 50s, until Grant was eventually bowled for 54. Amit followed fairly soon after for 72, chipping a catch straight to a fielder, but by this point there were only a few overs left. A good ‘closing’ partnership then followed, with some quick running between the wickets by Feds and Rory Allardice, with the youngster (below) scoring a very quick 21, with some great pulls and drives.

 

Carlton managed to finish on 255 for 6, with confidence it was a defendable total, so long as the fielding was at a high standard and the bowling was tight.

The RHC openers came out with there intentions clear. Their number one batsman was attempting to hit everything, and it seemed to be his day as he raced onto 40. However the Carlton bowlers kept making inroads at the other end, with Shaz picking up the opener and Rory also adding a wicket to his earlier runs, as well as bowling with great control to finish with 1-38 off his 10. Nick Martin, playing in his first match, bowled some excellent areas, making the ball do a lot off the pitch, and was extremely economical. He eventually got the wicket he deserved, with a good catch from Grant in the slips, and declared he was not fit enough to bowl any more in his spell, and so only bowled 5 overs and only conceded 4 runs.

Then Dougal came on to bowl some tight stuff, picking up the wicket of their skipper, and Amit came on to mop up the rest of the team, finishing with 3 wickets. Two run outs also contributed, including a very unorthodox one from Fed, to keep RHC to 128 all out off 38 overs.

 

A very enjoyable days cricket, some great sportsmanship, and a good performance from the 3s with both bat and in the field.

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RAINED OFF

RAINED OFF

RAINED OFF

RAINED OFF

RAINED OFF

Carlton predictably lost the toss and were inserted. We made a reasonably solid start and progressed gently to 82-1 after 24 overs. Tom Barrett fell just before drinks as he tried to up the scoring rate for a well compiled 37. Basil Letts was another victim of the pressures of a poor run rate as he fell slog sweeping for 59 to leave Carlton 103-3 after 30 overs with plenty of batting to come – at this point we were still hopeful of posting a competitive score but wickets fell with startling regularity and the youthful (definitely the first time I’ve been the second eldest in a men’s team) Carlton line-up collapsed to 143 all-out with only Gair Currie and Fergus Whatley offering token resistance.

The Drum Trinity’s top order were clearly in a hurry to get things finished, due perhaps to the ominous rain clouds, and they plundered 30 runs in the first 3 overs. Ahmed then took a couple of quick wickets to bring Carlton back into the game – but the turning point may well have been a fine catch from Dougal ‘Art’ Main who circled under a steepler before removing their dangerous opener.  The opening pair then continued to bowl with impressive ferocity, utilising the bouncer effectively without neglecting the searching balls of a fuller length.  Gair produced a fine swinging delivery to leave Drum Trinity teetering at 40-4 and suddenly 143 was looking a long way off. Wickets continued to fall at reasonably frequent intervals - Gavin Rittoo nipping one out as he got a ball to shape away from the batsman and clip the top of off stump was the best of the bunch.

With the score at 80-7 Carlton were heavy favourites, but their number 9 was useful – he had been demoted down the order due to an injury sustained during Carlton’s innings. He coaxed the score along past 100 and the game was back in the balance. Fortunately his knock was curtailed by Gair who bowled him to swing the game firmly back in our favour. We were confident of victory at that point and duly removed the remaining tail-enders to win by 25 – a great fielding and bowling performance to mask an ill disciplined batting effort.

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On a rare sunny Saturday morning a Carlton 3rd XI tried to assemble itself at Grange loan. With several call off and call ups the night before a team containing a wide range of experience and youth set off to Peffermill in high spirits.

On arrival we were disappointed to find out that the encroaching football season had curtailed the availability of a grass wicket forcing us to play on a new and inviting artificial one. With Craig away fulfilling his potential in the 2’s and Grant with his mind firmly concentrated on tonight’s upcoming romantic engagement the responsibility of captaincy fell to Carlton’s premier coach Fergus Whatley. The opposition of the day had previously pushed the 3rds to the end in their last encounter earlier in the season with Carlton scraping home by 3 runs.  

Mysterious forces were definitely at work with Ferg becoming the first 3rd XI captain to win the toss all season. And he promptly elected to bat first on what looked like a good artificial wicket on a slowish running outfield. Fed and Grant opened and looked solid, running well but struggling to find the boundary on a slow outfield. Fed fell to a full swinging ball and was adjudged LBW for 17. The stage was set for the explosive potential of Keshav Arvind to open his shoulders and score freely, sadly his steady start was undone and he soon departed swinging wildly for 6.

This brought the skipper to the crease, fate again stopped the Whatley, Newman partnership from flourishing as Ferg failed to respond to Grant’s call, leaving the former skipper stranded, run out for an expertly well compiled 54.

Ferg greeted the forgotten face of Carlton CC’s Stevie Elder to the crease but this partnership failed to set the world on fire with the skipper leaving a great ball that nipped off the seam and clattered into his off stump. This left Carlton four down and with Gavin Rittoo coming to the crease not many of the spectators though Carlton could reach a defendable total. This was not helped with Gavin falling soon after but a good partnership from Everett junior and Stevie got us back on track. Calum fell after playing very well and this brought Everett senior to the crease looking in no mood to mess around. Johnny and Stevie smashed the ball to all corners of the ground and gave Carlton a score of 153 for 6 off the 50 overs . With young Elder not looking out of touch after a year out of the game, the same cannot be said for Johnny whose hack into the leg side left a lot to be desired. A good score with such a slow out field but it was only half the job done.

                   

With a returning Brad Mckay and the Rittoo express train sharing the new ball it was always going to be an uphill battle for the Broomhall batsmen. Brad and Gav bowled excellent areas and Brad was eventually rewarded with the wicket of the opener and not long after the number 3. Mckay’s tail was really up and Carlton had been able to seriously restrict Broomhall’s run rate. The introduction of the younger seamers continued Brad and Gavin’s good start but with the Hoof looking to bring the Jam boundaries started to flow. The dangerous partnership of Hoefling and Ward was cut short with a misguided run to the fielding dynamo that is Brad McKay and this saw the end of the Hoefling innings with a great pick and throw to Fed who duly demolished the stumps.

This brought the Broomhall skipper to the crease and this was clearly a big wicket and we were proved right with the Broomhall captain looking to dispatch most balls with ease. The skipper brought himself into the attack with varied success, after being hit for a big 6 he came back strongly bowling Grant for a quick fire 31. The game was finely balanced but the returning Steven Elder was doing a sterling job holding up an end and in the process picking up 3 crucial wickets as well as forcing the run out of the last recognised batsmen in the Broomhall side with a great direct hit by the captain at mid-off. This still left the game on a knife edge with Broomhall needing just 18 runs with 2 wickets in hand. But the return of Brad quickly saw an end to that wrapping up the win in consecutive deliveries leaving the big man on a hat trick for next week. This saw another tight win for the 3s a good performance from in all aspects.

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Having read the Carlton All Star 4th XI Match report and once again having not fully understood its meaning (this correspondent turns up to his matches only knowing that if the game is played that everyone will get to field at some point) I will once again report without irony and state the facts.

Fact 1 - Prior to the weekend the 3rd XI was still in the running for promotion.

Fact 2 - By Saturday night with the West Lothian v MDAFs game washed out the Carlton 3rd XI v Kirk Brae fixture became a contest for third.

Fact 3 - Even if we were to win we would fall one point or 0.25% short of 2nd spot. 

Fact 3 - Given this disappointment the team performed extremely well. Carlton won.

Fact 4 - James Blackmur and Neil Kirk made their season debuts for 3rds bringing the total number of players used this season to 42.

Fact 5 – Carlton won the toss and batted.

Fact 6 – Season Tosses: Won 3 / Lost 8

Ali Shah and Tom Barrett opened the innings and got off to a bright start. Ali in particular was punishing on anything short or on his pads and raced to his 50 with Tom playing an anchor role. Tom was first to fall with the score on 96. This brought Rajan to the crease and with Ali continued to keep the score board ticking over. Unfortunately Ali was to fall in sight of his century for 91 having established a great foundation for the remainder of the team.

Rajan was the next to fall trying to hit over the top and with Stevie Elder joining Grant they set about taking advantage of the tiring Kirk Brae attack enjoying a 72 run partnership at a run a ball. Grant was the last wicket to fall in the penultimate over, giving Neil Kirk just enough time to score his first runs for the 3rds as Stevie remained 33no leaving the Carlton score on a healthy 4/242.

With a quality bowling line-up that included the likes of Shah, Gulzar, Rittoo, Bhopal, Elder, Murdoch and Blackmur, the caption was not short of options. The opening attack of Shah and Gulzar were fast and accurate with Shaz snaring Colvin for 0. This dismissal brought the Kirk Brae skipper Bruce Smith to the crease and together with Sangster they set about with sensible batting chasing the Carlton total. Several bowling changes ensued in an effort to break the partnership, first Rittoo, then Blackmur and Elder we called upon but it was a fine piece of fielding from Elder that caused a run out and a threating partnership was at an end.

From this point on wickets fell at regular intervals, first Blackie, then Elder, Murdoch and Rajan all picked up wickets, with a further run out from a direct hit from Shaz and Gavin returning to mop up the tail, Carlton ran out comfortable winners by 81 runs. 

While this season did not bring with it promotion the team performed well, playing and winning more games than any other side in Division 3 having won 8 matches from 10 completed games. The number of games played is once again testament to the hard work of the Grange Loan Groundsmen where only one match was lost to the weather and the 3rd XI offers our thanks. Likewise thanks also go to Barbara, who helped with the teas throughout the season and was a most welcome addition to the team, with her hard work appreciated by all.

While reference to the number of players used this season (42) has already been made the fact that a number of these players made themselves available at very short notice has not gone unnoticed and has been much appreciated. With 7 different players making fifties and 8 different bowlers taking 3 wickets or more, the workload was evenly shared with individuals stepping up when required and with the continuing development of junior talent, next season augurs well.

[Though he's too modest to mention it, congratulations are due to skipper Grant Newman who finished top run scorer in ESCA Division 3.]

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