We met at the Meadows for the first league fixture of the season. This was an away fixture for Carlton. The weather was mixed, one minute very sunny and the next overcast (and very cold for the spectators!). The wicket was uneven and so difficult for bowlers and batsmen to predict what would happen.

Penicuik won the toss and put Carlton into bat. The openers went in and they found the conditions tough. The score was 4 for 11 at the start. The run rate was slow until Euan and Douglas’s partnership managed to get some runs on the board. Euan played a sensible, cautious innings finishing on 28 not out and Douglas scored 32 including 2 sixes and 2 fours in one over. [Our correspondent is too modest…..truth is that at 11/4 after 6 overs Carlton u15s were in a parlous position. Euan and Douglas saved the day,  Euan playing watchful anchor to Douglas’ swashbuckling big-hitting. They turned the innings around and gave the bowlers something to bowl at. A great recovery!....Ed.] Murray scored a useful 11 on his debut for the U15s giving a final total of 102. Penicuik bowled well giving away few extras.

Penicuik’s opening batsmen started well but a good run out by Pete Gill and a clean bowl by Robbie Galloway to remove them slowed their scoring, and they finally finished with at total of 99 runs. Carlton gave away too many extras: 40 in total. However, helped by Gregor Farrer who finished on 2 for 15 and Robbie Galloway and Murray Johnson who both got 1 wicket for 9 runs, Carlton managed to scrape a win by 3 runs in the dark. Mario told us it was a good performance but that we need to work on our fielding and our bowling accuracy. 

Carlton won by 7 wickets

It was a cold but bright and sunny Friday evening at Myreside for the start of Carlton U15’s defence of the ECB Trophy we won last year. We were tucked away at the side of the ground, on a small pitch, with some short boundaries on the road side.

Carlton won the toss and put Watsonian in to bat and our new coach, Mario, persuaded us that we should bowl first and open with two spinners, Harry and Murray. This worked well and in the second over Murray took the wicket of R. Fontana, however a combination of some below par fielding and Watsonian finding the gaps meant they scored well, with their opener Fraser Kinloch hitting an unbeaten 51, well supported by Matthew Brian who hit 40 before retiring hurt. Mikey took a smart run out with a direct hit to dismiss Luke and it was good to see Euan get a wicket towards the end of the innings too. Ruairidh also took two.

So, the boys had been set 7.5 runs an over to win, and with the sun already setting behind some clouds, the chase was on.

Murray and GMac opened the batting and looked to see off the new ball and the pace of MacLeod. Murray fell first bowled off a straight one for 7 but having done his job of using up MacLeod’s opening overs. It was Ru’s turn to take on their attack and he quickly got in to his stride hitting one six that hit the top of the wall bursting the ball, requiring a replacement to be found. There then followed some debate about the score and it looked like it would be dark soon, but after GMac was well caught on 22 it was Ben’s turn to partner Ru and they played with some calm heads to score the runs required, with Ru retiring on 54* giving Mikey the chance to see the victory home with 7* and Ben on 19*. It was a good effort to chase down a good total with two overs to spare.

Well played everyone.

Carlton won by 6 wickets

We met at Carlton at 5:30 for a 6:00 start. After doing the toss, we were ready to bowl. Opener Pete Gill bowled very well restricting the batsmen to 0 of the first over putting them under pressure. By the end of his spell, Pete finished with 3 for 2 including a maiden over and two wicket maidens. He bowled out number 3, and then a catch by Afshar as wicket keeper and another one by Euan sending their 2, 3 and 4 back to the pavilion. Murray Johnston coming on to bowl also had a great spell finishing with 3 for 17, getting their 1st, 7th and 8th batsmen out, one caught once again by Afshar and the other 2 bowled. Other wickets from Robbie Galloway and Harry Simpson helped us restrict them to 74. A good performance in the field and few extras given away.

Openers Euan and Murdo went out chasing 75 to win. Both batted well but got out to their quick bowler leaving Pete to go on. Scoring an amazing 29 not out Pete batting well, having a good partnership with Hari Kallat who scored 11. They finished us off winning by 6 wickets with a few overs to go.

The match manager would like to add……….Thanks to u13s Cameron and Akilan for stepping up at the last minute to ensure that we had a full 11 out. Thanks to Sanjay for scoring once again. And finally thanks too to the ground staff for preparing an excellent pitch as always.

Carlton won by 54 runs

On a warm and sunny day we arrived at Grange Loan for a quickly arranged friendly with SMRH. Skipper Ben won the toss and chose to bat with GMac and Douglas opening the batting. Both batsmen started well with 70 being scored off the first 8 overs. Unfortunately GMac was then run out going for a second run and Fabian chipped one to mid-on for a duck. Douglas soon retired, getting a well-deserved 50* which left Ben and Aryan at the crease. They formed a good partnership, rotating the strike and putting the bad ball away. Ben was bowled in the last over for 25 leaving Pete and Aryan 27* to finish off the innings giving us a strong total of 155.

Carlton’s turn in the field got off to a great start when Mikey removed 3 SMRH batsmen in quick succession to leave SMRH 22-3. Carlton kept the pressure on the batsmen but fielding errors let the two batsmen score more freely. Fabian and Aryan came on at the end and took a wicket each leaving SMRH on 101 handing Carlton a 54 run win. Thanks to the groundsman for preparing an excellent pitch and SMRH for agreeing to play this last minute friendly after both our oppositions were unable to raise sides.

Grange 1 won by 46 runs

Carlton lost the toss and were made to field first. Robbie - 0 for 15 and Duncan - 0 for 6 opened the bowling for Carlton and both bowled very well keeping their overs tidy. The openers for Grange batted sensibly and put up a very good opening partnership both of them retiring at 40* and 42*. Then Grange’s number 3 and 4 batsmen came in and played aggressively scoring 37* and 14* respectively and put Grange at 151/0 by the end of 20 overs. There were chances created by the bowlers but they were all put down. We dropped 4 catches in the game and gave away lots of runs by letting the ball go over the boundary which should have been stopped. Our fielding let us down.

Carlton went in to bat knowing this was an uphill task. Openers Pete G and Euan B defended the first few balls to get their eye in but good bowling from Grange meant that Carlton lost a few wickets fast leaving them 35 for 3. Then Pete G and Mikey B built a good, quick partnership of 65 runs with Mikey’s aggressive playing chasing the Grange score. Mikey was run out due to some bad calling but made a good cameo of 24 runs. After Mikey got out we lost wickets in quick succession and ended up scoring 105 for 7 in 20 overs. Pete did well for sticking in and scoring an unbeaten 46* but it was not enough as Carlton fell short by 46 runs