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If playing host to the visit of the mighty Carlton 2s wasn’t a big enough occasion, it was also the day of the 2017 Kelso Scooter rally, so understandably the excitement was palpable. On arrival, the teams were made aware that both umpires had called off early in the morning and that it would be down to the players to officiate proceedings for the day.

Having won the toss, Carlton elected to bat and opened up with the teenage partnership of Beattie and Simpson. On what was a flat, but slow deck, the pair picked off early boundaries against the new ball. A mixture of accurate Kelso bowling and good fielding kept the runs in check on what was proving to be a difficult pitch to score on. The pair continued to bat sensibly laying a solid platform for the innings. Angus brought up his 50 with some strong shots against the Kelso spinner before he departed for a well made 53 – ending a fine opening stand of 89. Soon after, Andrew was unfortunate to go caught and bowled attempting to pull a full toss that was adjudged to be just below waist height and Simmo followed him back into the sheds for 37 – LBW to spinner Eckard. Having made a good start, Carlton had lost 3 quick wickets and pushed back to 105/3.

Marshall and Neame rebuilt the innings, playing watchfully against some accurate Kelso bowling while turning over the strike. Marshall played an expert legside flick for a one bounce four before perishing, caught at the long on boundary attempting to move on the scoring, for 26. With Thurman’s arrival at the crease the aforementioned Parker began to expand his game, targeting the legside boundary with some powerful shots. Ben and Parker combined well to push the runs up to a respectable total, with the ever-expanding crowd treated to a trademark Thurman boundary over cover. When Ben was caught behind for 17 and Parker bowled for a valuable 55 it was left to the lower order to end the innings on 209/9. A total the 2s were confident of defending but could have arguably promised more given the early platform.

After Teas, Carlton entered the second half with high energy, looking to register that elusive first win of the season. The openers started brilliantly with accurate line and length from Chad and the Ked causing huge problems for the Kelso openers. Grant was extremely unlucky not to have an early wicket with two extremely strong LBW shouts being turned down by the umpire. Grant did make the deserved breakthrough when Parker took a sharp chance in the slips to remove Adams. Good aggression and intent in the field put the side in a great position after 10 overs – Kelso 18/1.

Change bowlers Brown and Beattie continued the good work from the openers, bowling tight lines and making scoring difficult. Angus made life difficult for the overseas McMahon, while Mickey’s complexion told a story of the effort he was putting in. It was Raikesy however, who did make the second breakthrough with a sharp stumping off his bowling to remove the other opener. The second dismissal was followed by a third, with Gus bowling Eckard with a good ball that went on through the gate. With Andrew looking for a further breakthrough he turned to his strike legspinner (no, not Raza: Ben ‘Warney’ Thurman). With Raikesy breaking down after his mammoth spell of 1.5-0-10-1 Benny was called upon to deliver a vital delivery at a pivotal point in the game. Being the ice cool performer that he is, Ben duly delivered a seed that would have had Kelso’s overseas batsman searching for the next plane back to Oz and giving Andrew another genuine all-rounder option for next weekend.

As predicted, just two balls into the 26th over, a tropical thunderstorm hit Kelso. With the belief that the rain had all but ended the contest, calculations were made seemingly giving Carlton a 5 run victory via the Rain Calculator. Despite the earlier downpour Kelso were adamant that the pitch was playable, but without the presence of umpires and Carlton’s opposing analysis of the playing conditions the two sides were locked in a stalemate. A waiting game ensued, with Kelso enlisting the help of their fans (and the 100 or so farmers in presence) to try and convince skipper Meyer to bring his troops back out onto the soggy marsh that had become Sheddon Park. Despite the stalemate the Carlton players were treated to what was an eventful wait, highlights included:

• Wee Gus attempting to ‘Square go’ as many Opposition players as possible.
• The Welsh Wizard Grant Keddle almost copping a lofted drive to the back of the head from an intoxiated spectator.
• Being introduced to the magic of Marshall’s Muralitharian esque one hand one bounce bowling (Ben watch out, you face competition for your place as designated strike spinner).

After around 2 hours of patient waiting and with tensions at fever pitch the game was eventually abandoned. Obviously it was not the ideal circumstance to win the match, and given the way we had started the second innings we were confident of bowling out Kelso, but a win is a win and this puts the team back in a stronger position in the league. It was a good team performance from the lads with contributions throughout and a good team spirit helping to carry us over the line. Special mention to Andrew for the excellent job he did in captaining the side and managing a difficult situation in less than ideal conditions. Even if he is “a Kiwi who doesn’t know Scottish cricketing weather” (Kelso Captain).

(TS)

Carlton 2nd XI had an extremely unpredictable loss on Saturday against Gala 1st XI.

Turning up to the game with a few tired faces, captain Andrew Meyer made his way out to the middle with his new "fresh" haircut for the toss. If only Scottish groundsmen had Andrew’s clippers, there might be less grass on the wickets.

Gala won the toss and selected to bat. Carlton opened the bowling with our express pace bowler Mikey Brown AKA "Ginger Ninja" who got us off to a decent start with Rory applying pressure from the other end.

Only 7.1 overs into the game and the SAFA decided to play some football with a cricket ball, nonetheless making an excellent goal save at the bottom right corner, the SAFA was carried off the field of play...

As game play went on two great spells from the youngsters Murray Johnson and Saif Khan brought the breakthrough and put the batters under a lot of pressure.

Welcoming the crippled SAFA back to the field, Captain Haircut decided to bring himself onto bowl with Parker Neame not applying any pressure , and gave Ben Thurman his only exercise of the day as skipper decided to leave him on the same boundary for 50 overs so he could think about opening the batting.

With Captain Haircut taking two wickets in quick succession and trying to give the umpire a "high five" after taking a catch off his own bowling, and boldly shut down by the patriarch, or as Mr.  Armour liked to call them ( tweedle dee and tweedle dumb).

Gala ended on 257 for 6 M.Brown 10-2-48, A.Meyer 7-2-28, S.Khan 8-1-37.

As far as the batting is concerned, other than GMAC MCGEE and the skipper having a tea party at one end of the wicket ... 

Despite A.Meyer and P.Neame putting on a 169 run partnership, Carlton ended on 237 all out after 48 overs.

A.Meyer 101, P.Neame 87, B.Thurman 16

 (PN)

After a couple of near misses, the 2's made the short journey to rivals Grange determined to put it all together.

Raeburn Place looked a picture with a fast outfield and an absolute road of a wicket. Runs aplenty. Pre match banter was the usual fare of Guy getting everybody excited with claims of his run total for the day and Adeel's latest offerings on his later arrival.

Captain Andy lost the toss and we bowled first opening with Rory and Grant. A tight start by us looked promising but the road did turn out to be just that and the Grange openers batted sensibly and put away the occasional bad ball. It was the pairing of Brad and Guy that helped peg back the run rate, with Brad picking up the first two wickets and bowling 10 straight for 2/31. Guy also picked up two wickets and after a fast start, it looked like we could pull Grange back to a gettable target.

Fielding was also pretty decent with Ru Main taking a great diving catch at mid on and then Captain Andy taking an even better catch running backwards at long on to dismiss the Grange skipper Davidson. It even looked like we could keep it down to 240 but they got a wriggle on in the last few overs to reach 267/6.

After tea, the response started with Andrew and Ben who made steady progress until there was a mix up and Ben was run out for the second week running. Ru Main boomed a couple and was then caught. Then Raikes and Meyer rebuilt in a 50 run stand and although the run rate was building, solid foundations were being constructed. Then disaster with the score on 98 as Raikes, Armour and Raza were all out. 98/5 and pretty much game over.

All this happened with Andrew watching from the other end and when he eventually fell for an excellent 82, the game was up although the tail did wag with solid contributions from Grant and Mikey - 207 all out.

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In a season punctuated by bad weather along with our own deficiencies, with three games to go, the equation is simple - beat the two teams below us and we'll still be in the Championship next year. The first of these was a trip to Cavalry Park against Marchmont, looking to avoid relegation of their own.

Rain greeted the early risers on Saturday morning but with a few motivational tweets about being switched on, the team assembled on time (more or less) to find a damp square. We've seen our fair share of damp squares this season - other teams rank teas, but on the dampness ranking, it was a 7. Surprisingly, there was no hurricane to dry the ground so we had a delayed start, giving Guy and Marsh time to vape up. After a warm up with soaked balls, we were inserted to bat.

We got the worst possible start when skipper Andy flicked a waist high full toss straight up rather than towards Arthur's Seat and was caught for 0. 0/1. Parker came and went - 7/2. Guy hit a few nice shots to get the board moving before being adjudged stumped and then Marsh was caught at point - 4 down for not many.

We were then treated to the rare sight of the brothers Macpherson batting together both willing to grind it out on a difficult wicket. Kyle was bowled by the off spinner's first ball but Ruari continued to work hard - his 30 worth more like 60. However wickets continued to fall and our total of 100 wasn't amazing but it did give us something to bowl at and was worth 170 with the lush outfield.
Mikey and Brad opened up with not a lot of runs to play with but kept it tight. Then first ten overs yielding only 20 runs and Mikey taking two wickets and both bowlers created a number of other half chances. Ru and Andy followed and both took a wicket each, both LBW and with Rory sneaking another before drinks, Marchmont were 50/5, exactly half way. Tight stuff.

With a bit of rain, the covers went on briefly and when we returned, we knew the next ten overs were key. Marchmont's Aussie was now looking a little more settled and the game rested on his shoulders. Adeel bowled a good spell and after having him dropped on the boundary, soon picked up his man for 39, caught at mid off. Then Guy, fresh from a rain delay vape, finished off the match with the last three wickets, all bowled, to bowl Marchmont out for 74, a win by 26 runs.

We live to fight another day and are aiming to finish our home season on a high against Gala.

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