NEWS

Better News for the 1's...

A bit Chilly-ish weather with some wind kept the early clouds moving over for the Ones game against die hard enemies, Edinburgh Accies, rumoured to be weighed down with the ghost of Steve Spoljaric.

A sparky warm up involving Head Coach Kev McLaren and their pro spiced things up for more than a competitive warm up and ensured the game was nice and spicy from 11:45!

Lamby Warms up

We'll be taking 3000 cones to their ground for the return fixture! Nuff said. The sun came out for Paddy, Rigg and Pallav who all bowled decent areas and as a reminder to all that pace and bounce are nothing on a semi pudding Scottish Track. Their keeper elected to play 43 balls before scoring after 65 mins out in the middle. Now thats tight bowling!

The roller obviously did it's work, along with Tom's calming prescence from the scorebox. Despite some confusing decisions regarding LBs and nicks, wickets fell steadily, particularly when the deadly Ealham esque swingers bowled in tandem... namely the Mallen and Luke Butch Reynolds.

With seven wickets between them, including Accies' Bottom Hand OA (Ask Lambie, sure he's West Indian, and that's all that counts!) the Accies crumbled to 141 all out in the 46th odd over. Mark finished with 4 for 32 and Lukey around 3 for 20. Good work and well supported in the field during those tough middle overs (and Accies' haircuts)

Great performance in the field too; Plenty banter, lots of noise from all parts, good keeping from skinny and decent backing up and throwing arms allround.

After a decent tea out we wandered, confident of a decent and authoritative run chase to prove a point, especially with returning "Schoolbuilding Destroyer" Mark Cunningham in our midst.

Unfortunately however, 28 for 3 was not the game plan... with Jayce, Butch and Pallav all departing without really troubling the scorers (as if he ever gets troubled!).

It was left to Captain Slow himself to show us how's it down
with the Rigg, J Ryan. Over ninety minutes they got the score to 100 odd before Lambie departed having done what was required, pouching a slow but proper score of 26 into the bargain.

This knock DEFINITELY got us out of jail. And Rigg and Lambie got sustained abuse for over and hour; great mettle on display! Despite the cold Olly managed to get to the middle where he joined Josh, now on a well earned 52* and squeezed through the last five overs or so before a flurry of boundaries cleared the Accies total with some 9 overs to spare.

Josh has a word in Arnie's ear

A proper comprehensive victory punctuated by four or five key performances and a great team ethos. Just where we need to continue. Roll on Dyce, Falkland and anyone else who thinks the Ones are easy.

RHC 3's vs Kirk Brae II

The first home game of the season for the 3's welcome Kirk Brae II to the Gyle.

Ally won the toss and opted to have a bat, the accurate Kirk Brae opening bowlers slowed the runs and RHC found themselves under pressure loosing Srikanth, Ally (caught hooking a short one), Alan (edging to first slip) and Spoony with only 31 runs on the board.

This left JK and Trev Kelly to get the score going which they did with some style, a series of boundaries had 150 in the sights. JK watchful innings was finally ended LBW but maybe leave it a few weeks before you mention it to him so he has had a chance to calm down.

Trev, supported by debutant Euan West and Neil, had his top knock finally ended at 53. Fraser was last man out leaving Adam not out and the score on 126.

After tea, big thanks to Dee for sorting this out for us!, we set
about defending our total.

Trev and Adam took it to Kirk Brae with quick and accurate bowling, which kept the runs down but did not get a wicket.

The change bowlers benefited from the pressure generated by the opening spell with Alan Moore removing the two openers with smart stumpings from JK and Fraser West's slower ball earning him the next wicket.

Wickets fell regularly after that with Alan finishing on 3 for 17, Adam 1 for 34, Trev 0 for 13 (including 3 maidens) off their allotted 8 overs and Fraser getting 2 for 20 with some quality bowling.

But despite a top team effort in the field epitomised by Ally nearly taking the catch of the season diving to his right at first slip and refusal to let the heads drop our total was not enough to defend, with Kirk Brae getting the total with 4 wickets to spare.

The Super 2nds keep on truckin...

Newly promoted Westquarter where the 2nd XI opponents on Saturday.

Winning the toss Westy decided to bat first and try and rack up a big score for the oppo to chase against what would prove to be a formidable bowling attack.

But it would seem the Corstorphine hoodoo was about to strike again as the home side lost openers Nick, to a comedy run out, and Hoffy to a good delivery that just nicked the top of the stumps before bouncing off Westquarters wikeys face. Fortunately a bag of cold peas where on hand to allow him to play on.

So with Swales and West at the crease it was up to them to start over and lay a solid foundation. But before long the Lions suffered another setback and found themselves 22 for 3 as Swales was outdone by a good ball and edged to 1st slip.

With the calm head of Westy and the youth and enthusiasm of Mike Yellowlees the Lions now set about seeing off the openers and posting a decent score on the board.

Getting to 70 before West (22) was dismissed by a lucky 2nd attempt at a catch the Lions started to push home the advantage of wickets in hand. Tyson batted with great maturity and reached 34 before getting out. He was supported by Az Abid as he batted well for 20 much needed runs.

Vice skip Giggsy made a valuable 32 as he and BP pushed the total onto 162 before the lions succumbed to the inevitable.

Still ridding high after the previous weeks win the spirit in the team was more than optimistic as the Lions took the field.

Az opened the attack but the first wicket fell to Giggsy as he removed the opener with a cracking in-swinging yorker.

It was the Giggsy and Az show for a while as Westquarter where reduced to 43 for 5. Azhar bowled superbly and gave his all for the side and was looking for an ambulance after his great spell of fast bowling as he finished with figures of 24 for 3 from his 10.

Macca made his debut in the 2’s but a hangover seemed to impair his bowling as he was unlucky not to get a wicket in his 5 over spell.

Good old reliable BP tightened the screws even further and took 1 for 11 before Tyson came on and followed Azhar’s lead as he took 2 for 18 with some tidy bowling.

After a quick run out they found themselves 67 for 9 and it was left up to Giggsy to remove the pesky opening bat who still remained and was threatening to take the away side to a miraculous victory.

They pushed onto 99 before the opener smacked one back over Giggsy’s head only to be caught by the swift moving ‘Jordan like’ Westy as he floated through the air to take a superb one handed catch above his head.

Having sealed the victory he had this to say about his side "Another good performance by the entire team, everyone contributed and the heads never went down.

We showed great patience both batting and fielding which is a must at this level.

We aren’t to far off from being in championship winning form but that grit and determination we showed will certainly make sure we’ll be up there come August”