Around Scotland's Cricketing World: Early September 2010

Around Scotland's Cricketing World  early September 2010

Ross Family to the fore at Kinross

The champagne corks were popping at Kinross cricket club as they celebrated winning the Dukes Strathmore & Perthshire Union first division title, their third league title in as many years. Having beaten Bannockburn-based St Modans on Saturday (28 August), the club finished at the top of the division, a position they have held since the first game of the season.

Having decided to bat, St Modans never got going as the Kinross bowlers restricted them to 81 in 35 overs, and Kinross passed the target in the 21st over, with James Ross (pictured right) finishing on 44*, which took him past a personal milestone of 1000 runs for the club this season. Earlier in August, brother Peter (pictured left) - a member of the victorious Scotland U18 European squad - had broken the club's individual league innings record of 126*, set by James, with 133* against Couper Angus in a partnership of 209 with Chris Sale. But this simply spurred James on to claim back the record two weeks later with a 141* against the Forthill XI.

The league title win continues the remarkable renaissance of the Kinross club. Five years ago it only had an occasional friendly team and few prospects of surviving. But a new management team entered the club into the third division of the Strathmore & Perthshire league. In their second year, they won promotion to the second division, followed immediately by promotion to the first division, and now, for next year, into the premier league.

Club chairman and paterfamilias John Ross said: “We came into the first division with modest ambitions of finishing mid-table. However, as we started to win games, we all felt that there was a chance of gaining promotion. Our top-order batsmen have all performed well and our bowlers have been as tight and consistent as any I have seen.”

It has not only been the senior men who have performed for the club this season. The Kinross ladies won both the Scottish Universities Indoor title and the Cricket Scotland Indoor title this season. The ladies have also made it to the final of the Cricket Scotland Women’s National cup final on September 18.

John Ross added: “The continuing increase in new players has been putting pressure on the main ground at Kinross House and we recently agreed to start working on the development of a second ground, which will allow us to bring academy style facilities to Kinross. With over 200 active junior and senior members, the club is well set for an exciting future in the premier league and beyond”.

Kennedy selects himself

It was an old boys' reunion when the Cricket Scotland President's XI was assembled to play Kelburne last Sunday in recognition of the Whitehaugh club's sesquicentenary - 150th anniversary. Scotland's chief selector Iain Kennedy (pictured right) appointed himself captain for this important occasion and, although brother Stuart was also initially selected, he was diverted to other captaincy duties, as Ferguslie had won through to the final of the West League Cup on the same day.

But Iain - a six-cap internationalist himself - was able to call on the services of other 'veteran' internationalists, including David Simpson (7 caps), Alan Stevenson (14) and Tom Black (9), to join others such as long-time cricket luminaries auch as Andy Baird, Dougie Wylie (a Kelburne ex-), Bryan Clarke, John Cameron and Richard Young.

It would be an insult to say that copious supplies of joint-lubricating linament were available for the game, but suffice it to say that, had it not been for Siggy, the old boys would probably have lost ignominiously. Kelburne - reinforced by several former pupils - were propelled to a reasonable 150+ total by a half-century from Gregor Maiden, who learned his cricket at the Whitehaugh ground. In reply, the President's men were heading for annihalation until the Weir's wonderman stepped in at the very end and smashed a match-winning 49* in rather fewer balls.

But Kelburne's season is not yet over. Having lost their final SNCL Div 2 game against McTaggart & Mickel Renfrew, they now have to face yet another play-off ordeal to battle for the right to remain in next year's line-up of the reconstructed 32-team national league. Let's hope they make it, with or without the help of G Maiden!

Partick win Western Cup for West

Another long-lived institution whose national league ambitions seemed to fall apart during the course of the season - and were certainly the worst club affected by international call-ups and injuries - was the West of the Scotland club.

But Partick - their second team (pictured) - managed to win a 'consolation prize' for their club when they defeated East Kilbride in the final of the Western Cup, played at Hamilton Crescent two Sundays ago. Man of the match was 'veteran' batsman Alan Williamson, who puffed his way to a brilliant half-century to anchor the West innings.

Then, just as East Kilbride looked on course to cross the finishing line in triumph, young Mr Williamson - patrolling the short northern boundary in front of the pavilion - made considerable ground to take a fantastic running catch just inside the rope to dismiss EK's inspirational captain Umair Saeed and, with him, the momentum to victory as his side fell 20-odd runs short of their target.

As a by-the-way, this was one of the first games to be played after the concrete-and-steel boundary 'railings' at Hamilton Crescent had finally been removed and replaced by a rope. This will leave the way clear for groundsman Richie Dixon to extend the outfield in all directions by a sufficient distance perhaps even to comply with the latest ICC specifications for ODI matches.

Richie for Associate Player of the Year?

Scotland's Richie Berrington (pictured, with Neil McCallum) seems in recent games to have recovered some of the tremendous early-season form with the bat, before he suffered a mid-season run-making slump. And in his first national league match in weeks for his Greenock club he hoisted another three-figure account which helped to restore some pride after a horror season down Glenpark way.

Richie was also buoyed by his nomination for the 'Associate and Affiliate Player of the Year' in the LG ICC Awards for 2010. The LG ICC Awards ceremony is now in its seventh year and this year it will be held in Bengaluru, India. Let's hope Richie gets to be there!

Backing, not betting, on Pakistan

The ramifications of the latest Pakistan-centred betting scandal will no doubt resonate for many months, if not years. But that shouldn't put us off expressing our sympathies to the millions of Pakistanis affected by the devastating flooding of the Indis valley in their country.

One local Pakistani who immediately got off his backside to help alleviate the suffering is Raza Sadiq, chairman of the Active Life Club that aims to empower young people through sport and has a cricket team that plays in the third division of the Western Union. Raza has not been a shrinking violet when tapping in to financial and moral support from local authorities and others.

In association with Hamilton Cricket Club, he has now organised an ambitious 16-team Six-a-Side tournament and 'Family Fun Day' in aid of the flood victims. This will be staged at the Titwood international ground - home of Clydesdale Cricket Club, of course - on Sunday September 12.

With an entry fee of £100 per team, he knows that he'll easily exceed the initial £2,000 fund-raising target, but it would not be a surprise if the final sum was considerably larger if he manages to attract a large crowd to the nine-hour marathon event, which starts at 10am.