Monsoon Mayhem Devastates All Fixtures in SNCL Premier League

Friday’s monsoon and Saturday’s early rainstorms put paid to the whole programme so its off to Uddingston next Saturday in the penultimate Saturday of the Season.  The 2s game at Hillhead was also washed out.

Congratulations to Dougie Lockhart for his inclusion for Scotland in the 4 day Inter-Continental Cup match at Aberdeen starting on Monday.  Justly deserved!  Also, congrats to Gordon Goudie in his selection for that fixture and the 2 ODIs next weekend.  Great to see him back to fitness.

Well done to Graham McKendry’s troops for winning the Strathclyde League.  They travel to Poloc at High Noon on Sunday 6th September to take on Active Life in a repeat of the 2008 Strathclyde Shield Final

Wednesday this week sees Partick take on G U Staff at West (6pm) in the Rearranged Western Cup Semi Final.

Next weekend the 2s have a league fixture at Hamilton Crescent on both Saturday and Sunday.

The 2009 West League Cup Final between McCrea FS West and Greenock has been arranged for Tuesday 25th August at West at 5.30pm so lets have full support.

Sat 29th August sees the final fixture against Carlton at West followed by the End of Season Extravaganza in the Clubhouse. The Grand Summer Draw will be made and there are a lot of draw tickets still to be returned before that day. I know that I can rely on everyone to make sure that this is a real financial success!

Elly has had a great week watching Partick Thistle draw and Rangers win (memories indeed to take back to the Land of the White Cloud)- lets hope the weather relents and its back to cricket

Greenock Ignore Their Lowly League Placing to Inflict Severe Damage on West’s Title Challenge

After a delayed start it was great to see Gordon Goudie back in action and taking 2 quick wickets.  A recovery from Cameron Borgas and Richie Berrington and some late order hitting by others took Greenock to 209 in 42 overs. Early rain meant a reduced over game.  When McCrea FS West batted the early losses of Gregg, Elly and Youngy put real pressure on the others.  Dougie and Rosco produced a semi recovery but eventually Dougie was out lbw and Ross hit a really sensible 46 – if only the others…….     

West  were all out for 104 and Greenock were deserving winners.  We need to have more continuity of performance and we need to get fully focussed again for the last 3 weeks so that the great efforts of this season are not for nothing. 

Hospitality at Glenpark was again superb and thanks to David Campbell for being such a fine host – (He was not quoted in today’s Herald – must have listened to me!!)    Now we have to meet again at Hamilton Crescent in the West League Cup Final.  Timing of this could be interesting in view of Greenock’s other Cup commitments!

Meanwhile at sunny West the 2s scored a really good win against East Kilbride.  Anjun Luthra and Stuart Beaufoy played match winning innings and the 3s beat Renfrew on Sunday with Jats batting well and 25 not out from maestro Tony Lewis to secure another victory.

Western Cup Semi at West tomorrow and a 2 day game between Scotland under 17s and Lincolnshire under 17s on Wednesday and Thursday….and then its Grange on Saturday.

More Updates

West League Cup Final between McCrea FS West and Greenock will take place at Hamilton Crescent on a date to be arranged.  Watch this space.

3s beat Hillhead on Thursday evening to get back to winning habits.

Its Greenock for the ones today – no Pirate but a return for Aftab – and perhaps some bowling for the newly serviced smooth machine GG.   2s at West v East Kilbride

Cups Update

West League Cup semi final tonight    McCrea FS West 202 for 4 Duggie 91 , Elly 78 , 145 for the first wicket  Renfrew 120 for 5 in 20 overs – McCrea FS West through to final to play either Greenock or Clydesdale.

3s lost last night in Greenwood Cup to Weirs.

Partick have been reinstated to Western Cup along with G U Staff as Irvine have been eliminated.. The rearranged Semi Final beween Partick and G U Staff will take place at Hamilton Crescent at 6pm on Tuesday 11th August.

McCrea FS West Nail Heriots to go Third

In a Duckworth Lewis encounter at West Heriots batted first.  67 for the first wicket and then a rain break which created a 47 over game.  Heriots finished on 154 for 8 with Matt Cowie bowling well again to return figures of 10-1-29-4.

McCrea FS batted and started with a century opening stand before Gregg was out for 22.  Dougie(68*) and Elly(43*) finished the proceedings with aplomb and the home side were winners with 10 points.  Greenock succumbed to Ayr and Clydesdale also lost so we are now 3rd.  My statistician tells me that we now cannot finish in the bottom two but far more realistically if we keep winning we are in with a real chance of 2009 glory.  Its Greenock next week at the Tail O’ The Bank and I look forward to catching up with my old friend, David Campbell!

The 2s game at Galloway succumbed to the inclement weather.

4th Amigos Scoreboard Stint Evokes Memories of Seasons Past!

The 4th Amigo first set foot in the big wooden scoreboard at West in 1961!  Little has changed up there since then apart from the middle ladder being mysteriously loose at the top (nothing to do the recent visits of the other 3 Amigos!).

As gentleman Robert Kettlewell, our esteemed current scorer, politely asked me at the end of each over if I had the runs and overs correct, memories flooded back – the cricket was pretty slow at this point – to the heady juvenile days of the 60s when a strict disciplinary code was applied to the army of willing scoreboard youths upstairs in the box.

Hardline scorers like Mr Barbour, the redoubtable and dangerous Staff Sergeant Charles Bishop and the quieter but enigmatic Nick Larkin kept a tight rein and woe betide anyone who missed a run, over or wicket – or even spoke! In later years I can recollect Peter Storch – the previous adjectives, and more, apply to him – the late, legendary Bobby Henderson and his team of Alexander Brothers, Lesley and Thomas.  How they would all have coped with Duckworth Lewis I hate to think – and that takes us back to Bobby Kettlewell!

My scoring memories were completed during Dob’ s turn in the box (he soon mastered which drum was which) when I had an enjoyable chat with ertswhile St Mirren Secretary, Alastair McLaughlan, who was West’s scorer between 1945 and 1950.  I don’t remember him form then!  If the current bunch of juniors realise what fun it is in the box (no sore heads, bruised knees or stiff backs the next day – honest)  they would be queuing up to help and even have a chance of earning the Queen’s shilling.

Finally it was great to welcome back to West George Applebey who played in the Juniors in the 60s. George has lived and worked in Birmingham for many years and was one of the many who came to West from Jordanhill School – something to do with J L F Harris, but that’s another story!  Thanks for popping in, George, and we hope to see you again soon.

Whirlwind Week’s Update

Last Saturday McCrea FS West returned to winning ways by beating Ayr. Partick lost to Kelburne and on Sunday the 3s played Renfrew – sorry, don’t know result.  Rain washed out Tuesday’s Greenwood Cup tie v Weirs (now rearranged for next Tuesday at West.)  The 3s easily beat Clyde on Wednesday while the 2s snatched defeat by 1 runfrom the jaws of victory in the Western Cup semi v Irvine – but watch this space!!

McCrea FS West entertain Heriots tomorrow while Partick head for Galloway (weather permitting)  On Sunday the Accies play the 3s at West, Tues is the game mentioned above and on Wednesday McCrea FS West go to Renfrew to play the delayed semi final of the West League Cup.  A busy time for all including the weathermen!

McCrea FS Man of the Month – May and June

Late news – Congratulations to Dougie Lockhart and Ian Cran on being voted McCrea FS Man of the Month for May and June.  The awards were presented to the guys earlier this month.

Thanks also to Douglas McCrea for his continued support.  It will soon be time to announce the winner for July.

More pressure!!!

A Week is a long time in Politics……..

14 to 21 days in a Cricket Season is even longer!!  During your bloggers enforced absence things seem to have changed!!

No point in looking back , lets look forward to the remaining 6 weeks of this season and get the show on the road once more. Thanks to the guest bloggers’ pithy comments – straight to the point and full of enthusiasm.

After this weekends vital game against Ayr at West – and Partick’s visit to league leaders, Kelburne we can look forward to 2 important cup ties next week – both at West – and worthy of everyone’s support!!

Tue (28th) sees the 3s playing Weirs in the Greenwood Cup quarter final  (Who might turn up for that one?)

Thu (30th) has Jonny Graham’s Partick playing Irvine in the Western Cup semi final.

Negotiations continue with Renfrew to finalise a date for our visit to Renfrew for the West League Cup semi final.  (Our 2nd WLC semi of this season and an opportunity to atone for the failure in the earlier one).

Enough ramblings for now.  Lets all get back on track. Be positive, enjoy our cricket and give each other our full support.

McCrea FS West , Partick, 3s and Juniors  - Yes we can!!!!

The case of the missing wickets

Today’s blog sounds like a Perry Mason mystery but is it ?

The morning after the wonderful sponsor’s party was appropriately dull, just like your bloggers heid, and the day got a whole lot worse when our regular scoreboard operator failed to trap.The three amigos volunteered to go where no-one over the height of four foot should. It’s a great view from there but would the performance be worth it?

Once again we were back on that “minefield” and once again we chose to bat first, the logic escapes me but then again what do I know. At 21 for 3 we were back in the smelly stuff, once again largely due to poor shot selection, in the second round of the Scottish Cup against Ayr. It took a good partnership of 90 between Youngy and Ross to get us back on track and with Dion chipping in with 37 we closed on 194 in 45 overs. The question was how would the Ayr batters fare on the “dodgy” surface? We were soon to find out! Papps (86) and McElrea (45) were totally untroubled and then it happened, with the score at 121, or 321 for the weekend, we got our first wicket You could not make it up – it was a run out! When Elly trapped his fellow countryman in front at 167 there was just the chance that Ayr,who are having a dreadful season, would forget how to win. However it was not to be as Bod and Duggie Johnston saw them through but not before Bod had a tantrum when he was run out – some things never change.

So we have had our weekend from hell and the question will be, has the West bubble burst? Well it will have if we go around with a hangdog expression and display a negative attitude whilst the opposition just get on with the job. You just cannot argue against inividual scores of Rodden(102), Astle(86), Papps(78) and McElrea(45)

Well was it a Perry Mason mystery? In some respects it was but on balance more like a comedy of errors. Was the view from the scoreboard worth it? Not really but at least the three amigos got their tea