FABULOUS FAROOQ GETS YELLY OFF TO A FLIER
After fine wins for the 2s and 3s on Saturday, and a battling performance in defeat from a young (and old) 4s side at Broomhall, Sunday saw the 1s take on Watsonians 2s at Myreside, aiming to make it two wins out of two in 2013.
With Batman failing a late fitness test on his knacked hand, the visiting JP was scraped from a Grassmarket pavement to take his place, and young Yelly became the latest hopeful to join the ranks of future ex-captains. At 20 years of age (going on 45, going on 12), I believe this makes Neil the youngest 1s skipper since his dad Phil captained the old London Road CC shortly after World War 2, but any club Stattos with longer memories are welcome to correct me on this.
Despite losing the toss, Neil displayed promising signs of mind control skills as home skipper Flanagan elected to send MUFS into bat on a good but already twice-used pitch, which was only going to get slower and lower as the game went on. Adnan and Farooq took early advantage, putting on 57 for the first wicket before Adnan (14) chipped one back to young off-spinner Thompson in his first over. Thompson then claimed the prize scalp of Maggy for 6, bowling him with a shooter that confirmed our view that this was a good track on which to bat first. But when Asif fell LBW to Naysmith for the same score, we were 77 for 3 and in danger of throwing away a promising start.
These fears were allayed by an excellent and intelligent partnership (do not adjust your browser settings, yes I am still talking about the MUFS here) between Farooq and Amol, who added 81 in quick time with a combination of sound defence, well-judged running and the occasional firm biff through or over the infield.
Amol finally fell six short of what would have been a deserved half-century, providing the first of two scalps for A.Thingyburn (I've changed his name myself so the message board profanity filter doesn't have to bother, but I believe it's pronounced “Coburn”). But that wicket only served to accelerate the scoring, with Luke responding to his demotion to a “wicketkeeper's position” in the batting order by giving it some Gilchrist, bashing 25 off 20 balls to leave us sitting pretty at 193 for 4 and looking at a total in excess of 250.
Such optimistic notions were quickly banished by the departure of Farooq and Luke in successive balls, Farooq finally falling for a top-class 79 (118 balls, 10 fours). Sam soon followed, run out for 3, and at 202 for 7, MUFS were suddenly in severe danger of failing to bat out the 50 overs for the second week running.
In the end, we fell three balls short of the magic 50 – but with JP (11) hanging around long enough to remember which way up to hold a bat, and Jasir timing the ball beautifully on his way to 28 off 24 balls, we had every reason to be pleased with our total of 239.
A glorious, pasta-based tea – not far off Stirling standards – helped to fuel some tremendous bowling from the two openers, as Jasir (1-28) and Sam (2-23) ran through the hosts' top order, reducing them to 14 for 3 in the 6th over. Opener Learmonth proved trickier to shift though, keeping Watsonians up with the run rate almost single-handedly with some thumping shots, aided by several dropped catches, as wickets fell consistently at the other end. Tom (2-38) removed D.Thingyburn for 15 and Flannigan for 10, and Yelly the Younger (1-23) cleaned up Thompson to leave the home side 114 for 6 at drinks, and up against it – but with Learmonth still at the crease and now into the 70s, it looked like there was plenty of work for MUFS still to do.
As it turned out, there wasn't, thanks to yet another devastating spell from Magic Mangesh, the Mighty Middle Overs Marmaliser. I've lost track of the number of times Maggy has come on to bowl straight after the drinks break and run through the opposition, and sure enough, his first over saw him shatter the stumps of Thingyburn and Saddler in successive balls to leave the match all but over as a contest.
Macleod did well to keep out the hat-trick ball, but soon followed LBW for 2 to leave Maggy with the tremendous figures of 3-0-5-3, before Asif (1-11) bowled Naysmith to finish the job, leaving Learmonth stranded on 86 – a cracking score under any circumstances, but better still in the context of a team total of 135 all out in 30.4 overs.
And so it was victory beers for the second week in succession for the MUFS, winners by 104 runs and joint top of Division 1, alongside the other two 100-percenters, Holy Cross and Carlton 2s. Many congrats to Neil on a fine win and assured on-field performance in his first ever game as 1s skipper, and to Batman on his extensive hair loss during a frantic display of back-seat captaincy from the sidelines.
Thanks to Keith and his Watsonians team for their good sportsmanship and fine hospitality, and to the various travelling Muffers for taking time out of their Sunday to support the boys. In particular, cheers to Melvyn for keeping a characteristically immaculate scorebook – hence the unusually detailed batting stats in this report – and of course to our one and only season ticket holder (and often our one and only spectator), the legendary Willie Ritchie, for making the trip from West Lothian despite the lack of a working car.
Willie also wins the barely-coveted “Quote of the Day” title, from when I was foolish enough to ask him which was the most depressing thing to see as a regular MUFS-watcher: me putting the pads on, as I was doing at the time, or me coming on to bowl. After due consideration, he replied: “To be honest, the sight of you circling under a high catch probably trumps them both.”
Cheers, Willie...
Link to scorecard:
www.cricketstats.org.uk/esca/2013/1/1108.html
