Season 2018 Round-up

Guaranteed sunshine from May to July (except Heriot’s here in June), a low number of injuries, juniors breaking into the senior teams and performing, delicious BBQs, a great club spirit were all contributing factors to a very successful season – and we did it without the help of Ryan Sidebottom!! I think that is what is termed ‘Fake News’.

Although Ryan never made it up to Edinburgh, we did engage the services of another ex-Yorkshire County player, namely John Blain, on a full time basis from June through his company (4 Sports Scotland Ltd). We saw the benefits immediately. John was certainly a huge contributor to our success in 2018.

For the record the 1st XI won the Eastern Premier Division, the National Club Championship and the Scottish Cup – The Treble. To top it all, the 2nd XI won the ESCA Championship for the first time. The 3rd XI competed strongly in East Division 3 but finally had to settle on fourth place. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Our U15’s won their Scottish Cup and were Scottish Regional winners of the ECB Vitality Club Championship. Unfortunately, they were not able to repeat the journey they made last year south of the border.

And last but not least, the Club retained the Watts Frazer Trophy. Grange and Carlton have been rivals for over 100 years and in the Autumn of 2011 Fraser Watts, the current Captain of Carlton and Bobby Frazer, a past President of Grange CC, decided over a beer in the West End that it was time to mark this history by playing for an annual trophy aptly named – the Watts Frazer Trophy.

The Grange Cricket Academy, now in its third year, really proved its worth this season as we saw a number of the students move into senior cricket, and they were certainly all well prepared. To date 45 players have completed the winter programme which not only focusses on developing technical skills but also incorporates workshops on lifestyle with education around nutrition, responsible social media use, team culture and values. Three Academy graduates, Tom Mackintosh, Charlie Peet and Jamie Cairns have gone on to earn professional County Academy contracts with Durham and Hampshire respectively.

From a press coverage point of view Mazars Grange must have dominated the papers over the season, especially in August (though we were competing with Patrick Ritchie on social media!). The name Mazars Grange must be worth retaining for a few more years to come!

The ‘Champagne Moment’ for me has to be Tom Mackintosh’s first ball six over the Ferguslie crowd to turn the Scottish Cup semi-final in our favour – in the last over. As Bobby Frazer said to me; ‘It was a good job Preston was not on strike!

Over the season 8 players were ‘Out First Ball’ (Andrew Brock twice), 8 bowlers claimed ‘Five For’ (Corne Van Jaarsveld twice) and 13 batsmen accumulated a ‘Ton’, (Tom Martin, Dylan Budge and Ryan Flannigan all twice).

Finally, my thanks to everyone, who by their efforts make play possible; scorers, umpires, tea ladies (or lad’dies) and their helpers, coaches, ground staff (Tom and Kevin), the committees (Junior, Senior and General), team captains, Robin Pollok, Bobby Frazer, Neil Ritchie, Justin Lyons (Club Manager) and our bar staff.

It certainly was a season to remember and I won’t forget the England game in June!

Rawdon Hesketh
Hon President