Season 2014 Round-up

‘The more you put into something, the more you get out’ – this is how I would sum up the results of our efforts this season. We are the current holders of three Scottish Cups (1st XI, U15 & U13), the Masterton Trophy, the Murgitroyd T20 Trophy, Cricket Scotland Indoor Sixes, the Watts Frazer Trophy and the U13 National Cup. Not a bad haul!

Uniquely, both Grange Cricket and Hockey currently hold their respective Scottish Cups; this is the second year running for the cricket. Our youngest cricketers also won the majority of the Kwik Cricket tournaments they played in, and five Grange boys helped Scotland win the Royal London U15 County Cup against Gloucestershire, and this by just one run in the last over.

Our partners, Mazars, were very pleased with their first season ‘in partnership’ with us and we plan to cement this next year. In a further display of fine judgement, Mazars also chose to sponsor Yorkshire County Cricket who won the Division One County Championship. They obviously know a bit about cricket and building partnerships!

Special mention should go to George Munsey who was awarded his first Scotland cap against New Zealand A. Congratulations also to Jamie Crawley and Andrew Appleton who were respectively named regional player of the year for the East U15’s and Scotland U15 player of the year. The First Eleven finished third in the Eastern Premier League, the Second Eleven sixth in the ESCA Championship League and the Third Eleven, third in East Division 4. A huge thankyou is due to Mike Powell, our Director of Cricket, who leaves us to go to Rugby School – our loss, their gain.

Over the season 14 players were ‘Out First Ball’, 4 bowlers claimed ‘Five For’ (Raj Routray 3 times), 2 batsmen accumulated a ‘Ton’ and 1 bowler bagged a ‘Hat Trick’ – all recorded for posterity on our website under ‘The Pavilion’. A common theme this season seemed to be batting collapses (11 for 7 vs Aberdeenshire); if we can eliminate these next year perhaps we can win the League as well.

The building of a cricket club is never complete and, as current ‘trustees’, we have a duty to make the Club stronger and as ‘fit to play’ as possible. It is not an easy task – long-serving players (Gregor Maiden and Simon Smith) retire, people move on and there is greater pressure on everyone’s time these days. In fact, there is seldom a Saturday in the season when we enjoy full availability. The priority, therefore, is to bring young players through to the senior teams as soon as possible and we are already working on this. To this end, we have recently appointed John Blain as our Director of Cricket and he will have a big role to play at all levels. I very much look forward to seeing how we shape up next season.

Cricket is certainly a time game and I would like to thank everyone involved with the Club for giving so much of theirs during the season. There are too many individuals to mention in this short blog; however, on a collective basis, I must thank the Club’s General Committee for their support, the Team Captains and their gaffers for a job well done, the Tea Ladies for their superb teas, the Cricket Committee (Senior and Junior) for their time, the Scorers for recording, the Coaches for their efforts, the Ground staff for their preparation, the Club Manager (Ali Ross) for keeping an eye on all of us and the Bar staff for all the Guinness they poured for me. I am sure we all share the same satisfaction in the players’ achievements and I look forward to starting all over again next year.

Rawdon Hesketh
Hon President