Scotland v Dunfermline Carnegie CC

DUNFERMLINE Carnegie Cricket Club is celebrating its Centenary this season and is appealing to all its former members and anyone who has been associated with the club to get in touch.

They play their home games at Pitreavie, Dunfermline which has been the home of the club since the 1950s. Before that games took place at Venturefair Park – now part of Canmore Golf Club. The cricket club was formed in 1909 by students of the then Dunfermline College of Physical Education and the club is still nicknamed “The College” to this day.

Current club captain David Mitchell said: “Our centenary is a massive event for the club and gives us a great opportunity to celebrate our proud history. There are plenty of people out there who have been involved with Carnegie but are no longer in touch with the club and we would love them to contact us so that they can be involved in the celebrations. We are also extending the invite to both our Centenary games to all those who love cricket, and want to see Scotland play for free. I promise, I will let them bat first in order to guarantee some fireworks!”

The club are holding two "marquee" matches in June 2009 to celebrate their Centenary

The first is a 40/40 match against the Scottish Saltires on Sunday 14 June, with a 1pm start scheduled at Pitreavie. Entry is free, and those attending will get the opportunity to play the "hit for six" competition, where lucky batsmen will be selected from the crowd and will face one ball from a Scotland bowler. If he hits it for a four or six, he will win a crate of beer. The match is supported by Cow Corner.

The second game is "beach cricket" against the Ship Inn on Elie beach on Sunday 28 June. The club are honoured to follow in the footsteps of the Lashings and Australia, who have played there in the past.

The match is a 2pm start, 30 overs per side. The main sponsor of the day is Wolfblass wines, who are offering wine tasting sessions throughout the day, and a barbecue will be provided. The man of the match will win a magnum of Wolfblass wine signed by Darren Gough.

The Centenary dinner takes place at the Carnegie Conference Centre on Friday September 18 2009. Tickets are priced at £45 for a three-course meal and the after-dinner entertainment will be provided by the outstanding Willie Allan.

They are hoping to see as many of our friends from the East League and beyond at both matches!

Where do you keep your broken plastic trophies?

Okay, you’ve won the club’s batting award for the season, and despite the embarrassing heckles from your team mates when you stand up to collect it, you are secretly quite chuffed.

You sit down and take a closer look at the trophy. Your surname has been spelled incorrectly and the little plastic batsman is playing a shot that would only be possible for a triple jointed human. But no matter, you’re still chuffed.

The awards dinner finishes and you all decide to move on to a pub for a few more drinks, so you pick up your trophy from the table and accidently break the little plastic bat off. Hmmm, no matter…"I’ll just pop the bat in my pocket and glue it back on at a later date"………..but you never do. Infact one year down the line and that little plastic trophy sits at the back of a cupboard next to other trophies and medals gathered throughout the years.

Years go by, and then one day when you remember where the linseed oil is, you open the cupboard door, and there they are clumped up together, reminding you that you "used" to be good. You pick one up, read the misspelled name and notice the bat and stumps are missing, sigh and then smile because although you would never admit it, you’re still chuffed.

Hughes in Scotland - Where was I?

Oh yes, I was at work ...

Hughes - bowled Nel - 11 (off 20 deliveries).

Where were you?

As Charles and Di got married, I was a youngster fielding at fine leg and then batting at No. 11 for the Miner's Welfare senior team and trying to save a draw. I got out. During Live Aid I was playing cricket in my mate's back garden. Though, strangely enough, I'm scarred by a memory of Phil Collins' appearance, which I glimpsed during a break in the game. When England lost to Germany on penalties in the 1990 World Cup, I missed it because of a band rehearsal. And I'm ashamed to say that I missed the anti-war marches in Glasgow in 2003 because I had a hangover. To be fair, that was a really bad hangover.

The much-hyped and in-form Phil Hughes will be in town tomorrow (http://www.middlesexccc.com/news-detail.asp?NewsID=1635), as Scotland take on Middlesex in the Friend's Provident Trophy. Better than that, he's actually playing within a 10 minute walk of my house. And the weather forecast looks OK ...

So where will I be when this wunderkind gets to wield the bat? At work.

Is he that good? Is this going to be a memorable miss?

18 degrees - not hot enough

Today's Guardian has an editorial bemoaning the fact that the England Test schedule is determined by TV money-men. It goes on to say that cricket is a summer sport and early May is not the time to be attempting such shenanigans.

Well ... on the paper's cricket pages, they say that it should reach 18 degrees today at Lords. It will be chilly at first, with a little cloud and 10% chance of some rain.

Does it get better than that?! We'd have people complaining it was too warm and dry for cricket if we had that every week.

Southern nonces.

We're off ...

After a day's cricket on Saturday (our first game of the season: nice for the team to get a win, nice for me to get 10 overs in), what better than a bit more cricket on Sunday too?

It just so happens that I live pretty close to Goldenacre's cricket pitch. Heriot's (SNCL Premier League team) were up against Scotland Under 19s. It looked like a good game. I dropped by for the last 10 overs of Scotland's innings.

Heriot's were set a total of about 250 and I didn't see the response, as I only had about half an hour. From what I've heard, they were not far off getting there.