Bute 95-5 (6 pts) beat Glasgow Accies Development XI 94 all out (1 pt) by 5 wickets.
Match played at The Meadows, Rothesay on Sunday 3rd August 2008 at 14:00.
West District Sunday League Division 1, 40 overs-a-side.
Toss won by Bute, who elected to field.
Accies travelled to Bute despite the persistent rain for what turned into a niggly Sunday League clash.
Put into bat on a wet muddy deck which was about as playable as a badly scratched CD, Accies were dismissed for 94 in the 38th over.
Austin, with a patient 52 and Fritzy, with a late cameo (15), were the only batsman to make double figures. Boundaries were at a premium with the deck hard to bat on, long damp grass in the outfield and some decent bowling.
After tea, Accies reduced Bute to 14 for 4 - TBear and Randy each taking a couple of early wickets in the pouring rain.
Bute however eased home by 5 wickets, thanks to a solid innings from opener Daniels, some poor catching and at least a couple of dubious umpiring decisions.
Please allow me at this point to make an obvious observation - just because you incessantly appeal for lbw every time it hits the pads, it doesn't increase the likelihood that it's out - if the batsman's
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batting a yard outside his crease
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playing well forward, and
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is hit well outside the line playing a shot
then you're correct in your assumption that it's not worth appealing, but not for the reason than we apparently don't give LBWs (ask Habib, or Paisley from the other week).
On the other hand, if the batsman's back on top of his stumps, hit half-way up in front of middle, then it's as plum as you can get, and the response shouldn't be "not out - the standard was set in the 1st innings".
While we're on the subject of "umpiring standards", it was pretty clear that the leg-side standard was "most", not the "all" adopted second innings, including when the batsman steps three yards over to the off-side to see the ball just miss his leg stump
However, my particular favourite was the taking of the ball after the fifth wicket, then to drop and leave it on the ground, which by this time resembled a paddy field - a great way to show how much respect you have for the opposition. We weren't ensuring we kept the ball up and spending ages between each delivery drying the ball for the fun for it.
Finally, I'll finish with some advice to the man we nicknamed KP, to whom most of the above references are made.
Your never ending sledging really isn't necessary in Sunday cricket, but to continue to barrack youngsters from the boundary after you're out - it's not big, it's not clever, and it's not why we made the effort to travel down when the game could easily have been called off. Personally I'm a bit disappointed I only got to hit you for the one 6.
F.
PS Apparently with 7 wides and an lbw, Bute think our 94 "was a total which was helped by umpires from our own side, who seemed to be good at stretching their arms but not good at raising their fingers.". Vic Hadcroft and Jim Connell run an excellent umpiring course each winter - I can only suggest that they send a couple of guys along to help get a grasp of the laws.