Presidents 2022 Season Review -Part 1

Introduction

Back in May I produced a Newsletter for the club with the intention that I would produce something each month going forward. Unfortunately, a number of things got in the way and so, this is now an end of season review which I hope you will enjoy with a hint towards starting to plan for 2023.

2022 has been an incredible year – the club has grown in all facets which is great; in terms of organisation and communication we haven’t got everything right and we will work to improve that going forward. We want everyone to enjoy their cricket and feel part of the club and we will always be open to suggestions to improve things although not everything will be possible.

Senior Cricket - Overview

Last winter we made the decision to field a fourth team on a Saturday for the first time since 2016; we thought that would be a challenge. In fact, on a number of Saturdays we had players who we were able to lend to other teams as we filled all the teams; there were also some struggles with availability and it’s worth highlighting that in early June we were able to fill the team because we had a number of juniors who were playing hardball who were willing to play – outside those who were already playing – the game might have been lost but it gave those youngsters a taste of what they can do in the future. We welcomed a lot of new players to the club throughout the teams over the year and we hope they enjoyed the experience.

The senior Saturday teams were due to play a total of seventy-two games across the season. Remarkably the first and fourth teams completed their full eighteen game programmes; the second team had one game abandoned and the third team had one game postponed because of a wet outfield and another conceded by the opposition. The sun well and truly shone. Attendances at practices led by coach Neil Yelland were good and from early May we were able to use the new three lane net structure which has been erected at a cost of £29k. It’s not perfect – there are some tweaks to be made to improve it for next season but it’s significantly better than the old two-lane structure which was no longer fit for purpose.

First Team

Led by Vivek Tyagi, the first team struggled in the early part of the season but recovered well and finished sixth in the Championship with 229 points from nine wins and nine defeats. The highlight was a two wicket win over eventual champions Edinburgh South at The Inch in early July. In terms of development across the season no fewer than eight teenagers featured in the side at different times and all showed distinct promise.

In terms of the batting Tom Grey topped the batting with 240 runs (average 24.0) followed by Garuda Ramapriya with 212 runs (average 16.31) and Vivek Tyagi 199 runs (average 16.58). In terms of wickets, Vivek was the top wicket taker in the Division with 42 wickets (average 8.31) followed by Tom Ritch with 22 wickets (average 18.18) and Neil Yelland 19 wickets (average 12.53). Fielding saw Tom Grey take nine catches and have an assist with a run out; whilst both Jared Rubly and Garuda had seven catches and a run out assist.

Second Team

The second team, led selflessly by Ram Ketinedi had a great season and with a little bit more luck would have won promotion from Division Three. They played seventeen matches, winning eleven and losing six. They finished fourth in the table on 262 points, just ten shy of Selkirk who were promoted having also played seventeen games. Marchmont 2s finished third pipping our seconds by 0.17%.

Although he also featured in the first team, the top second team run scorer was LV Chinni with 383 (average 38.3) followed by Lewis Mulholland with 369 runs (average 61.5) – special mention to Lewis for his innings of 150 against Grange 3rds at Fettes. Third was Mangesh Akerkar with 194 runs (average 27.57). The top wicket taker was Anand Singh with 20 (average 11.25) followed by Roshan Mohammed with 15 (average 10.27) and Adi Choudhury with 12 wickets (average 18.33). On the fielding side LV took eight catches; Sakib Ullah took five catches and assisted with two run outs whilst Brad Peters took five catches.

Third Team

James Gutteridge led a third team which had a mix of youth and experience across the season. The team finished seventh in Division Five with 196 points from seventeen games – five wins (including a concession) and there was also a remarkable tie at Peebles County as well as eleven defeats.

The top run scorer for the team, who featured in the second half of the season, was Karan Rathod with 198 runs (average 49.5) followed by Cullen Pandit who scored 148 runs (average 16.44) and Tarun Kumar 147 runs (average 16.33). On the bowling front, the skipper led the way with 20 wickets (average 24.4) followed by Patrick Andrews with 11 wickets (average 13.45) and Josh Wilson-Barlow 10 wickets (average 20.2). On the fielding side Rajesh Roogi had a part in six dismissals – four catches and two run outs followed by Cullen with 4 catches and a run out assist and then both Nagesh Pednekar and Sakib Ullah had three catches and a run out assist.

Fourth Team

The fourth team were a revelation. Led by Baskaran Narayanasamy, they finished sixth in Division Seven with 246 points – eight wins, eight defeats and two tied games. The aim of the team was to develop youngsters and the two “senior” juniors Shreyas Tekale and Sailesh Nagenderan took their chances and were key members of the team.

Dave Woodhead topped the batting with 288 runs (average 72.00) – that included 124 against Watsonian 4s followed by Sunny Verma 267 runs (average 19.07) and Baskaran with 250 runs (average 35.71). On the bowling side Shreyas took 16 wickets (average 17.00), followed by Subhranil Bhadra with 14 wickets (average 25.29) and Sailesh with 13 wickets (average 20.69). On the fielding side, Baskaran led by example –with eight catches followed by Shreyas with six catches and two run out assists and Steve Mulholland with six catches and one run out assist.

Fifth Team

For the first time ever (with a glimpse to the future perhaps) we fielded a fifth team on the second last Saturday of the season in a friendly. Steve Mulholland led the team which gave some new seniors and other juniors a chance to sample Saturday cricket. Whilst we lost the game to our good friends from Edinburgh South – giving people the opportunity to play Saturday cricket was far more important

Midweek, Sunday and Tour Games

As agreed at the AGM last year, we had more midweek friendlies that allowed players across the club to play together and it gave youngsters the chance to play with and learn from senior players. In the Parks Trophy, we lost in the Quarter Finals to Drummond Trinity having beaten Bass Rock.

We also played two Sunday games – home and away – against Edinburgh South in the second half of the season whilst, for the first time in a number of years, we undertook a September tour. A team of eleven headed to Somerset where they beat Mark CC – thanks in part to a century from LV – and lost to a strong Shaftesbury Road side.

Thanks again to Steve Mulholland and Simon Hodgson for their continued support to help the club. All in all, a very good season. A date for the Seniors’ diaries is Saturday 4th February 2023 when indoor nets will start.

Woman's and Girl's Cricket

It seems strange to report that just over a year ago we had no women’s or girls’ team but following some end of season discussions we set up some practices and went from there.

Girls Cricket

In the early part of 2022, we entered a team in the Lothian Juniors Indoor competition for under 12 girls and they played all their scheduled games and they learnt a lot helped by Mangesh who was a huge help with them and the Women’s team across the year. In the summer the girls took part in three Under 12 Wee Bashes, one of which was at Roseburn and some of them featured in the Under 12 hardball team as well as the more advanced girls joining the Women’s team. They were hugely helped by coaching from Hannah Short from Stewart’s Melville whose knowledge of the Women’s game was very insightful. All the girls involved played with smiles on their faces and learned a lot and we hope to develop the group over the winter. We had an awards event at the end of the August and the following awards were made to the girls:

Player of the Year: Diya Shukla
Batter of the Year: Cailin Sawyer
Bowler of the Year: Aoife Power
Most Improved Player (Joint Award): Myra Akerkar and Adwita Chudhury.

There will be Girls sessions on Friday nights to improve skills over the winter at St George’s.

Women's Cricket

Having done some work indoors at St George’s, the Women’s team played in their first indoor Wee Bash last December. They then played in two outdoor Wee Bashes – the second at Roseburn in July. Once we moved into the new outdoor nets, there was enthusiasm to start to try hardball and expertly led by Hannah and Maggy the group moved forward very quickly. The Friday night practice sessions were extended and the improvement was quickly seen.

In July we were approached by Edinburgh South and asked if we could help them field a team in the Challenger League which gave some of our players their first chance to play hardball games. Then, at the start of August, we played our first club hardball game against Stewarts Melville – the Women were supplemented by our hardball juniors – we might have lost the game but we were very competitive. We now need to plan how to develop the team and players – one thing that is certain is that there is plenty of enthusiasm and no little skill in the group. We also recognised the advance of this section with end of season awards:

President’s Award: Neha Verma
Player of the Year: Helen Sangster
Most Improved Players: Joint: Sai Dodda and Gauri Revankar

A huge thanks to Steve Mulholland for providing the tops for the team and to Sunny Verma for sponsoring the end of season awards for the girls and women. Exciting times ahead.