Issue 33

End of an Era x3 The new season will see some important changes in personnel at Carlton. In January long serving Treasurer Brad McKay announced he was standing down after 13 years of counting each penny in and out of the Carlton coffers. An outstanding contribution. Brad’s successor will be confirmed at the coming AGM. After 20 years as Fixture Secretary, Martin Robertson also stands down. Martin has overseen the growth of the spreadsheet used to plan the season from its original back of envelope format to its current status as the largest spreadsheet in world cricket, as the club’s playing commitments have swollen over the years. Amelia Beattie takes over spreadsheet responsibilities and the annual challenge of minimising Carlton’s visits to the Meadows. She starts with a resounding victory on that front since Edinburgh’s prestigious Home of Cricket is not being made available for cricket this year. The least consequential change is the end of Fantasy Bob’s long reign as skipper of the 4th XI, the best job at Carlton as he describes it. During his 10 years in the job he has nurtured many Carlton juniors into senior cricket. Members will be relieved that they will no longer find themselves struggling through his idiosyncratic match reports, searching for clues as to what might have happened on the field of play. FB meanwhile will find the time to continue his world leading researches into the bowling action of Gustav Mahler. FB skippered the Positively 4th XI (the only cricket team in the world named after a song by Bob Dylan) in well over 100 matches. It is alleged he elected to bat first on only a small handful of occasions. Fans wait to see whether his worthy successor Brian Kaczynski changes this approach. It is also rumoured that empire biscuits will no longer be mandatory fare for 4th XI teas.

What is your best memory of your season at Carlton? Unfortunately I only had the one season at the club and we weren’t particularly successful that year, so my best memory was of having the opportunity to play a season of club cricket with some good friends like Fraggle, Jamie, Stevie G, Bryn and Ced. All guys I had played with before for Scotland or for another club, but having so many good pals at Carlton was the reason I joined in the first place. What is your best memory as a member of a visiting side to Grange Loan? During my time at West of Scotland we had a pretty good record at Grange Loan and won quite a few games coming back from losing positions, but probably my best memory was during my time at Watsons where I took a few wickets and we won a thrilling game during the season the club won its first national title. What do you think is the major change in club cricket since your time in it? I think the biggest change has been the reduction in the number of top overseas professionals throughout the leagues. Captains Courageous The Newsletter speaks to the Carlton players who have captained Scotland. First up - Craig Wright Craig played for Carlton in season 2004 and was Scotland skipper between 2002-2007 He won 194 caps for Scotland, a record 107 as skipper. Craig was appointed Assistant Coach to Scotland Men’s National Side in January this year 10/15 years ago every club had a quality overseas professional and amateur. With many of the Scotland players also not playing club cricket in Scotland these days, and the dissolution of the National Leagues I feel the standard has suffered. Who is the best batter you ever bowled at - and why? Difficult question as I was fortunate enough to bowl against many top players. Ricky Ponting was probably the best in terms of what he achieved in the game, but two others who stand out were Marcus Trescothick and Darren Lehman. I remember bowling what I thought were perfect yorkers to Trescothick and he still hit them for 4, and Lehman was able to manipulate the best line and length delivery into a gap almost anywhere on the field. What would be your best coaching tip for any youngsters at Carlton? Try as much as possible to keep it simple and know your strengths. Cricket is a sport that it is far too easy to complicate, but if you can do the basics well and consistently then that’s a great foundation to build from as you look to develop your game. It’s also important to enjoy what you’re doing!

What is your favourite memory of your time at Carlton? Open wicket practices on (the occasional!) sunny evenings with the view of Arthur's Seat in the background. There were a lot of good players in the squad that season and professional, Robin Singh, drove high standards. And for Scotland? A combination of two really; finishing 3rd in the 1997 ICC World Cup qualifying tournament in Kuala Lumpur thus qualifying for the 1999 event in the UK. Then, the first match against Australia at Worcester was fantastic - the culmination of a lot of a lot of work by a lot of people (on and off the pitch) for some years. What comes into your mind when you hear the words Grange Loan? Two things: always a tough venue because Carlton have always had good, home grown players and attract quality players too - it's a real testament to the Club that they have been a consistently good team for many years. And, following on from that, I know how much Carlton has done and is doing with youth cricket and ladies cricket. A thriving club with a real family feel. Captains Courageous (2) George Salmond played the 1996 season at Grange Loan. He won 146 caps for Scotland and skippered them on 104 occasions, including the historic 1999 World Cup campaign. Who is the best bowler you ever faced - and why? I’m lucky enough to have played against some of the top international players of the time, Shane Warne would be the best of that era but, as it was only once that we did battle (and he didn't get me out!) I'd rather select someone I competed against more frequently in club cricket against whom it was always a battle. Ian Bevan - at the Grange and at West Lothian would be the pick. I can't remember anyone (and definitely not me!) taking him apart in a game. He was very consistent and had such a competitive spirit - one of these spinners with a fast bowler's mentality! What would be your best coaching tip for any youngsters at Carlton? I remember going through a tough run and getting advice from many people to the stage where my head was full of so many theories etc. Bruce Patterson (opening bat for Scotland) told me to forget what was being said and just to watch the ball. The hours of practice and trust in your ability then takes over. A clear, simple message. The other tip is to practice seriously. Perfect practice makes perfect. Stay Tuned! Future Newsletters will feature captainly thoughts from Gordon Drummond, Preston Mommsen and Abbi Aitken-Drummond.

Kerry Simpson’s Lemon Drizzle Cake 4oz soft butter or margarine 6oz Self Raising Flour 6oz Caster Sugar 2 large eggs grated rind of 1 lemon 4 tbsp milk Put all ingredients in bowl apart from the milk and beat for about 3 minutes. Add the milk and stir Put into a 2lb loaf tin and bake for 45 mins in moderate oven (Gas mark 4/180/160(fan) - or thereabouts) While cake in oven, dissolve 2 tbsp of icing sugar in 2 tbsp of lemon juice When cake is cooked, make several holes in top with a skewer and pour in lemon juice/sugar mixture. Leave in tin to cool John Beattie’s Empire Biscuits 300g plain flour 200g butter 100g caster sugar 1 egg Raspberry jam 200g Icing Sugar Jelly Tots or Glace Cherries for decorating - Beat butter & sugar - Blend in flour & beaten egg to form a dough - Roll out to 5mm thick - Cut into discs, size to suit appetite - Let dough rest or chill for a bit - Bake in 200'c oven for about 20 mins - Cool until the biscuits harden - Make up icing with boiling water a teaspoon at a time until get to a thick pouring consistency - Assemble the Empire Biscuits (anyone needing instructions for this is beyond help) - Any misshapen biscuits are 'Cook's Perks' Cricket may be on the way, but there will be TEA? In case the sweet toothed face further deprivations - here are a few favourite recipes which have made Carlton teas the stuff of legend. Crush the digestives Mix together with the halved glacé cherries, the quartered marshmallows and condensed milk Lay out some clingfilm/plastic wrap and put the desiccated coconut on it. Using your hands, form a sausage with the dough and put it on top of the coconut. Wrap the clingfilm with the coconut tightly around the sausage, so the outside is covered with the coconut evenly. Put into the fridge overnight. Slice into 1cm thick pieces to serve! Karen McPherson’s Fifteens 15 digestive biscuits 15 glacé cherries halved 15 large marshmallows quartered [Use vegetarian if you wish to make them veggie-friendly.] 200 ml condensed milk 75 g desiccated coconut

SEEN WITH THE STARS Fraggle with James Franklin, Calum Sibley and Tim Murtagh, Adeel Raza with Waqar Younis and Anish Amin (middle back row) in his school 1st XI photo with Scotland & Essex stalwart Brian Hardie and (also circled) Frank Lampard - who Anish says was dropped from the team on his arrival in Essex from India! Whatever happened to Frank?

Arun: When we revamped our website in 2019, the first goal was to display the stats from the old website, going back to 2000, in a more modern way. But for a club with its infancy in the mid 19th century, there had to be more. I asked Brian who told me that he had numbers from 1951 year by year. I asked him how long it would take to collate these numbers, and he answered a job of the weekend or two. Brian: Well it took a wee bit longer. It's been an on-off project for ages which became a Lockdown task (an ill wind.....). Arun: In anticipation of the numbers from Brian, I set out to update the website stats page to display year by year information for each team at Carlton. Like Brian, I did not track time spent on this, it was a job done in bits over a couple of weekends and some late nights. Brian: One of the most challenging and time-consuming parts was reconciling the data. Some of the scoresheets are very accurately and tidily completed - others aren't. Some scoresheets don't have the totals entered, sometimes it takes time even to work-out the result! (No teams mentioned in particular!) Arun Pillai and Brian Forrester talk about the mammoth task of getting the club’s statistics onto the website. The raw data Arun: Since the stats displayed on the website run off a database, we can update at whatever interval we like: every weekend, monthly or end of season. All it requires is a spreadsheet with the numbers in an agreed format. I also intend to add a further option to search for stats by a player, maybe next winter. But for now, I am glad that I asked Brian those questions, otherwise we would have missed out on the impressive numbers of Robin Singh, who was one of my favourites growing up, also Ally Evans has realised he now needs to bowl a lot more to go ahead of Cedric English! Brian: I should also note that a number of Carlton's members and friends helped to add first-names for many of the players - we're fortunate that Chris Paul and Bill Polson scored for Carlton in the 1950's and 1960's and have an amazing memory - not only names and initials but plenty of stories about players too. Many thanks to them. It was really easy to generate more player-names than we should have - such as finding "G Cowan" later appearing as "AGR Cowan (Gordon)" - is this the same player or someone else? Players with differently-ordered initials; different spelling (plenty of Mc or Mac to sort out); players with different names/initials when playing for the first XI (who tend to be more meticulous about recording initials). I had a particular problem with a 2nd XI player appearing with one or two initials. I made the assumption that this was the same player - until I found them both playing in the same match and I had to double-back to correct.