Issue 35

JUNIOR ROUND-UP The season might be young - but so are Carlton cricketers and there has been lots of action at all stages and grades of Carlton’s junior section. U12 cricket has returned to Grange Loan with a bumper three teams entered in the 2021 ESCA leagues - the almighty Carlton Stars, Carlton Strikers and Carlton Swifts. The fixtures have got off to a triumphant start with some great wins against Heriots, Watsonians, Grange and Penicuik. The first Carlton intraclub match was as competitive as ever with some impressive cricket skills on show from the youngsters made all the better by the huge success of the first junior bbq of the season (to be repeated at a future date - details to follow!) We are all hoping that the winning streak continues but it’s great to have competitive u12 cricket back on Friday nights. And of course Friday Night is also All Stars Night when Carlton’s youngest are put through their paces. The U13s have consistently fielded to a very high standard, bowled well and chased down totals with confident and aggressive batting. Nowhere has this been better shown than in the ECB U13 Cup. A first round win over Watsonians set up a second round tie against Grange. Carlton had already played Grange that week in the first round of the u14 Cup, narrowly losing by 2 runs. Three days later Carlton reversed the outcome, with a fine fielding and bowling performance restricting Grange to 96 off their 20 overs. The Carlton batters then chased down the total with three overs to spare. U13s finals day was at Dunfermline on 13th June. Carlton played Gordonians in the semi final and did well to keep them to only 99 on a tiny pitch. They knocked off the runs in the 9th over. They met Clydesdale in the final and an even more dominant performance /cont’d Photos - C Stronach

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Dear Sir, Having examined the recently published list of player sponsorships at Carlton CC, I am disappointed to see that Mr Fantasy Bob does not feature. I am shocked at such an omission! Surely there is a manufacturer of Empire Biscuits somewhere who would be pleased in this small way to recognise all that FB has selflessly done for their product over so many years. Yours faithfully, Worried, Morningside Isn’t it time you joined Join the Carlton Lottery? Recent winners: April - Richard Allardice May - John Boyd Make sure you are part of the next draw. http://carltoncc.co.uk/club/lottery/ Junior Round-Up cont’d saw them bowl out Dale for only 50, and then get the runs in the 7th over, winning the Scottish U13 trophy in some style. They will meet the winner of the North of England section in the next round at Grange Loan on 11 July. Something to look forward to! The U16 season started later than the other junior sides this year, probably for exam-related reasons, and then lost the first fixture to rain. But they made up for it since then - in yet another first for Carlton, we fielded 2 U16 sides on the first dry Wednesday. One went to Watsonians and recorded a handy 50-run victory; the other to Penicuik and posted an even handier 80-run win. The following week, they took on Grange and ran out winners again by 8 wickets. At the other end of the Junior spectrum, the U16 players of 2027 have been limbering up with a series of Kwik Cricket matches on Sunday mornings. The season opened with 2 extremely high-spirited Players v Parents games, on the second of which we had 5 matches going on around the outfield. Given the big-hitting nature of some of the parents, this was somewhat confusing; balls kept appearing on the wrong pitch. Things calmed down a bit after that with 2 intra-club warm-up matches, then last weekend we entertained Grange, who brought 4 teams for a highly competitive morning's cricket. 2027's U16 team should be a great vintage if they keep this up. Many thanks, as always, to all junior coaches, managers and helpers! Action from the recent Players v Parents tussle.

Hugo Southwell - 102 (41 balls) against Watsonians on 1 June and Harry Simpson 10-5-7-5 v Gala on 5 June. Maisie Maciera 5-14 v Dumfries&Galloway 13 June; Omar Ahmed 5- Chayank gosain 5- v Watsonians May; Rory Ledingham 140* v Dunfermline Carnegie 2 13 June. Tom Simpson and Shuja Khan create a new record partnership for Carlton v RHC 13 June Just a few of the outstanding performances by Carlton players in the first weeks of the season - read the website to find lots more! June is Bustin’ Out All Over!

Describe your experience of coming to Carlton. Carlton can be described as nothing short of an inclusive and member orientated club! It's no secret that the women’s club game in Scotland is still very much in its developmental phase but when I look at Carlton I'm proud that the club has consistently played its part in ensuring its own girls & womens structures develop and progress. It is often frowned upon that Carlton have had a larger number of Scotland Women’s players within their membership than any other women’s club in Scotland - something that can be seen as a little unfair from an opposition’s point of view. But it has to be said that this is no coincidence. Instead, it is a true reflection of the efforts made by the club to be inclusive, invest time in recruiting and retaining their female players, provide fair access to facilities, appoint quality coaches to lead women’s sessions, ensure the women’s section is integrated as part of the wider club, and offer extremely reasonable membership fees. Also in more recent years female national players are included in the club’s top class Performance Academy programme. To me, whilst I'm playing cricket at the level I am, it's a no brainer that I'd choose to play my club cricket nowhere other than Carlton. What was your most memorable match as Scotland skipper? There are a fair few that come to mind, but probably not for the right reasons! However, I'll never forget playing South Africa in the ICC Global World Cup Qualifiers in Sri Lanka, 2017. They were the highest ranked team in the tournament, and knowing we had drawn them in our group, it was evident there was plenty of nerves around. But it was one of those moments where we had to say to ourselves "what have we to lose?". Absolutely no one in world cricket was expecting a result from us that day, but I couldn't let my team take to the field lacking belief in their own abilities. It was an opportunity to play against some of the world’s best cricketers (Lizelle Lee, Dane Van Niekerk, Shabnim Ismail, Mignon du Preez, Marizanne Kapp...), and opportunities to test ourselves like that don't come around very often. The pre-match team talk was one I'll always remember - I asked my players to answer the question if in their own minds if they felt we could challenge SA that day. Those that answered 'yes' to themselves, great take that mentality into the warm ups and prepare for the biggest match of your careers so far. /cont’d over In our continuing series on Carlton’s Scottish captains, Abbi Aitken-Drummond shares her thoughts on Carlton, captaincy and womens’ cricket. She skippered Scotland for 7 years between 2011 and 2018 and has made a record 153 appearances for the national side.

/Abbi cont’d And those that answered 'no' to themselves? They had the next hour to change those internal thoughts and feelings and find that belief that I had in all of them. Even though no answers were called out, it was evident I had a changing room filled with mixed emotions. We won the toss and opted to challenge our batters to put on a score. We battled our way to 142 all out after the 50 overs. Not something to write home about per se, but in the conditions of a baking hot, humid day in Colombo, and our players facing the quality of SA's bowling attack I was proud of the fight that the team displayed to keep the South African’s out in the field for a long 50 overs that day. At the innings break, we knew we were well below a par score and that it would need something special to cause some sort of upset. But we took to the field with a bit more belief and agreed we'd make it as difficult as we could. We ended up taking 2 big wickets in the first few overs and the team were doing so well. You could visibly see the belief and excitement start to show on our faces - and as skipper, it was a pretty great feeling. We managed to get 4 wickets off them within the first 20 overs whilst keeping the run rate at just over 3 an over. The South Africans ended up reaching the total required with 16 overs to spare, but for me, seeing the fight from the team, the courage on show and the new found belief that we can make things difficult for a class opposition such as SA was great. I even had their skipper Van Niekerk come and congratulate me for the efforts and attitudes shown by my team. Not only did she admit that we battled hard and showed a lot of potential as an outfit of amateurs competing against full-time professionals, but she was openly honest about the disappointing attitudes of some of her team that day and how they underestimated us and didn't give us the respect that we deserved. That game, that conversation and the lessons learned will stay with me for the rest of my playing days for sure! What were the main changes in the game during your time as skipper? The shift into a more professional set up. Ask any skipper of a team, and I'm sure they will be armed with many stories about the hours of work that goes on behind the scenes. My time as captain of Scotland was definitely a period of progression and development and something I'm proud to say I contributed to. I never wanted to 'settle' for anything and always wanted to be vocal and ensure I played my part outside the boundary rope to evoke change or ask those difficult questions when challenge was needed. In Carlton colours - Abbi batting with Ruth Willis during Carlton’s cup final win in 2019

Abbi cont’d/ I was very fortunate that for the much of my captaincy I was supported by like-minded coaches and a CEO who shared similar values. From 2010/11 (the year I was appointed captain) to now, the rise in women’s cricket on a global scale has been evident, not least in this country - so long may it continue! I'd love to see opportunities for women to become professional cricketers in this country - just like our male counterparts. Whilst we Carlton members are hugely proud of the career Leigh Kasperek has made for herself in NZ, we don't want to keep losing our future 'Leighs' to overseas opportunities - so hopefully this will be the next step to professionalise Women’s cricket in Scotland. As a skipper did you model yourself on anyone? I can't say I did. I was very fortunate to have a role model in Kari Carswell (nee Anderson) who was captain before me. After I took over the captaincy, she was still a pivotal part of the national team in a head coach/player role. I became captain of Scotland at 18 years of age - still very much at the beginning of my own development, but thankfully I had Kari on the pitch for those first few years to guide me and offer advice. I don't think I would have gone on to do the job for nearly 8 years had I not had that opportunity to learn from her. But once I found my feet, I'd like to think I was able to put my own stamp on things and not really 'model' myself on anyone. Captaincy isn’t something you're going to have the privilege to do for a lifetime, so I'm a big believer in finding your style of leadership and doing what’s best to fit the needs of your team. I was never the best tactician on the team and would be the first to hold my hands up and say so, but I liked to think a big part of my style was understanding how to get the best out of my players, and most importantly appreciating how to communicate with the different personalities that make up a team - it's what leadership is all about. Your best coaching tip for Carlton’s youngsters? Make everything enjoyable and don't be afraid to give anything a go: practice those diving catches, try whacking that ball as hard as you can, see how many times you can knock those stumps down. Keep it simple and make things FUN! Summer is Coming Stevie Gilmour’s ever popular Summer Cricket Camps are now open for booking. Full details of how to book are now on the club website http://carltoncc.co.uk/2021/05/ 04/stevie-gilmours-summer-crick et-camps-2021/ Abbi with mentor Kari Carswell at CricketScotland Awards 2014

As someone who has been involved in club cricket in Scotland for many years, firstly at Dunfermline Carnegie and, for the last 24 years at Falkland, I have always been aware of Carlton as one of ‘the big Edinburgh clubs’. Given my (very) limited playing ability, I don’t remember playing against you during my Carnegie days, but when Falkland played in the East League, and for a few seasons, in the Eastern Premier League, I remember a number of games at different levels. I have played only against the ‘famous fives’ on a few occasions, but have never had the chance to play on Grange Loan. I have memories of excellent games played in great spirit - and of being clean bowled by a very young boy having scored very few runs. I played only one game during 2020, and it will probably be my last, vs the fives at Falkland. (see photo!) It was a very enjoyable game and it was during a chat with one of your senior players that it came up in conversation that I was a private tutor and that I did quite a bit of work preparing youngsters for the entrance exams for the various Edinburgh Schools. With his having mentioned that a number of the youngsters at Carlton went to schools such as George Watson’s and Heriots, the idea of sponsorship was born. It felt like a very good fit. My daughter and I had launched Chambers Tutoring and we were looking to ‘get our name out there’ – this seemed like a great opportunity to do that and to partner with a club whose values are so close aligned to our own. My son, Greg, a considerably more talented cricketer than his Dad ever was, has played against both your 1st and 3rd elevens on 3 or 4 occasions. We had two trips to Grange Loan within a month a few years ago. I also remember the EPL game at Scroggie that year. Greg, batting 11, gave an almost audible sigh of relief when his partner was out and he didn’t have to face Ally Evans – a prospect he certainly wasn’t relishing and an interesting step up in class. Another memorable incident at Grange Loan was when a Falkland batsman clubbed one over the wall and straight onto the roof of a Lothian Buses single decker. The bus stopped – no doubt with a very surprised driver wondering what was being thrown at his bus in that part of the city. The efficiency of the Falkland Twitter account meant that the incident was posted online before the ball had been recovered and the game restarted. Eilidh and I look forward to coming to see a game at some time this season. Dave Chambers Carlton has been pleased to welcome Chambers Tutoring as club sponsors this season. Founder and owner David Chambers, a long-time stalwart of Falkland CC, tells of the thinking behind this - and of some cricketing encounters with Carlton over the years.

Coming soon:- 25 Jun - Beer Garden with Pie Not pies 2 Jul - Beer Garden with Curry Night. Also presentation of caps to 1st XI players 9 Jul - No Beer Garden (due to private function) 16 Jul - Beer Garden with Pie Not pies 23 Jul - Beer Garden with Chilli & Nachos 30 Jul - Beer Garden with Pie Not pies (Subject to confirmation and weather). Watch @CarltonCricket for regular updates. BEER GARDEN NEWS social@carltoncc.co.uk We are also looking into having a pizza night. We are always open to suggestions - so please let us know if there is something you would like introduced to the bar or the beer garden - or if you have any contacts that might be interested in getting involved. Pie Not Bistro based on Comiston Road supply the award winning pies 5 varieties to chose from - Steak / Chicken, Ham & Leek / Curried Cauliflower & Chickpea / Haggis, Neeps & Tatties / Black Pudding & Chorizo. Try them all to find your favourite ! Pie Not also sponsors Carlton Cricket Club. Jump Ship Brewing was set up one of our family members, Sonja Mitchell, and the low alcohol beer won the Gold Award at the Scottish Beer Awards 2020. The bar stocks both the Yardarm Lager and The Flying Colours Pale Ale (both less than 0.5% ABV). Jump Ship also sponsors Abbi Aitken-Drummond. Brass Neck Premium Rum is also locally produced - and is recommended to be tried mixed with Ginger Beer. Brass Neck sponsors Tom Simpson. We are very grateful for the support of all our sponsors in the club - if you would be interested in sponsorship, please contact sponsorship@carltoncc.co.uk AVAILABLE NOW AT CARLTON BEER GARDEN