For Pete’s Sake: Men’s Cricket Records Double Victories
St Andrews Men’s Firsts (57-1) beat Aberdeen Men’s Firsts (53 a/o) by nine wickets.
St Andrews Men’s Seconds (129-0) beat Glasgow Caledonian Men’s Firsts (127 a/o) by ten wickets.
This Wednesday saw the Men’s Cricket Club get into the swing of their BUCS season with a vengeance. Both the first and second teams recorded storming victories against Aberdeen 1sts and Glasgow Caledonian 1sts respectively.
In the home match the 1st team fielded first and were quickly on top. Cricket club stalwart Pete Greene took five wickets and new post-graduate Rafnas Ak chipped in with three. Aberdeen were all out for a mere 53.
Thomas Beattie and Stephen Ditchfield ensured there were no wobbles in chasing the small target and, although Ditchfield was removed LBW, the Saints cantered home to win by nine wickets.
The 2nd team went one better away to Glasgow Caledonian as they won by ten wickets. Captain Alex Dry won the toss and inserted Glasgow on a pitch that promised to harden up as the day went on.
Although the high extra count suggested early season stiffness was still affecting many of the St Andrews bowlers, Glasgow never really got going and crumbled to 127 all out. Pete O’Boyle and Harish Kulandaivelu grabbed three wickets each and every other bowler used chipped in with one.
James Mcadam-Stacey and Matt Cull proceeded to make short work of the low target on the rapidly hardening pitch. While Mcadam-Stacey played the perfect grafting innings to blunt the Glasgow bowlers (scoring 21 not out), Cull took the attack to the home team with a marvellous innings of 68 not out. Extras made a significant contribution to the innings, totalling 40 by the end.
After the disappointment of the rainy start to the season and a couple of rather limp defeats for both the first and second teams, Wednesday’s games were the perfect way to breathe life into the university’s cricket campaign.
The third team (who already have a victory against the University Staff team under their belt) will hope to get in on the act this Friday when they take on Glasgow Strathclyde 1sts at home.
The SFA have gone too far with sanctions against Rangers
COMMENT
I went to bed on the evening of April 23rd fairly astonished; not because Microsoft Word had crashed spectacularly losing me some work, or because yet another Sallies meal had been underwhelming in the extreme. No, I went to bed perplexed at what the Scottish Football Association perceive as being a fair punishment for what has gone on at Rangers Football Club in recent months.
We all knew there would be a fine, but by not allowing player registration for 12 months is frankly superfluous and unnecessary. I would like to remind the powers at be, Peter Lawell’s highly incorruptible and impartial former colleague from Coors, Stewart Reagan, that the people they should be going after are Sir David Murray and Craig Whyte for carving up such a scandalous deal for Rangers this time last year.
To punish the footballing side of things for the financial misdemeanours of two shysters like Murray and Whyte is useless and side stepping one of the underlying issues in this saga, that the SFA were showcasing the utmost incompetence in protecting a member club. This is not to divert from Craig Whyte not adhering to PAYE or other financial strictures, but if the SFA had investigated him properly, checked his background and made sure he was a “fit and proper person” to run the biggest team in the land, then their beloved two bob fiefdom would not have been “brought into disrepute”.
The SFA are culpable in this, make no question. If they really want to make an example, go after Craig Whyte with every bit of vim, vigour and vivacity which you have sought to show up Rangers and you might get somewhere.
The short term aspects of this farce could be the potential torpedoing of any takeover bids for Rangers. Rangers should withdraw from the Scottish Cup, not allow any Rangers player at any level to represent Scotland, boycott away grounds, ignore joint sponsorship with the SFA, refuse TV deals and perhaps even offer the facilities at Auchenhowie or Ibrox Stadium to any team playing a Scottish club or the national team in European competition or international qualifiers.
If the SFA want a dirty war, then Rangers have to use the Khruschev analogy of squeezing the SFA by the balls, and the SFA’s dangly bits are suspiciously close to their coffers.
This article will inevitably rouse such responses as “aye, but ra hunz pyoor cheated n that wur thur taxes n that, shut thum down n take thur titles n that, mon eh selik”. I am not saying that those at fault in this deserve not to be punished, but go after those who instigated EBTs, did not pay PAYE or VAT and lied about their wealth.
I’ll give you a hint where you can find them; I walked past the office of one in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square on Friday and I had a drink in the same bar at the same Edinburgh hotel where the other one was spotted skulking around a few hours before. Also, for what it’s worth, last time I checked complex tax arrangements don’t make any difference to how a team performs on the field; given that Celtic won the vast majority of league titles while the EBTs were in place and Rangers were rotten for most of the last decade, it fails to stack up. In my humble opinion, of course.
I’m about to raise a mind-set more associated with Rangers’ erstwhile Glaswegian bedfellows, that of paranoia. Rangers do not do paranoia; this is an arrogant club, with an arrogant support with a sense of their position in life. Any club which runs out to “Simply the best” and uses the slogan “We are the people” does not have an inferiority or persecution complex, but in this instance, something is clearly rotten in the state of Hampden.
The journalist Darryl King, not afraid to stick the boot into Rangers over the years, said on Radio Clyde that there are people out there who hate Rangers for everything they stand for and want them finished. That is obvious. This is not a fair fight, this is an ideological campaign which has been waged for some years by errant journalists and biased figures in the game to finish the biggest club in the land. Well, when Scotland’s “Premier” League plunges to the depths of the Welsh, then the zealots out there will be reaping a dreadful sow.
The beginning of the end?
From a mythical perspective, if not a practical one, Saturday’s Clasico, won 2-1 by Real Madrid, may well be the single most important game of football played in the past five years. Maybe longer.
Practically, not a huge amount was at stake. The La Liga title was effectively decided, but it would just as well have been decided by a draw, and even a loss would merely lessen the certainty of an eventual Madrid success. Equally it is inexplicable how Madrid managed to bring an advantage of four points into this game, rather than ten.
The actual outcome of this game was only a proportion of the overall spectacle that I believe has irrefutably shattered the myth of Barcelona.
This myth takes various forms; that Barcelona are the greatest team of the era, if not of all time; that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of the era, if not of all time; that Barcelona have the most effective and most entertaining style of play of any team in the world; that Pep Guardiola is the most brilliant manager in the world.
I believe that only one of these claims, the first, is tenable any longer. While it is difficult to justify such sweeping generalisations from one single game, each of these others was so devastatingly exposed on Saturday that they are all worth consideration.
In fact all three can be explained by considering the manner in which this game was played. Barcelona lost this game because they insisted on playing in their traditional, and hence predictable fashion.
Were Messi undoubtedly the best player in the world, he would have forced his hand within Barcelona’s style of play. He did not. Were Guardiola the best coach in the world, he would have altered the team’s approach given that the opposition consisted of arguably the best defence in the world. He did not alter it in preparation for the game, and it took two thirds of the game’s length before anything at all was done.
Real Madrid condensed the centre of the park, each individual player of a back six taking an individual zone, with the front three keeping goal-side of Barcelona’s back three, and Ozil chasing down anything in the very centre of the park, but otherwise remaining free and seeking to be the immediate outlet for a counter attack. Barcelona players not near the ball were ignored. Any Barcelona player on the ball or nearby was left alone until they entered the zone of a Real Madrid defender, at this point, the defender would rush out the zone and pressure the player man to man, and each other defender would rotate their zones so that each was filled in the vicinity of the ball. As this was always in the centre of the park, there was always space wide. However, Barcelona do not possess an aerial threat, and so possession of the ball in the wide areas, even on the goal line, is just as impotent as on the half-way line so long as threats in the centre are nullified as described above.
This exceedingly long paragraph is a blueprint of how to defend against Barcelona. It is exactly what Real Madrid did, and it is why Barcelona did not have a single shot on target until Alexis Sanchez was brought on. The way to beat such a defensive setup is to play deeper in the field, and with at least one fast and centrally placed forward.
Then, one of two things can happen. When the zones of defending are rotated to counter the possession in the centre of the park, there will be a moment nearer the goal when this forward is significantly free so as to be found, if indeed he is marked at all. The reason to play deeper in the field is to take advantage of this forward’s speed as there will be a greater gap between the defensive line and the goal.
If this striker is in enough space, a through ball will be on for a one-on-one. If he is not, then an intelligent run will generate enough confusion in the middle of the phase of rotation that an agile dribbler, like Messi, will suddenly find the space open up that had been perpetually denied without this manoeuvre.
Sanchez fulfilled exactly this role, and Messi surged into a gaping hole the likes of which had not existed all match. After an hour of totally nullified carouselling around Real Madrid’s box, the second scenario describes almost exactly the build up to Barcelona’s goal, while the first describes the majority of the other chances Barcelona created after Sanchez’s introduction.
Why do I go into such detail in describing all this? Because it is relevant to almost the entirety of the myth.
Firstly, if Guardiola was so brilliant, he would have sent out a team that were told to play this way in the first place. He would at least have changed their system ten or twenty minutes in. This wouldn’t even have required a substitution; Tello could easily have fulfilled the role Sanchez played after reshuffling the rest of the pack, as he was far and away the fastest player on the pitch. In fact, this would have been just about the only justification for his inclusion in the first place (he was awful).
Secondly, if Barcelona’s possession football is so brilliant, then why, in a game that granted them 72% possession, were they so clearly the inferior team? Not much more needs to be said on this point, but for those who are sceptical, consider that within this distribution of possession, Real Madrid had the same amount of shots, twice as many on target, and twice as many scored.
They also put on a master class of defensive organisation, whereas Barcelona’s plan was to hope that they get the ball back before the other team counter and score. Such naïveté may be productive against the majority of lesser teams by the sheer magnitude of the pressure, but against Real Madrid, with Ozil as the described outlet, it led to almost all of Madrid’s significant chances.
The final element of the myth is far more elusive. Messi had a poor game, granted, but can this one performance possibly affect a status that is seemingly cemented by what has otherwise been one of the best individual seasons of all time? Well, yes and no.
It is often said that we should judge big players on big games. In the case of Real Madrid and Barcelona, the big games are only really against each other. The six Clasicos this season plus the Champions League semi-finals, in which both teams are facing roughly equal opposition for the first time in Europe this year, constitute the entirety of the big games.
Of the six Clasicos this year, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored in four, Messi in two. Ronaldo has scored in the last three. Messi has not scored in the last four. Against Bayern, Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos were by far and away Madrid’s best players. Against Chelsea, Messi did virtually nothing.
In fact, I would put forward that Ramos is equally a contender for the world’s best player. (This is a side-note, but given that the conditions for world’s best player seem only to be goals scored, I doubt that anybody will agree with me. I would encourage these people to consider specifically his string of superlative performances in nearly every ‘big game’ stretching at least back to the World Cup with Spain, and generally the fact that defenders are players too. Anyway…)
What does this show? Well, not a lot. I said the issue was elusive because the only conclusion I can draw is that the issue is undecided, and perhaps undecidable. All I am sure of is that Messi cannot be claimed, without any shadow of a doubt, to be the best player in the world. It is not unreasonable to say that he is one of the best players in the world. It is not even unreasonable to say that he is the best player in the world.
But as for the idea that this is irrefutable, that there are simply no alternatives, and that he is without a doubt the greatest player of all time; the Clasico must surely have put this idea to rest.
The only part of the myth untarnished by this result is that this Barcelona team are the greatest team of this era. Great teams are not immune to losing individual games. Real Madrid lost on Tuesday. If they played again tomorrow, Barcelona may win. This reputation has been built up from years of near domination, and only this year can it truly be said that Real Madrid have caught up.
Let us not forget that Barcelona are on the verge of retaining the Champions league for the first time in the competition’s history, and for the first time in 21 years in the history of the European Cup.
But the past week has left this last hope hanging in the balance. I mentioned at the beginning that there was not practically a lot at stake. If the Clasico was the zenith of mythical importance, then Barcelona’s clash against Chelsea in midweek is the zenith of practical importance.
Barcelona have this chance, and potentially the final itself, to vindicate themselves. If they do so, they may well turn myth into reality. If they do not, I believe we will look back on this Clasico as the beginning of the end.
Cherry Poppers pick of the bunch at Rugby Sevens
Cherry Poppers of Aberdeen won the St Andrews Rugby Sevens powered by Rampant Sporting, winning a thrilling Cup final in extra time against Minerva Builders.
Having seen off semi-final opponents Loose Cannons with a sudden-death try, the Poppers repeated the trick to stun their Glaswegian adversaries after the scores were level at 24-24 at the end of normal time.
The Plate competition was won by Ballhogs, who were comprehensive 38-5 winners over Fighting Fish, a team made up of current St Andrews Rugby Club players.
With last year’s Cup winners Shark Kings absent, the field was open for someone to claim their title and it was Cherry Poppers who coped best on a day of very mixed weather conditions.
The day began with sparse crowds and heavy rain, but the pool stages of the competition were still able to go ahead. That had much to do with the tournament organisers, who did well to deal with two teams not turning up and one unfortunate player suffering a broken hand in the first round of matches.
There were strong starts for Gladiators, who scored 52 without reply against Uzbeks, and the Yellow-Bellied Lizards, who thrashed Cupids 2 49-0.
2011’s Cup runners-up, GLBM, did not look like having the same success this time round and – despite a 19-14 win over eventual Plate winners Ballhogs – they were not able to qualify for the final 16 of the Cup competition.
The same went for the other teams made up of current St Andrews students, as Fighting Cocks, Big Fish and Fighting Fish – a blend of the former two – had to make do with continuing into the Plate competition in the afternoon, as did Kite Chasers and the freshers team Kite Runners, whose performances sadly did not match up to their impressive (eye-wateringly bright) kit.
Of the teams of St Andrews old boys, it was Rat Pack – Prince William’s former team – who looked in best shape, completing a decade of competing at this tournament by topping Pool D by seeing off Yellow-Bellied Lizards 19-17.
Over in Pool C, Minerva Builders were looking the team to beat. A 26-7 win over Cherry Poppers – for which the Aberdonians would gain sweet revenge later of course – was followed up with a 64-0 victory over Kite Chasers, who were simply blown away by their opponents’ physicality and attacking flair.
The afternoon’s play was witnessed by a growing crowd of spectators, with the weather improving and the tournament reaching the pivotal knock-out stages. Rat Pack’s challenge was ended by Cherry Poppers, while Minerva Builders, Gladiators and Loose Cannons looked impressive as they also progressed to the semi-finals.
In the second-tier Plate competition, Fighting Cocks came out on top of their all-St Andrews clash with Uzbeks, outscoring their opponents by six tries to two. GLBM, meanwhile, were making up for their disappointing morning by winning their way through to the semis at the expense of Slipperies and Edinburgh Medics.
The Cup semi-finals were both closely-fought encounters. Minerva Builders came back from 17-5 down to beat Gladiators 24-17, gaining momentum at the crucial time to outlast their rivals. In the other last-four match, Loose Cannons took a 14-7 lead against Cherry Poppers despite having a man in the sin bin and looked to hang on. But a last-minute break down the left wing allowed the Poppers to level the match, and it was they who struck in extra time to progress to the final.
Before that final, the Plate final was contested between Fighting Fish and Ballhogs. Ballhogs scored almost instantly and soon seemed out of sight with two more tries. Fighting Fish eventually sorted out their defence and scored a try of their own, a well-worked move finished off in the left-hand corner just before half time.
They continued to play positive attacking rugby, but Ballhogs reasserted their control of the game with three breakaway tries to give them a deserved 38-5 victory and some silverware.
That left one match to play – the Cup final between Minerva Builders and Cherry Poppers. The team from Glasgow were favourites, not least from their comfortable victory over the same opponents in the pool stages.
Yet it was Cherry Poppers who took the lead, a lovely kick and chase giving them the opening try. Minerva then upped the pressure and hammered out a 17-5 lead. The Aberdeen side attempted to close the gap before half time, but frequent knock-ons were costing them at the crucial moments.
They did, however, make the brighter start to the second period, breaching the previously-formidable Minerva rearguard to bring the teams level at 17-17.
The next try would be crucial. After a scrappy period of play, it was Poppers who got it via a superb offload and they thought the game was theirs. But a great solo run from deep let Minerva back in and the match was destined for extra time.
Both sides had their chances to score the winner, but a big hit, turnover and break beyond a tired and committed Minerva defence sparked celebrations on the sidelines and sealed a sensational Cup triumph.
It is fair to say that the Cherry Poppers players had most to celebrate at the subsequent 7th Heaven after-party at Kinkell, victorious on a day of wonderfully dramatic rugby and champagne both on and off the pitch.
Ice to meet you: ice hockey season in review
‘British ice hockey?’ I hear you ask. Yes, it exists, and here is what happened this season.
The top teams in Britain compete in the Elite League, with the Challenge Cup on the side and the Play-Offs to conclude the season.
The Belfast Giants were emphatic regular season league champions. Winning 46 of 54 games played, they topped the table by 11 points.
Much of that was down to them having a tight defence – their goalie, Stephen Murphy, only conceded 110 goals over the whole season. To put that into perspective, the worst record (that of the Edinburgh Capitals’ Nathan Craze) was 254 conceded.
The Giants’ main rivals were the Sheffield Steelers, who eventually finished second. A 3-2 win for the Giants in Sheffield on 2 March and a 5-1 home victory over the same opponents two weeks later sealed a third league victory for the Belfast outfit.
What about the Scottish teams? They make up four of the ten teams in the Elite League. The top performers were the Braehead Clan, who finished sixth in the league with 31 wins and 66 points. They also had the top-performing attacking player, Jade Galbraith, who scored 38 goals and provided 63 assists.
The Dundee Stars hit some decent form at the end of the regular season to sneak into the last play-off place ahead of the Edinburgh Capitals, gaining 32 points to the Capital’s 30. That was despite Edinburgh having the league’s top goalscorer Rene Jarolin, who grabbed 43 goals. Clearly it is the other end of the ice which his team need to work on.
That left the final Scottish team, the Fife Flyers, to finish a distant bottom, with just 8 wins and 22 points. On the positive side, they only joined the league this season (replacing Newcastle Vipers) and so they will have gained valuable experience and will hope to build from here.
Or will finances take their toll? The league has often been criticised for being too expensive, and the Manchester Phoenix and London Knights (as well as the Newcastle Vipers) have dropped out in the last decade for exactly that reason. The Flyers have to ensure they improve on the ice and also keep themselves financially afloat.
So that was the regular season done, but the Play-Offs for the British Championship were still to come. The Dundee Stars endured a 14-0 aggregate loss to league champions Belfast, while Braehead couldn’t turn a 3-0 home win versus the Nottingham Panthers into overall success, losing 5-1 away to go out 5-4 over the two legs.
In the semi-finals, the Cardiff Devils knocked out the Giants after a penalty shootout, while the Panthers won 10-3 against Hull Stingrays.
The final, on 8 April, was a cagey affair but was eventually won 2-0 by the Panthers, with David Alexandre-Beauregard scoring with seven minutes left and David Clarke sealing it as Cardiff pressed for an equaliser.
That meant that, despite finishing third in the regular season, they won the double of Play-Offs and Challenge Cup for the second season running and so it is they, alongside the Giants, who were the stars of this season.
A Class Menagerie
The St Andrews Revue released their ‘The Crass Menagerie’ upon the audience of a sold out Byre Theatre tonight, and it appears a little zoological anarchy is the perfect antidote to mid-April essay blues.
The second performance of the semester for a still young troupe – and launch-pad for a well-earned run at the Edinburgh Festival in August – this was a more risqué and provocative show than previous efforts, which threw sex and swearing in to the tried-and-tested mix of performance comedy, St Andrews references and Joe Fleming’s groan-inducing puns.
The individual and collective performances of the Revue continue to impress, seeming more confident and relaxed together than in the Valentine’s show ‘A Public Display of Affectation’.
Particularly, Inez Gordon and Lorenzo De Boni as a Hollywood ‘Golden Age’ couple divided by social class – and the Travelator – was a well-scripted and brilliantly performed sketch which riffed on classic and modern cinema and had a startlingly raunchy turn of pace. Similarly, Will Moore’s comically angst-ridden poem was fantastic (and a little close to the bone unfortunately); while it was nice to see Fleming emerge from his well-suited role of fussy spoil sport, if a little less pleasant to see him emerge in a dress and high-heels.
Some of the more racy sketches didn’t come off quite so well, with a somewhat strange joke about pornography stage-hands (the pun, as ever, intended) doing its best to undermine the later criticisms of a sexist KK. A witty sequence about the apparent pointlessness of an atheist society left me wondering if it was a dig at the real St Andrews Atheist Society, and if so, why the Revue, so sharp previously in its comments on the Library and on Royal Wedding mania, had chosen to launch a broadside at a relatively obscure and unassuming society.
But laughs are not difficult to come by at a ‘home game’: some people were happy to giggle just at the sight of a few friends being daft on stage. Edinburgh will be another matter, and the site-specific gags will likely need replacing for an international audience. But with a talented ensemble which clearly knows how to please its overflowing audiences, they look set to deliver more ‘Croco-smiles’ (Shayna Layton’s show stealing gag from the opening scene) on the back of this performance.
The St Andrews Revue are: Lorenzo De Boni, Joe Fleming, Inez Gordon, Shayna Layton, Amanda Litherland, Will Moore, Mimi von Schack and Christy White-Spunner.
Saint Sport Interviews: Ice Hockey
Ice hockey in St Andrews? The Saint spoke to Ollie Cutting to find out about the new club in town…
The Saint: How did the starting up of the club come about?
Ollie Cutting: I’ve played ice hockey since I was six and I came to this university knowing there wasn’t a club here. But because it’s such a cosmopolitan university I knew there’d be a certain number of North Americans and Scandinavians that would play the sport. I tried to raise awareness and it turned out there was a good number of guys who wanted to play.
TS: What’s the uptake been like?
OC: We have 25 paying members and the Facebook group has about 80, so a lot of those are fans or people who want to play next year but don’t have the equipment yet. I expect growth next year. But 25 is a good start and 19 of those are playing in Nationals this weekend.
TS: What does the Nationals tournament involve?
OC: It’s organised by the British Universities Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA). They run a number of competitions, including the league and Nationals at the end of the year. We were too late to enter the league, but we’re in the tournament taking place in Sheffield over the whole weekend and will play around six games.
TS: What have you been up to this season, with no league fixtures?
OC: We’ve been training once a week through in Dundee, which is pretty costly, with hiring the ice and transport. We tried to organise a game against RAF Leuchars, and [even though it didn’t happen] there’s the possibility of being in the Tedder Challenge [competition against RAF Leuchars over a variety of sports, like rugby and golf] next year. We’ve been happy without fixtures, because in training we’ve got enough guys to have games against each other.
TS: Nationals will be a new experience for all of you then?
OC: It will be. We are getting more used to playing together. Ice hockey has a line system, and we’ve formed into lines already through training. So it should work out, but it’s going to be a bit strange playing those first games.
TS: How have you financed the club?
OC: Our sponsorship total is £2900, mainly from Stuff Creative, but also from MDDC, Wowee Speakers and LBC Incorporated.
TS: What are your plans for establishing the club next year?
OC: Right now we’re working on affiliation with the Athletic Union, which is looking good, I think we’ve fulfilled their quota so to speak. Hopefully we can then expand in terms of members and then join the league. We have to think about that over the summer, as there’s only one other team in Scotland – Edinburgh – and they play in the northern English division, so quite a lot of travelling and even more for us. We’ll look into holding a Varsity game with Edinburgh. If there are enough numbers maybe we can split into A and B teams, and enter competitions like Nationals, the Tedder Challenge and Spring Cup. But I would like to be in the league, I think it would be good for the club.
TS: Finally, what is it about ice hockey that you enjoy most and drives you to keep on playing?
OC: It’s just such a fast game. It’s quite hard to sell it to someone who’s never played. It’s just the feeling of skating faster than running and I think it’s a great game, it’s got everything. It’s a shame interest in the UK is low, we should get more youngsters involved.
Roy of the Rovers stuff for returners
Last Saturday the University sports fields were witness to a keenly-anticipated reunion match. The one-off fixture, between the Melville Rovers – Sunday League Division 1 Champions 2009, all hailing from Andrew Melville Hall – and a team of current students, from first years to PhD students, was held to celebrate the wedding of Rovers striker Tom Keating (Theology, 2009).
It also tied into the University’s 600th Anniversary celebrations, and the team of alumni were given permission by the University to use the 600 logo on their specially-designed kits for the match.
Rovers were out in force bright and early, while their opponents turned up more gradually, possibly feeling the effects of the previous night’s Toga Bop. After some not entirely serious warm-ups, Rovers kicked off and the midfield skirmishes were quickly underway.
The current students team put on some early pressure but were held off. Both sides attempted to play in their front men with clever through balls, but the goalkeepers were untroubled.
The breakthrough eventually came from the current students. Grant Miller took aim with a shot from range and, although Rovers keeper Josh Holden got a hand to it, he couldn’t keep it out.
Rovers responded with their own pressure, winning a couple of corners, but a scramble in the penalty area came to nothing and their opponents remained a real threat on the counter-attack.
Just after some neat build-up allowed Keating to force a smart stop at one end, Miller took another chance to extend his side’s lead. A cross from the right eluded the Rovers defence and Miller was in the right place to tuck the ball in.
The Rovers players were clearly tiring with half-time approaching, and two more goals in quick succession for the current students were a sucker-punch. Wilbur Leszczynski scored from a similar move to Miller’s second goal, followed by Donald Moratz flighting a chip into the top corner for 4-0.
The second half began, as did the hailstones, and Miller did not have to wait long to complete his hat trick. Shortly after he had hit the bar with an attempted cross, he prodded a neat finish past Holden.
The following spell of play was Rovers’ best in the match, with only the woodwork denying them a goal. Yet they still had to be alert defensively, with a couple of good saves from Holden and a goal-line clearance keeping out their opponents.
Miller somehow managed to miss an open goal after the ball rebounded to him off the post, but he was not to be denied a fourth goal, scoring after a save from Holden fell at his feet.
The final score, 6-0, was harsh on Rovers – the midfield was keenly contested and they were close to finding the net on several occasions. On the other hand, they can reflect on an entertaining game played in excellent spirit and humour by both teams, which was ultimately what the day was all about.
What now for Indian Premier League Cricket?
Last week, the fifth instalment of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicked off in Chennai with a game between the Chennai Super Kings (last year’s champions) and the Mumbai Indians, one of the league’s most favoured teams thanks to the presence of Sachin Tendulkar, one of India’s most idolised sons.
When it first arrived in 2008, the IPL was hailed as many things. According to whom one asked it was either the beginning of the end for cricket, or just the shot in the arm that the sport needed.
However, this year, after years of hype and growth, the lure of the IPL seems to be disappearing. Last year, TV viewership was down by almost a third, but it was widely assumed that this was simply a result of the hangover caused by India’s world cup win that year.
It was therefore something of a surprise that this year, there was no recovery. In fact, this year has seen a further drop of viewers by almost 20%.
There is, ostensibly, no reason for this. The sixes are just as huge as they have ever been, the run-chases are as exciting, the wickets fall as regularly and the big names are as big, if not bigger.
This year’s tournament boasts the aforementioned Tendulkar (a multiple record holder), Jacques Kallis (one of the best cricketers of his generation) and Chris Gayle, who draws crowds all over the world with his big hitting.
The tournament relies on Indian support, and many of these fanatical fans have been disappointed with the performance of the Indian stars.
Tendulkar himself is injured, while many other great performers of previous years are either also injured, too old or badly out of form. As a result, many Indian fans seem to have little reason to watch.
Furthermore, having started on 4 April, it will end after 76 matches at the end of May. Almost two months of intense, high-octane matches. It is very possible that there is just too much.
The endless advertising plugs and mundane commentary (born out of having to say very similar things repeatedly for months) are probably also driving people away.
This seems a great shame. The IPL has certainly not spelt the end of modern cricket. Indeed, it is so different to the longer five day and fifty over matches that it is almost a different sport.
The higher levels of fitness and fielding skill can be at least partly attributable to the tournament while run chases which would once have been considered impossible are now within reach, increasing the competitive nature of cricket.
That the IPL appears to have burst its own bubble is very careless. Its organisers have a winning formula which provides great entertainment, allows greater exposure of players often hidden on subscription channels and benefits the wider sport.
Hopefully, the drawbacks of the last couple of years are just temporary and the IPL will be able to recover. Nothing about the cricket itself has changed or decreased in quality and hopefully that will be enough to ensure its survival and future revival.
