Cricket: Irish cap due for debut against Grange

Irish ace Rory McCann, pictured celebrating the wicket of Scotland s Matthew Parker in 2010, will turn out for Carlton tomorrow. Picture: Getty

• by BILL LOTHIAN

 

Carlton will give an Eastern Premier Division debut to 28-year-old Ireland internationalist Rory McCann when they bid to consolidate their newly-acquired place at the head of the table when visiting Barclays Grange tomorrow.


McCann, who is head of junior sport at Merchiston Castle School, takes over from Rob Thornton in the only change from the side which was 
relieved to scrap past basement side SMRH with the aid of a wide bowled to their tail-end partnership last weekend!
Belfast-born McCann says: “School duties have meant only being able to play a couple of Scottish Cup matches and a T20 but I am staying in Edinburgh for the summer and look forward to playing a first match in white kit this weekend.
“Realistically my Ireland 
ambitions are over as you have to be available to train three or four times a week in what amounts to a county-type 
set-up. But I’ve had highlights including the T20 World Cup qualifiers and playing alongside the likes of Paul Stirling and Boyd Rankin who is becoming involved with England.”
McCann also crossed swords with Scotland in 2010 and connections with several of that Scotland team helped steer him towards Carlton.
That latest premiership 
victory saw Carlton leapfrog 
Arbroath while Barclays Grange were plunging to defeat at 
Aberdeenshire.
The following day Grange found redemption against those same opponents to reach the cup quarter-finals but club spokesman Bob Frazer said: “We’re going with the same team but if we play like we did on Saturday we have no chance – if we play as we did on Sunday we have every chance. Pressure cricket for sure!”
Heriot’s enjoyed a double success last weekend by beating Stoneywood/Dyce in the Premiership and East Kilbride in the second-tier Cricket 
Scotland Trophy.
After dropping out of the main knock-out event after suffering two late sectional defeats and going down heavily to Grange in the Masterton Trophy final skipper Steve Knox is delighted that “the ship has been steadied”. The win over Stoneywood Dyce was particularly vital as it gave us a bit of breathing space ahead of them, SMRH and Watsonians who are only going to get better.”
Indeed, Watsonians set a cat among the pigeons by overpowering Arbroath last weekend.
Heriot’s make two changes with Richard Cummine and Alex Anderson, a right-arm seamer, replacing Ben Wilkinson and Andre van Niekerk.
Key figure for Heriot’s could be Mark Watt, top wicket taker in the league who has been starring for Scotland under-17s this week while preparing to turn out for the under-19s next week.
Watsonians should be well 
focused for their Myreside clash with SMRH after hosting one-time pro and subsequent 
Australian captain Kim Hughes on a visit back to the Capital.
However, SMRH gave Carlton a fright and in marking his return from Heriot’s, ex-Scotland seamer Craig MacKellar took 5-37 which is the best bowling return in this Premiership.

what is the sport?

Sport

Sport in childhood. Association football, shown above, is a team sport which also provides opportunities to nurture physical fitness and social interaction skills.

Sport (or, primarily in North America, sports^{[citation needed]}) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which,^[1] through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.^[2] Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.
Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition,^[3] and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports.^[2] However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports,^[4][5] although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.^[1]
Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.
In organised sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sports drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through sports broadcasting