Frankie S

A weakness Scotland have had over the years is their inability to polish sides off when they get them 5 or 6 down. A 77 run partnership (so far) between Usman and Raza means UAE still in with a shout. Scotland should still win from here, as the rate required creeps above 10 an over.

Scotland’s Super Sixes matches v Ireland and Windies to be broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket, though not the UAE game sadly.

Ireland have had the edge over us in the one day format for a while now. Not especially confident going into that one, though it’s not beyond us to snatch a win if we play (very) well, and the Windies have enough explosive batting to blow anyone in the competition away. UAE is certainly winnable. We’re heavily reliant on two or three of our established batsmen making decent scores as we seem to have quite a long tail.

Opportunity missed there.

Two fours. Looking good..

12 from 2. Doable now.

24 from 3. 8 down.

170-7 now. Scotland, as usual, doing it the hard way. edit 173-8. We’re going to fall short I fear.

If Scotland win today it’s set up very nicely for us for the Super Sixes. Nonetheless, two wins from three against West Indies, Ireland and UAE (who are ahead of us in the associate one day rankings) is still a very tough ask. Afghanistan getting through might be the key for us as you say, as they have underperformed so far and could well do some damage against the likes of Ireland and the Windies.

They seem to be just having a poor tournament. Unfortunately the Netherlands pipped Scotland into 2nd place in the World Cricket League Championship (competition for associate nations) 2015-17. This guaranteed the Netherlands entry to a 13-team ICC ODI League, which starts in 2020. The 13 teams being the 12 full members (including the two sides promoted from the associate ranks to test status in 2017 - Ireland and Afghanistan) and the Netherlands. So they're guaranteed 24 ODIs against full members over the period 2020-2022. That will dwarf Scotland's programme, which will likely see us scratching around, as usual, trying to fix up the occasional warm up fixture at the Grange against sides touring England. As the calendar of the top 13 will be busier than ever, it's likely that our opportunities to play the top nations will be even scarcer than normal. It's vital that we qualify for the 2019 World Cup, because sitting in 15th place in the ODI rankings (3rd of the associates), as we currently do, is of negligible benefit in terms of securing fixtures against the top nations. ODI League

Slight wobble as Scotland now 97/4. Coetzer anchoring the innings with a steady 46 from 81. We should have enough batting left to pass this modest target fairly comfortably. Elsewhere, Afghanistan in a bit of bother against Hong Kong. Might be on their way out of the tournament,

Scotland six down and making a bit of a meal of chasing 91 after a superb effort in the field, and a four wicket haul for Tom Sole. Promising start to the tournament overall though.

Scotland cruising to victory against (hitherto bogey side) Afghanistan in ICC World Cup qualifiers after record-breaking 208 run partnership between Calum MacLeod and Richie Berrington. Edit: MacLeod gets his 150.

I remember remarking at the time that it looked like a decent support bill in need of a headliner. I don’t think the poor sales were down to the peculiarities of the local market. That bill would have struggled to sell tickets anywhere.

The The at the Barras and Glasgow Concert Hall in September. Can’t wait!

Apologies all, but due to a particularly heavy workload this week, I’m going to have to sit out this week’s quizzes. Finding a daily commitment to the Aussie quiz quite difficult to maintain ATM., so best that I sit out for a while rather than swan in at the weekend and post all my scores in a oner. When things settle down work-wise, I’ll get back into it.

Uninspiring 6 for Friday. Cardi, your eminence, have I been stripped of a bunch of titles? Could have sworn I was in double figures. I seem to be on 3 now for some reason

7 for Thursday. F 1, Aussie coins and Aussie reality TV wrong.

7 for Mon, 6 for Tues and 8 for Wed.

If you find a decent pub quiz in Glasgow let me know. Our team have been discussing coming through for an away fixture in the Weeg for a while.

8 for Thursday, 6 for Friday.

Thought I’d avoided specifics of how the plots played out, but fair play, have duly edited.

My 2018 resolution is to watch more movies. Recently treated myself to a projection system after years of wanting a home cinema, so plan to get though a fairly lengthy list of DVDs and blu-rays and make some inroads into sizeable Netflix / Amazon watchlists over the next few months. Darkest Hour 7/10 (cinema) Enjoyable film with excellent performances from Gary Oldman as Churchill and Stephen Dillane as Halifax, and was pleased to see Lily James again after enjoying her role in Baby Driver. Nonetheless, an enjoyable, if slightly overrated, film. Molly’s Game 8/10 (cinema) Big Aaron Sorkin fan, loved The West Wing, The Social Network, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (though I thought The Newsroom was a rare misstep) and really enjoyed this, his directorial debut. Jessica Chastain is excellent, as is Idris Elba, and Michael Cera, who had a great cameo in Twin Peaks: The Return, was good too. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 9/10 (cinema) This was great. In Bruges was excellent, but I thought Seven Psycopaths was derivative rubbish, so a welcome return to form from Martin McDonagh. Frances McDormand was superb, as ever - one of the best actresses around.