The 2019 Aberdeenshire Grades campaign is 99% complete after the latest round of games. Bon Accord are the Grade 1 champions after a comfortable 10 wicket win against Inverurie at the Links. Inverurie were all out for 107, 3 wickets for 11 runs from Malik wiping out the middle order. Fazal Awan and Rehan Haider scored 56 and 44 to see the Bons home.
Grammar and Crescent played out a thriller at Rubislaw. 52 from Nathan Thangaraj and 41 from Umair Qureshi were the main contributions in Crescents’ 184, but 70 from Rob Swiergon gave Grammar a fighting chance before Chris Clelland deposited Vineet Khanna for 6 to see Grammar home by 1 wicket. It was a fitting finish to the cricketing career of Clelland in the North East, and he has been a great servant to Grammar and cricket in the local area.
Barring major league reorganisation, Cults secured their Grade 1 status with an 8 wicket win over Gordonians at Allan Park. Four wickets each for Abbas Hamid and Himanchu Bhardwaj helped to bowl the visitors out for 92, then 39 not out from Mauzzam Ali helped Cults home with plenty of overs to spare.
Stoneywood had a comprehensive victory against Mannofield winning by 9 wickets thanks to Bruce Davidson with 5 for 29 helping to dismiss Mannofield for exactly 100. Stuart Lister, George Robertson and Nathan Palaninathan saw SDCC home.
Knight Riders ended their season on a high with a 120 run win at Ellon. Uday Reddy with 36 and Vijay Ramaswamy with 35 contributed with the bat. Safee Peedikayil and Kannan Palaniyandi took 7 of the wickets to fall as they ripped through the Ellon batting line up.
2nd Knight Riders defeated 2nd Grammar at Groats Road, Knight Riders making 132 thanks to 33 from Sanjay Arumugam Vijandiran and 32 from Rajasekaran Ramadas. In Reply Grammar could only muster 103 with 27 from Ranald Wilkie and captain Aman Sood stranded on 24 not out.
Banchory picked up a morale boosting win at home to Stonehaven to end their Grade 2 campaign. 53 from Sean Hicks and 46 from Chad Abbott helped Banchory to 163 all out. 5 for 18 for skipper Mark Herbert and 4 for 4 from Daniel Brown bowled out Stonehaven for 90. 79 not out from one of the nicest Aussies you’ll ever meet in Adam Veersema helped Methlick post 189 against Super Kings. 42 from Super Kings number 10 Shashikanth Tadoori must have had Methlick worried, but Mike Bremaneson rolled back the years with 3 for 43, and Veersema took 3 for 38 to top off a great day for the stand in captain as Methlick won by 21 runs.
It was runs a plenty in Grade 3 as all matches served up at least 300 runs between the sides. 2nd Grampian defeated 2nd Methlick by 58 runs, Jeby George top scoring with 37 not out in their 186 total, and despite 36 from Bryan Carr, Methlick fell well short of their target due to 5 for 25 from Kiran Varkey. Barry Geddes made 89 not out and Peter Cunningham 67 as Crathie amassed 203 for 4 against Dunecht. 5 for 15 from Mike Baldry made a mess of the Dunecht innings, and 39 from Matt Witz was the best Dunecht contribution as the Deesiders won by 102 runs. Portcullis finished their campaign in resounding fashion with a 103 run victory against 2nd Gordonians. A century from Dave Mitchell and 53 from Jake Dawson helped Portcullis to 214 for 3 at the end of their innings, and they are Grade 3 champions.
Sunday produced another of those ‘I was there moments’, and not just the Ben Stokes show at Headingley. The Aberdeenshire Cup final at Mannofield was a tense affair and went to the very last ball as Inverurie retained the trophy by the slimmest of margins.
Gordonians got off to a flyer thanks to Abrar Ahmed with a quickfire 21, and by the end of their 40 overs they had made 145 for 9 with an explosive 27 from Chamila Perera and a more measured 23 from Jamil Shaikh. Gary Coutts with 2 for 9 and Jordan Thom with 2 for 13 did the main damage with the ball.
In reply Inverurie got off to a slow start against the bowling of Perera and Shaikh, and the introduction of Aayush Das and Jay Bhalani brought about the first 4 wickets to fall. Even at drinks at the 30 over point Inverurie had a lot of work to do with 65 needed from the last 10 overs, but Thom, Stuart Murrison and Fraser Lawrence had other ideas, and took Inverurie to the brink of victory. This task was left to Alan Johnston and stalwart George Hadden who delivered the 4 needed from the last 4 balls to tie the scores and keep the trophy in Inverurie for another year due to fewer wickets lost as Inverurie finished on 145 for 7.
The Under 16 finals day in Edinburgh saw Gordonians face tough opposition, and even though they finished 4th, they put in 2 very creditable performances. Credit to their parents and volunteers who have had to shuttle their players to Edinburgh for all 3 Scottish age groups finals days.