North East interest in the Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup continues as Bon Accord were rained off in Edinburgh, Rather than go to a bowl off, the option of a coin toss was taken, and it fell in favour of Bons who will have to travel again to play Morton in Edinburgh.
Stoneywood Dyce went into their crucial EPL tie with Stewarts Melville without the King/Kidd combination, and batting first, they were in a bit of bother at 62 for 5. A brisk 54 from Lennard Bester and a valuable 31 from Ewan Davidson helped them to a respectable 176. George Ninan opened the bowling and his 4 for 24 had Stew Mel wobbling at 61 for 6. An unbeaten 40 from Newman kept the game alive but he eventually ran out of partners and SDCC bowled them out for 144. Stew Mel dropped to 2nd bottom in the EPL, narrowly ahead of Meigle who were thumped by Carlton. Grange remain top after a comfortable win at Arbroath.
In Grade 1, Grampian batted well to score 194 for 7 at Rubislaw against Grampian, Johnson Varghese top scoring with a half century. Grammar were on 118 for 4 when skipper Rob Swiergon was out for 42, but Fraser Proud and Karan Anand turned on the afterburners to secure the points, unbeaten on 46 and 52 respectively. It was a high scoring derby at Links as Bons racked up 231 for 6 in their 40 overs, and try as they might, Crescent could not keep up with the run rate and ran out of overs on 205 for 9.At Countesswells, 61 from Ashfaq Bashir was supplemented by a quickfire 60 from Mathi Suthanthiran as Gordonians totalled 226 for 7 against Cults. The visitors were 6 wickets down but ran out winners with 2 overs to spare thanks in part to 66 from Ali Syed. Mausam Thapa scored 51 as Master Blasters were bowled out for 178 by Knight Riders. Rain intervened and the rain calculator gave victory to Knight Riders as Madhan Mohan was not out on 64 and they were on 143 for 2 with plenty of time in hand. The Inverurie bowlers kept the runs under control at Sheddocksley as Siyapa were all out for 120 with Khalid Zia scoring 42. Inverurie took their time and George Hadden was 39 not out as they won by 6 wickets.
Ellon stayed in 2nd place in Grade 2 as 3 for 19 from Richard Greenfield saw 2nd AGSFPs dismissed for 134. Ellon coasted to victory thanks to undefeated half centuries from Jonathan Barrett and George Buchan. Methlick will have been happy with their 170 for 9 against Portcullis at Duthie Park, Ross McKenzie taking 3 for 34 for the hosts. Portcullis looked to be wobbling at 75 for 3 but Methlick didn’t take any more wickets as 68 from Kannan Vijayakrishnan saw Portcullis home with overs to spare. Balaji Selvaraj took 4 for 22 as Fraserburgh struggled to 151 for 9 against 2nd Knight Riders, this built around half centuries from Cory Bowie and Michael Watson. 2nd Knight Riders only lost 3 wickets overhauling the Broch total with Sanjay Arumugam Vijandiran unbeaten on 54.
In Grade 3 Brian Campbell took 6 for 29 as Huntly were all out for 132. Stonehaven cantered to victory with Jason Gouws falling agonisingly short of a century as he dominated the scoring with 96. It was slow going at Balmoral as Crathie posted 144 for 6 against Dunecht. 4 for 24 from William Farquharson stifled the Dunecht scoring and they couldn’t find the accelerator as they ran out of overs on 135 for 8.
In the SPCU North East Championship it was a nail biter at Countesswells as Gordonians made 196 for 8 against Freuchie thanks to 53 from Abrar Ahmed and 49s from Himanshu Saraswat and Prashant Wig. A superb 82 from Alan Wallace put Freuchie in charge but Gordos got back in the game after a break for rain, and the game was in the balance until Freuchie got over the line with 2 wickets and 4 balls to spare. They stay top of the league, closely followed by Strathmore who were too strong for 2nd Forfarshire, and Falkland who hammered Kinloch. An unbeaten swashbuckling 110 from Calvin Burnett propelled Arbroath to 244 for 6 at Mannofield with Nathan Elliott taking the bowling honours for Shire with 4 for 42. Unfortunately for Arbroath their bowling lacked penetration and 63 from Kenny Reid and 69 not out from Joseph Horne saw Shire chase the win for the loss of only 3 wickets. A weakened Huntly side were in all sorts of trouble as Mohammed Mohsin took 5 for 20 and Ivor Patterson 4 for 20 as they were all out for 91, salvaged somewhat by 38 from Callum Whyte. An opening burst of 4 for 12 by Barry Newlands saw Perth Doocot crumble to 23 for 5, and a mid order revival was thwarted by Innes Parkin taking 4 for 14 to give Huntly an unlikely 17 run success.