It’s not very often that we start in Grade 3, but 232 not out from Mynul Nadim for 2nd Grampian against 2nd Methlick set a new Grades batting record. This eclipsed the unbeaten 225 scored by Alex Keith for St Ronald against Stonehaven Thistle in the Aberdeenshire Cup on 22nd June 2003. A challenge to Mynul is to back it up with another unbeaten double century as Alex did in 2003 with 210 against Ellon on the 16th August! As for the game itself, Alwin Nimmy weighed in with 84 as 2nd Grampian amassed 443 for 4 and 2nd Methlick batted out 36 overs for 126, Nimmy taking 4 for 11. A side effect of such big hitting was a lady being hit on the leg and having to go to hospital to be seen for deep tissue bruising.
The Aberdeenshire Cup Final at Mannofield on 22nd August will be between AGSFPs and Gordonians. Knight Riders will have been more than happy with their 233 for 8 at Rubislaw, Ramaswamy top scoring with 51. No total seems quite enough if Karan Anand gets going, and his 106, propped up by an unbeaten 76 from Grammar skipper Rob Swiergon, saw them home with 5 overs to spare.
The saying ‘catches win matches’ was perfectly illustrated at Countesswells as Crescent were bowled out for 155, Gordonians holding on to 8 catches and only spilling one opportunity. Umair Qureshi with 38 led the Crescent scoring although they were strangled a bit as Adi Hegde took 3 for 21 from his 8 overs. 48 from Ash Bashir and 33 from Hegde saw Gordos take 33 overs to bat their way into the final.
Gordonians had warmed up for the cup tie by posting 214 for 7 the day before against Bon Accord, Bashir making 59. The Gordonians catching was not quite so clever on the Saturday as Bons scorched to an 8 wicket win, Ravi Addala undefeated on 63. Grammar stayed top of Grade 1 being dismissed by Siyapa for 216 with Connor McKinney not out on 66. Muhammad Kashif took 4 for 49 and the Siyapa batsmen gave it a real good shot as a century from Khurram Haseeb left them an agonising 9 runs short as they ran out of overs.
George Hadden took 3 for 17 as Inverurie restricted Crescent to 149 for 9 at Links. An unbeaten 72 from Chris Watson saw the Garioch side romp to an 8 wicket victory. Poongkannan Palaniyandi picked up 5 for 4 to roll out Grampian for 101, Sivaganesan Palaniappan not out on 62 as Knight Riders won quickly at Sheddocksley. The Allan Park derby was a high scoring affair as Cults made 221 for 8, Mausam Thapa taking 3 for 18 for Master Blasters. Ajay Narne was back to form as his 63 helped MBA to a 4 wicket win in the 37th over. Master Blasters move from 10th to 8th in Grade 1 with the bottom 5 tightly bunched.
The big game in Grade 2 lived up to its billing as Ellon bowled out Mannofield for 133, Matthew Sandham doing the damage with 5 for 39. The selection of Daniel Brown paid dividends for Mannofield as his 4 for 18 included the early wickets of Webb and Wade and Ellon ran out of batting to lose by 6 runs. 2nd Knight Riders took the points as 2nd AGSFPs scratched and the remaining fixture between Methlick and Portcullis was an absolute thriller. 40 from Mike Bremaneson and 34 from Mark Witt set a decent 181 for 6 on the board for Methlick, and 3 cheap wickets for Graeme Fowlie took the game to the last ball. Portcullis, already 9 down and needing 3 to win, had the right man in the right place at the right time as Kannan Vijayakrishnan went aeriel and launched it for 6 to take Portcullis to 2nd place in the table.
They will be singing and dancing in the streets of …..the RGC playing fields, as Gordonians won their first Grade 3 match since rejoining the league in 2019. Credit to Banchory for playing with 9 and totalling 146 thanks to an unbeaten 60 from William Redpath, Ryan Davis taking 5 for 23 for Gordos. Davis then scored 70 as Gordos won by 5 wickets. Matt Witz made 44 as Dunecht were bowled out for 105 by Crathie, the latter struggling to a 3 wicket win as Keith Milne took 3 for 9. Stonehaven travelled to Huntly and will have been disappointed to have been all out for 94, the hosts winning by 6 wickets, in part thanks to more runs from Liam Ferguson.
In the SPCU North East Championship, the answer is Rahul Chandu…the question, who was the first bowler to get Harsha Cooray out in the league this season? Cooray eventually gets an average, a useful 423, but unfortunately for Aberdeenshire, the other Falkland batsmen enjoyed the sunshine and they piled up 301 for 5. Ryan Hepburn and Lyle Robertson picked up cheap wickets to bundle out Shire for 115. Arbroath bowled very well to restrict visitors Gordonians to 161 for 7, Himanshu Saraswat continuing his run of form with 45. Arbroath were always ahead of the run rate but some excellent catching by Gordonians and 4 for 31 from Aman Arora saw Gordos sneak a squeaky 15 run win.
Freuchie posted a daunting 276 for 8 against Huntly, and whilst Huntly wouldn’t have expected to chase down the total, they would have been pleased to see Frank Summers and Barry Newlands bat out the innings with 47 and 52 respectively as they lost by 77 runs. Strathmore eased to a 5 wicket win over Dundee High, and Kinloch will be kicking themselves as they lost by 3 runs chasing the 255 for 9 of the Forfarshire 2nd team.
A late flurry of 45 runs from Shazad Ahmad helped 2nd Stoneywood Dyce to 178 against Perth Doocot. The Perth batting has been brittle all season and Mike Louw scooped 6 for 13 as they won by 17 runs.
It wasn’t a good weekend for Stoneywood Dyce in the Eastern Premier League. They were bowled out for 69 at home on Saturday by Carlton who had already put 297 for 9 on the scoreboard. A much improved batting performance at Meigle on Sunday, including knocks of 52 from Andrew Maclaren and Ewan Davidson, took them to 204 for 7, but their bowlers struggled to make progress and 71 from Alan Neave helped Meigle to a 7 wicket win with plenty of overs in hand. Stewarts Melville beat Meigle on Saturday by 6 wickets but then lost by 1 wicket to Watsonians on Sunday. Stew Mel slip narrowly to the bottom of the league marginally ahead of Meigle. Arbroath are beginning to get sucked into the relegation battle as they lost to RH Corstorphine on Saturday, and then suffered at the hands of a Michael Leask century on Sunday as they were well beaten by Forfarshire. Heriots had a great weekend, beating Grange, and then bowling out RH Corstorphine for a meagre 41 as they top the EPL.