Crescent upset the form guide with a convincing 6 wicket win at the Links, despite claims their batting line up has been misfiring all season they chased down Knight Riders 204 target with consummate ease. Earlier Vijay Amirtharaj top scored for the Knights with 46. In reply sizable contributions from Umair Qureshi 42, Abrar Pewekar 77 and Nathan Thangaraj 37* saw the home team to their target. Grammar were scoring runs for fun against the poor Master Blasters, Alec Keith with a blistering 100, Rob the run machine Swiergon with 73 and Fraser Proud with 57 helped amass 319 for 4 from their 40 overs. In reply the Master Blasters were all out for 112 with Roland Knudson picking up a 3 for. Gordonians chased down Siyapa’s total in double quick time taking just 22 overs to score 131 for 4 to pickup 30 points and lead the pack for mid table status in Grade 1. Despite 57* from Naveed Ul-hassnan, Siyapa were bowled out for 128. Chamila Perera was the key man for Gordos with 3 for 10 and then 34* to see the hosts to the victory line.
At Sheddocksley, Bon Accord beat Grampian by 55 runs Nawaz Mirza with 69* top scored for the visitors despite 4 for 19 from man of the moment Mynul Nadim in compiling 198 all out. Unfortunately for Grampian Nadim couldn’t repeat his heroics of last week as Grampian were bowled out for 143 despite for 61 from Jeby George. Cults were indebted to a sizable partnership from Praveen Gundra 50 and Shuja Abassi 31 helping to resurrect their innings after losing 2 early wickets but once they were out the Cults innings subsided to 145 all out when 200 had earlier looked on the cards. In reply 40 from Trevor Norval and 38 from Jordan Thom helped to see Inverurie home with 5 wickets remaining and 13 balls to spare.
In the Bon Accord Cup, Mannofield had an impressive 10 wicket win against an under-strength Portcullis side where running between the wicket clearly wasn’t a strength with 4 run outs in their innings of 105. Juniors Ken Yahathugoda 52* and Sajan Alawattage 39* put together an undefeated 109 run partnership to book their place in the final. At Kessock Park, 62 from Cory Bowie helped Fraserburgh to a 5 wicket win over Methlick. Adam Veersema with 30* and 2 for 35 did as much as he could for Methlick but everyone’s favourite celebrity farmer Chris Gospel with 2 for 7 and 32 helped Bowie see The Broch to finals day.
Peter Barker top scored for Dunecht his 37 is probably worth a lot more given the Cowdray Estate moss based outfield. Huntly had to score 148 to overcome the Dunecht total but were restricted to 137 from their 40 overs thanks to miserly spells from the lesser spotted Marc Walden and Steve Derrett. Dunecht closed out the game with only 8 men for the last 10 overs which is an achievement in itself.
In the Reid Cup, 2nd Grampian made the final after Stonehaven’s scratch and in the other semi Banchory’s 199 for 5 was just too much for Crathie to chase down as they fell 45 runs short. Sam Rotherham top scored with 78 for Banchory and I presume there wasn’t too many quick singles in that total. Rhod McEwan rolled back the years with 68 for Crathie but Mark Herbert’s 3 for 31 proved decisive for the home team.
Saturday went very well for Freuchie as they slipped a few fingers on to the SPCU North East Championship trophy. Mark Lambley and Martin Reid got Stoneywood Dyce off to a solid start with the bat as Freuchie visited Peoples Park, but once Robbie Wright had removed them for 35 and 39 respectively, it was a procession of cheap wickets. The spin of Asif Naeem took 5 for 9 as SDCC folded for 123. Dean Stonebridge got the long handle out and his whirlwind unbeaten 92 saw Freuchie to a 10 wicket win in the 14th over. The Freuchie lead at the top extended thanks to a superb Gordonians performance at Falkland. Batting first, Gordos posted 245 for 9 thanks to 79 from Himanshu Saraswat, 50 from Prashant Wig and 46 from Aman Arora. Meikle led the way for Falkland, but when Saraswat bowled Harsha Cooray for 1 the visitors sensed victory. The spin of Hegde and Ahmed took out the Falkland middle order, including Meikle for 91, and Arora cleaned up the tail to give Gordos a 35 run win and 3rd position in the table. Arbroath had played well against Gordonians last week but their batting suffered at the hands of the experienced Huntly duo of Barry Newlands and Andrew Petrie who took 3 wickets each for not very many. Arbroath were all out for 72 and Callum Whyte made an unbeaten 40 as Huntly cruised to the win in the 14th over. Arbroath now prop up the division. Kenny Reid was amongst the runs as Aberdeenshire beat the 2nd string of Forfarshire. Reid made 82 and the underrated Rahul Chandu scored 53, but the rest of the Shire line up didn’t get going and they were dismissed for 195. The Forfs reply lacked conviction and David Gamblen took 4 for 20 to bring the innings to a conclusion in 24 overs for 104.Dundee High will have been delighted to have registered a victory against Kinloch. 110 from Abdul Saeed was the backbone of their 244 for 7 and, not for the first time this season, Kinloch couldn’t bat out the overs whilst up with the run rate, being all out for 203.It was a full on thriller at Doocot Park as Strathmore were bowled out by Perth Doocot for 152, Ollie Patterson again in the wickets with 4 for 17. Liam Sweeney turned the screw on the Perth reply with a miserly spell of 9 overs for only 7 runs but the hosts looked to be in control at 133 for 5 with 6 overs to go. Wickets tumbled as the runs dried up, and with 3 required to win off the last ball, Ivor Patterson was run out going for the 3rd run and the outcome was a tie.
It was another chastening day in the Eastern Premier League for Stoneywood Dyce as Forfarshire were the resounding victors at Forthill. Tim Bovaird top scored for SDCC with 31 as Fergus Duncan and Jack Hogarth took 4 wickets apiece to bowl them out for 116. Unbeaten knocks of 48 and 36 from Wallace and Leask brought up a 9 wicket Forfs win in the 15th over. The bottom positions in the league remain the same with Stewarts Melville crushed by 333 runs by Heriots who had Matthew Cross unbeaten on 180, abetted by 135 from Hayes Van Der Berg. Meigle managed to get Parker and McLean out in the 90’s, but Arbroath made it to 260 for 5 and Meigle had little to offer as they were all out for 87. The Grange v RH Corstorphine game only lasted 22.5 overs as RHC were skittled for 25, Dylan Budge taking 7 for 8. Carlton eased to a win against Watsonians to keep up the pressure on Heriots at the top of the table.