Grade 1 was bereft of surprises on Saturday. 2nd Knight Riders tried very hard to help out their 1st team as they made an impressive 244 for 8 at Links against table toppers Crescent. Sanjay Arumugan Vijandiran made 80 to go with 63 from Somu Kumarasamy, but Crescent have acquired the knack of pacing an innings. Konda and Khanna both scored in the 40s, but it was a quick 38 from Anjum Toor that took the win with 7 balls left and 7 wickets down. Neither side batted out their overs at Groats Road and Knight Riders looked vulnerable when they only posted 165 against Master Blasters. The latter made a dreadful start as they slumped to 29 for 5, but Hari Ganesan kept the hopes alive with 71 until he was last man out having hauled them back to a respectable 148. The only century in Grade 1 was an overdue effort from Chris Watson for Inverurie at Mannofield. His 124 not out, added to by 88 from Trevor Norval, racked up 273 for 3 for Inverurie. Mannofield were all out for 215 with George Hadden back amongst the wickets with 3 for 22. Mohit Khosla took 4 for 21 for Gordonians to bowl out Cults for 170, and they were in touch with the run chase on 106 for 3 until Abid Ali ran through the tail with 4 for 24 to give Cults a 27 run victory. Roland Knudson took 5 for 28 for Grammar against Bon Accord for whom Fazal Awan topped the scoring with 51 out of their 238. Alex Keith and Mike Nattrass gave Grammar a solid start, but the wickets were shared around as Bons bowled out the champions for 127. Grammar remain rooted to the bottom of Grade 1.
The Bon Accord Cup mini leagues concluded on Saturday with losing bonus points deciding the semi finalists. Fraserburgh had to beat Siyapa at Kessock Park to qualify, and with Chris Gospel wielding the long handle with 88, their 183 for 9 was well beyond the reach of Siyapa. Siyapa made 104 for 8 securing enough bonus points to win their mini league. Grampian will go into the semi finals as favourites having won all 3 of their games. They weren’t at their best as they posted 137 for 9 against Ellon. Johnny Barrett led the Ellon run chase with 71, but a miserly 4 over spell of 5 for 10 from Sojan Joseph knocked Ellon out of the cup as they lost by 8 runs. It was a case of the winner takes it all at Banchory as they took on Portcullis. Mausam Thapa was the Banchory super trouper making a half century as Banchory scored 133 for 5, and this was enough for Portcullis to meet their waterloo as they ran out of overs on 116 for 6. If Portcullis had taken 3 more wickets they would have earned enough bonus points to have qualified for the semi finals ahead of Banchory.
It was a good day for the Kirodian boys as 12 year old Riyansh picked up a hat trick at Dunecht for 3rd Gordonians to help bowl out the hosts for 93. Matt Witz ran out of partners having made 55 as Vijay Amirtharaj picked up 4 cheap wickets. Whilst son Adi was suffering a first ball lbw at Countesswells, an unbeaten 25 from Vijay Hegde took 3rd Gordos to a 6 wicket win to temporarily claim the best in the family position. 13 year old run machine Tanish Kirodian made a quick 38 as 2nd Gordonians piled up 250 for 6 against Crathie, although the bulk of the runs came thanks to an undefeated 103 from Siv Gollakota. Shivendra Chouksey took 5 for 13 as the men of Balmoral were castled for 111. Joe Slater and Bruce Davidson took 4 wickets apiece as Stoneywood Dyce bowled out 2nd Methlick for 57 at Lairds, a total that they took their time overhauling for the loss of a solitary wicket. The Methlick first team were involved in another low scoring game, but they came out on top at Huntly as Colin Addison and Tim Duffy shared 6 of the Huntly wickets as the home side were dismissed for 89. Huntly took 7 wickets but Mark Woodhouse held things together with an unbeaten 37. Salman Jafri top scored with 47 to give 2nd Siyapa an unassailable total of 200 for 8 at Stonehaven. Near veteran Nigel King made 44, but 4 for 19 from Arshad Nisar took out the Stonehaven top order as they were held to 153.
The destination of the SPCU title appears to rest on the Aberdeenshire v Meigle match on 18th June as both teams continue to sweep aside their opponents. 2nd Stoneywood Dyce were bowled out for 85 by Shire, Lewis Munro taking 3 for 20 as none of the SDCC batters got going. Dian Forrester added an unbeaten 23 to his impressive haul of runs as Shire cantered to a 7 wicket win. Freuchie without Safyaan Sharif were no match for Meigle as they were bowled out for 161. Meigle pro Raju Gayashan took 4 for 27 but only contributed 13 as they lost 3 wickets on the way to the win. Gordonians moved into 3rd spot in the league as they beat Strathmore by 16 runs. A beautifully paced unbeaten 94 from Adi Mehta gave Gordos an excellent 234 for 6, although a late 16 ball 32 from Mayank Bhandari was the icing on the cake. Strathmore were always in with a shout whilst overseas amateur Tiann Brits was at the crease (and if you haven’t seen the perfect cover drive, then you need to watch this young man), but when he was out for 102 they weren’t able to change gear and batted out the last few overs without threatening to win. Huntly were all out for 170 against Kinloch, Sam Cuconits making 52 out of a slightly disappointing total. Huntly looked on course for a comfortable win as they reduced Kinloch to 38 for 5, but they couldn’t finish the job as Kinloch only lost 2 further wickets as they registered another success. The misery for Dundee High continued as they lost by 221 runs to Perth Doocot, and the misery is being shared by 2nd Arbroath as they lost by 7 wickets to 2nd Forfarshire.
The Eastern Premier League has been thrown out of kilter by the Scotland trip to the USA, and this was a day of nail biting finishes for a change. Stoneywood Dyce have been mixing it at the wrong end of the table in recent seasons, but with Lennard Bester bang in form they find themselves at the heady heights of 2nd place, and only because Heriots have a marginally better run rate. They would have settled for 254 for 6 against Watsonian, Bester making 82 and Ewan Davidson 65, but Watsonian will be kicking themselves as 121 from Andrew Chalmers brought them within 6 runs of victory, SDCC doing remarkably well to restrict them to 7 runs off the last 2 overs. An unbeaten 123 from Christian Robertson gave Forfarshire a 151 run win against Arbroath, but it was a closer match than it seemed as number 11 Glenn Carnegie stuck in to bring up a century stand when Forfs were struggling. Arbroath are firmly welded to the bottom of the table. Carlton were bowled out for 148 by Stewarts Melville who pulled off a surprise 1 wicket win. Falkland bowled out Grange for 233 but lost 4 wickets for 11 runs off the last 3 overs to fall agonisingly 3 runs short of a huge shock. To add to the surprises, RH Corstorphine beat Heriots by 10 runs.