There’s still nothing to separate Knightriders and Crescent at the top of Grade 1. Although both teams had far from comfortable victories this weekend. Knightriders defeated their 2nds despite 7 wickets from Uday Reddy. Siva Palaniappan smashed 86 as the firsts made 229 all out and in reply the 2nds were bowled out for 188.
At the beach Bon Accord made 225 for 9 against Crescent. Nawaz Mirza with 49 for the Bons. In reply 107 from Rejeevan Sujaya provided the backbone for the Crescent chase as they made it home with 3 balls to spare and 2 wickets in hand.
Mannofield restricted Grammar to 163 all out despite 43 from Rob Swiergon and 40 from Alec Keith. Mannofield chased that target with relative ease winning by 7 wickets after 75 not out from Rameez Hashmi and 54 from Ken Yahathugoda.
In a low scoring game at Allan Park Master Blasters posted 99 all out against Cults with Abid Ali picking up 4 for 13 for the home side. Cults won by 7 wickets courtesy of 30 not out from Ravi Majahan.
At Countesswells an understrength Gordonians defeated Inverurie by 6 wickets. Inverurie made 201 largely thanks to 120 not out from Trevor Norval. Indy Pandit with 60 set the platform for his team to get home with plenty of overs and wickets to spare.
In Grade 2 Banchory defeated Fraserburgh by 1 run. Banchory made 178 all out from their 40 overs with Mausam Thapa making 76 of those. Nick Gray made 53 as the Broch made a fast start at chasing down the total but Sam Rotheram and Mark Herbert combined to take 6 wickets at the business end of the innings as Fraserburgh just fell agonisingly short.
Methlick’s charge back to Grade 2 is still going to plan after they bowled out Dunecht for 48. Mike Hordley with 5 for 8 did the damage as Methlick got home with 8 wickets to spare.
Huntly had an emphatic 10 wicket win over Stoneywood Dyce. Stand in captain Graeme Reid will surely have the Huntly committee questioning their faith in Darren Morrison on the back of this performance. Stoneywood were bowled out for 68 then Michael Clark and Anuj Dawar knocked this off between them.
3rd Gordonians and Stonehaven had a high scoring game on the Countesswells Astro. Gordonians made 239 for 8 with Adi Mukhopadhya top scoring with 69. In reply despite 60 not out from Andrew Gale Stonehaven could only muster 178 for 8.
Crathie defeated 2nd Methlick by 3 wickets. 2nd Methlick posted 102 for 6 and Crathie chased it down with 10 overs to spare.
2nd Siyapa are keeping the pressure on Methlick and Huntly by defeating 2nd Gordonians. A good day at the office from Tanweer Khan with wickets and runs helped Siyapa chasing down the 134 run total with 4 wickets remaining.
They’ll be dancing in the moonlight in the streets of Stoneywood Dyce as the People’s Park side find themselves unexpectedly perched at the top of the Eastern Premier League after week 6. As has become customary, Stoneywood Dyce didn’t have a great start with the bat and found themselves 72 for 6 against Stewarts Melville. Andrew Maclaren held things together with 28 and Du Preez Stander added a much needed 60 to take SDCC to 201 all out. Stewarts Melville conceded 40 wides, something they would regret as SDCC bowled very tidily to keep the visitors to 165 for 9, David Kidd taking 2 wickets to back up the excellent Jamie King who put the the breaks on from the start.
A century from Craig Wallace helped Forfarshire to a massive 315 for 5 at home to Heriots, but this wasn’t enough as Michael Shean replied in kind with a century as Heriots won with 4 wickets and 6 balls in hand. It was a nail biter as Carlton scored 246 for 9 against RH Corstorphine who sneaked home with 3 balls left and 8 wickets down as Liam Naylor was unbeaten on 144. Falkland are still without Harsha Cooray and Watsonian were the latest team to benefit as they amassed 289 for 6 at Scroggie Park. Falkland were dismissed for 212, but they stay off the foot of the table thanks to a 5th defeat in a row for Arbroath. Grange made 266 for 6 and Arbroath were all out for 180.
It was a right royal runfest at Mannofield on Saturday as Aberdeenshire, Gordonians and Huntly played each other to determine a qualifier for 3 Counties Cup finals day. Aberdeenshire opened the batting carnage against Gordonians taking 153 off the first 14 overs, Gordos clawing it back slightly to restrict Shire to 200 for 4, plus an additional 6 run penalty for not bowling their overs quickly enough. Kenny Reid continued his impressive form with 81 from only 49 balls and Gordos will have been delighted to have removed Dian Forrester for 36 just as he was going big. Gordonians hit the accelerator from the start and romped to 74 off 6 overs. Himanshu Saraswat made 79 off 39 balls and Aman Arora kept the pain going with 74 from 49 balls as Gordonians won with 3 balls and 7 wickets to spare. Huntly had some fetching to do as Abrar Ahmed batted through the Gordonians 20 overs for 80 off 54 balls. Gordonians piled up 194 for 4 and Huntly gave the chase a go with Sam Cuconits top scoring with 44, but they couldn’t maintain the momentum and they closed on 168 for 5. The Aberdeenshire v Huntly match didn’t happen as it was a dead rubber. Gordonians go to finals day along with Strathmore, Meigle and Perth Doocot.
Stoneywood Dyce won’t be doing the double as they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Forfarshire. Du Preez Stander was not out on 40 as they were bowled out for 138. Forfs lost 5 wickets chasing down victory in the 25th over. Aberdeenshire are through to the next round as the batting carnage of Saturday was transported to Freuchie. A ton from Kenny Reid was followed by an unbeaten 165 from Dian Forrester off only 83 balls with 17 fours and 12 sixes. They host Watsonian in the quarter final.
Gordonians booked their place at the ECB Vitality under 13 finals day with a comfortable 8 wicket win in the quarter final away to Arbroath. Siddharth Seenivasan took 4 for 12 to keep the hosts down to 68 for 8 and Prayuj Patel anchored the reply with 29 not out as Gordos under 13s join their under 15s on the national stage.