It’s always painful to monitor the forecast in the run up to Saturday with the expectation that the day might be washed out. And so it turned out, with the rain at a level that even the Council decided to call the games off at Groats Road and Harlaw just after 11am. The intervention from the Council is very welcome as it saves the teams having to discuss the conditions and allows the players to find something else to do, although it is notable that not every team took such a realistic approach to the ground conditions and waited considerably longer than necessary before accepting that no cricket was going to be possible.
Only one Grades game did start, and that had a lot to do with the BBC filming for a programme called River Walks at Methlick. Keen to put on a show, the players took to the field, but once they started they found it hard to stop. Siv Gollakota continued his rich vein of form scoring 40 for 2nd Gordonians with good support from Campbell Airey and Ferdous Wahid with 29 and 28 respectively. Gordos collapsed from 153 for 3 to 164 all out as Liam and Charlie Davis ran through the last 7 wickets. The 2nd Methlick reply advanced to 16 for 2 when it was eventually accepted that conditions at the crease had long since become unsafe for both batters and bowlers. One team headed back to Aberdeen, hopefully not disturbing the cannily placed speed camera van on the way out of Methlick, and the other team probably retired to a local hostelry to discuss the joys of walking the River Ythan.
The SPCU North East Championship games at People’s Park and Countesswells were called off before the travelling opposition arrived in Aberdeen, but spare a thought for the Perth team who had to watch the rain at Mannofield before heading back down the road. Meigle bowled 15 balls at Huntly before that game was rained off, and Freuchie managed 8 overs at Strathmore before that game was abandoned.
In contrast, all 5 of the Eastern Premier League matches were completed. Stoneywood Dyce started well at Forthill with Nathan Elliott, Garreth Wolmarans and Lennard Bester all getting into the 40’s. Unfortunately they couldn’t kick on and 6 other batters couldn’t get out of single figures as SDCC were bowled out for 201, Jack Hogarth taking 4 for 44 for Forfarshire. Forfs didn’t hang around and knocked off the runs in 27 overs for the loss of 2 wickets, Craig Wallace one of those out for 70, and Jack O’Neill and Michael Leask unbeaten on 69 and 49 respectively.
Falkland did exceptionally well to restrict Carlton to 222 for 7, and did even better to get to 210 for 4 with 14 balls to go, but despite an undefeated 75 from Harsha Cooray they had to settle for a tie as Carlton bowled well at the death.
Heriot’s piled up 290 for 9 at Goldenacre against Arbroath who were always in with a shout when Willem Lubbe was at the crease, but their run chase faltered when he was out for 87 and they were all out for 200 and remain rooted to the foot of the table. A century from Chris Greaves helped Grange to a 139 run win over RH Corstorphine. Ollie Hairs only faced 26 balls for Watsonian against Stewarts Melville, but his 66 set up a 135 run win victory.
Sunday had sunshine between some heavy showers and the rain brought a premature conclusion to the Reid Cup semi final between 2nd Siyapa and Huntly at Links. Huntly had been bowled out for 70 with Muhammad Shahid taking 4 for 9 before the umpire called a halt. The other semi at Dunecht did finish, Crathie running out winners thanks yet again to Rory Humphrey who smashed 73 off 31 balls as they made 143 for 4 in their 20 overs. Dunecht stuttered to 85 for 8 and Crathie head to the final.
Edinburgh South travelled to Countesswells for the CS Challenge Cup quarter final and showed no respect for the bowling of Himanshu Saraswat smashing his first ball for 6 and taking 17 off the first over. Thankfully for Gordonians normal service was resumed and Saraswat picked up the first 2 wickets to fall as the visitors were kept in check at 161 for 7 off their 40 overs. Gordonians opted for a steady start against some sharp Edinburgh South bowling, and with Saraswat making 27 and Adi Mehta 36, Gordonians got within sight of victory with 22 required off 4 overs. It then came down to 3 needed off the last over with 2 wickets in hand, but Gordonians will be kicking themselves all the way back to wherever they might think appropriate as they were all out for 160 with 2 balls remaining. Given the amount of rain that fell it was remarkable that the game was finished, and the conclusion of the match saw a well deserved round of applause for well respected umpire Steve Scott who is taking his skills to league cricket in Cheshire.
The Women’s Premier League wrapped up on Sunday and the blistering start to the campaign from the Northern Lights faded in Edinburgh as they lost by 8 wickets to Stewarts Melville. Carlton finished top of the league narrowly ahead of West of Scotland with the Northern Lights in 5th spot out of the 8 teams involved.