With the sun shining and good forecasts expected all round it’s a stark contrast to the weather of a fortnight ago.
Gordonians are missing Jamil Sheikh for the visit of 2nd Knightriders but do welcome Adi Hegde who captained their Strathmore Union side last weekend. 2nd Knights have Uday Reddy and Bijin Vijayaraj in their line up.
Chandu’s chargers aka Mannofield have a stronger side on paper than the one that thumped Inverurie last weekend. In comes Rameez Hashmi and Daniel Brown while Chandana Alawattage is controversially dropped despite his impressive back lift. Master Blasters make the short trip to Mannofield for this one.
Knightriders and Grammar meet at Groats Road and the home side appears to be keeping their line up under wraps until the last minute. Geoff Morrison hasn’t passed a last minute fitness test after just returning from Ibiza. George Gill also misses out for the away team.
Bon Accord go with their tried and tested line up for a visit to Cults, in a fixture which generally gets both teams a little bit hot around the collars hopefully the game will be remembered for the right rather than the wrong reasons.
Crescent seem to be missing a few regulars as they welcome Inverurie to the Links. There’s no sign of Anjum Toor, Dave Gibson, Shoaib Tahseen or Rajeevan Sujaya in their team lines. Inverurie are still missing offshore tiger Jordan Thom although George Hadden returns to captain his threadbare side.
In Grade 2 Grampian have 2 sides to select a team from as their 2nds aren’t in action and Fraserburgh have the opposite problem as holiday season seems to have struck them down. Despite his experience I cannot believe Michael Watson has taken a holiday during the cricket season. Big things will be required from the Broch’s answer to Lance Klusener aka Chris Gospel.
Siyapa make the trip out to Banchory and home side are without Tim Donald who is enjoying the hostelries of Turnbridge Wells. Siyapa are missing Arfan Ali who is head and shoulders above everyone else in the wicket taking stakes in Grade 2 with 15. His nearest rival on 9, Mark Herbert will be looking to eat into that in this fixture.
Ellon include Greenfield, Veldsman, Barrett, Webb and Davies for their journey to Duthie Park to meet Portcullis. Portcullis opening batters Jake Dawson and Dave Forbes were in fine form last weekend so will hope this continues. Portcullis are without Ben and Stuart Horne for this one.
In Grade 3, Methlick are the lucky recipients of the Crathie pies although with todays weather they could probably do with a refreshment from the Coilacriech Inn instead.
Stoneywood Dyce had Bruce Davidson in the wickets last weekend and their batting has been strengthened by the inclusion of Libin Thomas when they meet 2nd Siyapa at Rubislaw. 2nd Siyapa are without Sultan Sikandar but Arshad Nisar is their top wicket taker this season and he’s in their 11.
2nd Methlick include Bryan Carr for his first game of the season but will be looking towards young Fraser Grant and Lewis Crutchfield to do the damage with the ball. Vijay Hegde has the captains armband for 4th Gordonians as the Nair’s and Amirthraj’s miss out.
2nd Gordonians host Stonehaven and include hired gun Brian Lynas who has completed his permitted loan games for Dunecht. Gordos have to do without Karl Morris and Ryan Davis but do include teenage run machine Tanish Kirodian. Stonehaven have a good mix of youth and experience and its rumoured that W.G.Grace was one of Clive Hinchliffe’s first wickets.
Dunecht have scratched to Huntly.