On a day unfortunately dominated by the leaked headline of the findings of the plan4sport review into racism in Scottish cricket, thousands in the country got on with playing cricket.
Crescent stayed top of Grade 1 with a comfortable win over Gordonians. Arun Singh took out the Gordos top 4 fairly swiftly to reduce them to 33 for 4 and it needed a late order 30 from 14 year old Adi Mukhopadhya to hoist them to 151 all out. 60 from Alex Pereira and 45 from Anksuh Sharma gave Crescent a 4 wicket win in the 37th over. Gordonians slump into the relegation places.
Bon Accord keep up the pressure in 2nd spot as they posted the biggest total of the day in the Grades. 2nd Knight Riders were the ones to do the leather chasing as Bons rattled up 280 for 8. No centuries this week for Bons but a 28 ball unbeaten 59 from Omerkhail batting at 10 took the game away from 2nd KR who were all out for 134 with Shakeel Ahmed taking 4 for 28.
Game of the day was at Inverurie where the game went to the last ball. It was just like the old days as Messrs Hadden and Norval put on a 109 opening stand for Inverurie before Trevor was out for 78. George continued on to 71 with Chris Watson making 34 as Inverurie totalled 228 for 7. Knight Riders openers couldn’t repeat the heroics of last week and they struggled to 61 for 5 before Sivaganesan Palaniappan with 93 began a recovery. 5 overs to go, 3 wickets in hand and 32 needed, and then 4 to win off the last 4 balls and the last pair at the crease, and Chris Watson kept his cool to bowl out the rest of the over and run out Uday Raghavendra for 72 off the last ball for a 1 run victory for Inverurie.
A quickfire 46 from Syed Ali got Cults off to a great start at Mannofield, and with 53 from Muhammad Tahir and an unbeaten 47 from Ravi Mahajan, their 220 for 9 seemed respectable. Alex Cummings took 4 for 30 for Mannofield, but he wasn’t required to bat as they chased down the win for the loss of 5 wickets, Rahul Chandu again being the star man with 70.
The Grammar revival didn’t appear at Allan Park as they were well beaten by Master Blasters. 58 from Denzyl Fernandes was the top score in the MBA total of 276 and Hemal Chovatiya picked up 5 for 18 to bundle out Grammar for 90.
Grampian maintained their lead in Grade 2 with a victory at Fraserburgh. Jeby George was the main contributor for Grampian with the bat as he made 109 out of their total of 226. Nobody for Fraserburgh could kick on with the bat and they finished on 156 for 9. A distinctly understrength Banchory were all out for 167 against Siyapa, Will George making 85. Siyapa won by 7 wickets with Hassan Mahood not out on 64. Portcullis were obviously taking their trip to Ellon seriously as they pulled Bob Adie out of retirement. A career best 43 from David Forbes got the Portcullis batting off to a good start, but it was an unbeaten 96 from Connor Johnson that formed the bulk of their 196 for 7. Ben Webb made 60 for Ellon, but a surprise 7 for 36 from Owen Thorpe helped bowl Ellon out for 172.
Methlick retained their unbeaten position at the top of Grade 3 but they were pushed hard by Stoneywood Dyce at Duthie Park. 75 from Mark Lambley took SDCC to an excellent 209 for 4, and Adam Veersema made 65 for Methlick before the experienced pairing of Duffy and Cordiner rounded off a narrow 2 wicket win. Gordonians 2nds and 3rds were comprehensively defeated by the other promotion chasers Huntly and 2nd Siyapa. The expected runfest at Countesswells didn’t happen as Donald Morrison and Nathan Coffey were too hot for the 2nd Gordos batters, bowling them out for 122. Michael Myron-Petrie was unbeaten on 53 as Huntly won by 9 wickets. 2rd Gordos made 139 at Sheddocklsey against 2nd Siyapa who only lost 3 wickets in the chase.
Veera Mani had a field day for Dunecht taking 5 for 11 to restrict 2nd Methlick to a pedestrian 100 for 9 at Lairds. Dunecht took their time winning by 7 wickets. Geoff Boardman carried his bat for an unbeaten 92 as Crathie totalled 171 for 6 at Stonehaven, Nigel King taking 4 for 19. Andy Gale made a rare duck, but his opening partner Nathan Macaulay-Dicks made 73 to help Stonehaven to a 3 wicket win.
The results in the SPCU North East Championship were fairly predictable, particularly at Dalnacraig where Dundee HSFP needed 31 extras to get to a total of 52 in 20 overs against Aberdeenshire. Kenny Reid was 43 not out as Shire knocked the score off in 44 balls. The Freuchie resistance against Meigle was pretty much a one man show as Safyaan Sharif scored 86 out of their 152, nobody else other than extras making it into double figures. Meigle were always in control as they lost 5 wickets winning.
Half centuries from Adi Hegde and Akhlaq Bashir laid the platform for the Gordonians score of 222 against 2nd Arbroath, although a middle and late order collapse precipitated by Craig Ross taking 4 for 17 ruined a quick start. 2nd Arbroath were all out for 148 as they couldn’t control their attacking stroke play.
Huntly piled up 249 for 6 at home to Kinloch, Sam Cuconits agonisingly bowled on 99. Kinloch were all out for 138 with Hussain and Newlands doing the majority of the bowling damage for Huntly.
35 from Martin Reid took 2nd Stoneywood Dyce to 84 for 2 before the innings fell apart as they were all out for 106, Liam Sweeney taking a miserly 4 for 11. David Kidd took 3 wickets as Strathmore picked up the points in a 6 wicket win.
Stoneywood Dyce continued their drift down the Eastern Premier League as they lost away to Grange. Chris Greaves top scored with 79 for the hosts as Garreth Wolmarans took 4 for 21 to bowl out Grange for 210. New captain Lennard Bester and former captain Jamie King were the top SDCC batters with 15 apiece as Gordon Goudie and Chris Sole took early wickets to bowl out SDCC for 111. The relegation battle between Arbroath and Falkland went the way of Arbroath despite Harsha Cooray posting an unbeaten century for Falkland. Willem Lubbe made 55 but Craig Cameron led the way with 82 not out as Arbroath scored an unassailable 299 for 4. Arbroath remain adrift at the foot of the table. Heriot’s stay top having scored 204 against Stewarts Melville, Fraser Proud making 48 as he looks to add the EPL title to his Grade 1 double last season with AGSFPs. Stew Mel were all out for 160 in reply. Forfarshire stay second having restricted RH Corstorphine to 236 for 9 and only losing 6 wickets as they narrowly won on DLS. Watsonian got the better of Carlton with Oli Hairs celebrating his Scotland call up with 54 off 34 balls and 5 for 41 in a 2 wicket win.