Grade 1 is boiling towards a conclusion with 3 teams still in the race. Knight Riders beat Bon Accord to go 3 points clear at the top and Crescent stay level with Bons after a good win at Cults. AGSFPs were double winners in 2021 but they will be heading to Grade 2 after an 8 wicket defeat to Gordonians. 2nd Knight Riders lost heavily at Mannofield and drop into the other relegation spot. Inverurie piled on the runs at Kellands Park against Master Blasters but still lost by 3 wickets.
In Grade 2, Siyapa remain on course for promotion despite a last over defeat to 2nd Grampian. Banchory beat Ellon by 6 wickets and Fraserburgh chased down a below par score by Portcullis at Duthie Park to also record a 6 wicket win.
In Grade 3, Methlick kept their unbeaten league run intact as they beat Dunecht by 6 wickets. Siyapa had a walkover against Crathie, and Huntly had a big win over 2nd Methlick. Methlick, 2nd Siyapa and Huntly have the 3 promotion places sewn up. The best of the rest at the moment are 2nd Gordonians after they beat their 3rd team by 129 runs in a game notable for a half century from 12 year old Riyansh Kirodian. Stonehaven beat Stoneywood Dyce by 5 wickets at Mineralwell Park as Andy Gale continued his purple patch with the bat with an unbeaten 73.
In the SPCU North East Championship, Meigle all but wrapped up the title as they ran up 300 for 8 against 2nd Arbroath at Lochlands. Their pro Raju Gayashan stepped up with 110 and a swashbuckling 69 from Zahid Rasheed finished the game as a contest. Shahzeb Saeed took 4 for 16 to dismiss Arbroath for 125. Meigle are at home to bottom side Dundee High next week, and barring the biggest shock since the word shock was coined, they will be in the play off against the top team from ESCA for the sole promotion slot to the Eastern Premier League. Manu Saraswat took 4 for 17 and Lewis Munro 3 for 23 as Aberdeenshire bowled out Strathmore for a ponderous 105. Lewis Munro was elevated to open the innings and he set the tone with a rapid 34 before his opening bowling partner Dian Forrester finished the game off in style with a 6 to give Shire a 6 wicket win in the 19th over.
Huntly have been a model of consistency as they stay level on points in second spot with Aberdeenshire. Jordan Squire took the 3 big 2nd Stoneywood Dyce wickets for 15 runs as SDCC were bowled out for 101. Jon Grant removed both Huntly openers very quickly, but that just set up an unbeaten 3rd wicket partnership between Sam Cuconits and Callum Whyte as Huntly coasted home.
Gordonians stay 4th in the table after beating Kinloch by 62 runs at Countesswells. With 3 of their top 4 batters missing, Gordonians had to downscale their batting expectations, and it needed an unbeaten 63 from Adi Mehta to take them to 173 for 9. Kinloch made it to 61 for 1 before the wheels came off in familiar fashion. Once Tahir Niazi went for 43, a display of injudicious shot play and a good spell of 3 for 9 from Mayank Bhandari brought the game to a conclusion. Perth Doocot suffered at the hands of the returning Safyaan Sharif as they hosted Freuchie. Perth pro Usman Saeed only hit 5 boundaries as he top scored with 75 before becoming one of 3 victims for Sharif. Sharif was 59 not out as he guided Freuchie to a 7 wicket win. Dundee High were bowled out for 148 by 2nd Forfarshire who lost 3 wickets knocking the runs off.
The Eastern Premier League was all about pride as the winners and losers had been decided already. Stoneywood Dyce went to champions Heriot’s and Ewan Davidson top scored with 34 as they were all out for 170. SDCC did well to take 5 Heriot’s wickets, but Hayes Van Der Berg made 74 to sweeten the taste of any residual champagne.
An unbeaten 116 from Liam Naylor took RH Corstorphine to a useful 268 for 4 against Falkland. The Falkland reply included 4 half centuries with Lyle Robertson providing the late fireworks to take Falkland to victory. Falkland move ahead of Stoneywood Dyce into 8th position. Bryce Carnegie can be a bit hit and miss on the bowling side of things, but his 5 for 41 helped Arbroath dismiss Stewarts Melville for 213. A quick 83 from Marc Petrie set Arbroath on the way to a rare win, but they almost made a mess of it as they lost 9 wickets.
It was a cracker of a match at Myreside as Grange rattled up 316 for 9 against Watsonian. A quick 60 from Oli Hairs and 141 from Michael Carson should have set up a Watsonian win, but with 6 needed off the last over, they were restricted to only 3 runs and an agonising defeat. Forfarshire totalled 263 for 6 against Carlton and Jack O’Neill took 5 for 19 as Carlton made a disappointing 116 in reply.
The Northern Lights had made a great start to their WPL campaign, but it fizzled out as the season progressed. The Beyond Boundaries Women’s Scottish T20 Cup gave them another opportunity to showcase their talents. They had reached the finals day by beating RH Corstorphine by 12 runs in an earlier quarter final, and they took a quality squad to the games at Freuchie and Falkland. In the semi final at Freuchie they bowled out West of Scotland for 33 with Deethya Balamurali taking 3 for 6. Faced with such a small total, the Lights tinkered with the batting order and lost 5 wickets in winning within 10 overs. They made the short hop to Falkland for the final against Stewarts Melville and found them a totally different proposition to their semi final opponents. 67 from Hannah Short led Stew Mel to a challenging 133 for 7 off their 20 overs, Kirsty McColl taking 3 for 20 for the Lights. Stew Mel have a promising set of young pace bowlers, but they regularly put the ball in the slot for Becky Glen and Ailsa Lister, and the scoreboard rattled along to 77 off 6 overs. Katie McGill took the wickets of Lister and Glen for 25 and 48 respectively, but it didn’t take long for the Lights to wrap up a 7 wicket success and head home with the silverware.