Very little cricket in the North East survived as thick fog descended on the granite city. The City Council made an early and sensible decision to take matters out of the hands of the captains by calling off Rubislaw, Groats Road and Harlaw. Other pitches were wet, and with no prospect of any sun to dry things up, early cancellations were the order of the day.
Crescent and Knight Riders did give it a go at Links but the visibility reduced to such a level that they upped stumps after 12 overs. The only game in Grade 1 to reach a conclusion was at Inverurie. The hosts had an excellent start as Trevor Norval made 31 and Jordan Thom 67 as they advanced to 128 for 2, but when Thom became one of 3 victims for Mirza the run scoring slowed and Inverurie were all out in the final over for 185. Malik also took 3 wickets including Fraser Lawrence for 29. Khawar Ahmed was Bons opening partner for Fazal Awan and he wasn’t shy to play his shots making 36 off 14 balls. If he had batted for much longer he may have denied Awan the opportunity to record the first Grade 1 century of the season. This came up in the 20th over as Awan was unbeaten on 103 in a quick 66 ball knock as Bons won by 7 wickets.
You had to head inland if you wanted to see a match in Grade 2. It was a good day for Michael Myron-Petrie as he topped the batting and bowling for Huntly as they beat visitors 2nd AberGreen by 5 wickets. Salman Jafri contributed 34 of the 2nd AberGreen total of 138, Michael taking 3 for 26. Michael opened the batting with Anuj Dawar and they broke the back of the run chase with a 65 run partnership. Arfan Ali then took 4 wickets to reduce Huntly to 90 for 5, but Emily Henderson and Lewis Myron-Petrie steadied the ship and took Huntly to victory in the 29th over.
Half centuries proved elusive at Banchory. Alex Keith and Agha Haider both scored 49 and Rob Swiergon 48 as AGSFPs posted 203 for 7 from their 40 overs. Swiergon took the prized wicket of Sam Rotheram for 39 and Prasanth Poosappadi 5 for 24 as a rare bowling spell from Geoff Morrison secured the final Banchory wicket and a 13 run win.
Stonehaven looked like they might provide an upset at home to 2nd Master Blasters as they advanced to 121 for 2, but when Nathan Macaulay-Dicks with 72 became the first of 3 wickets for Aravind Kolapalli it was attritional accumulation to 151 all out. Sabreesh Tenneti was particularly miserly with 4 for 14 from his 9 overs. 41 from Ram Pamidimukkala led the way to a 6 wicket win for the visitors with 12 overs to spare.
Umpiring is a fairly thankless pursuit, but calling off the much anticipated SPCU North East Championship match between Aberdeenshire and Huntly was made easier by water pooling on the outfield. Not quite so easy at Countesswells as the fog eventually teased the umpires into submission at 1pm and one of the umpires headed back to Inverness without so much as a sandwich.
Elsewhere in the SPCU, a quality overseas gun can only paper over the cracks so far, and Lance Trueman almost took Strathmore to a surprise victory over Perth Doocot at Forfar. His bowling prowess was sacrificed as he took the keeping gloves whilst Dale Sweeney rolled back the relative years with 4 for 33 to keep Perth to 206 for 7 off their 35 overs. The score was 161 for 4 when Trueman was out for 102 trying to accelerate at the start of the 31st over and Strathie could only add another 15 runs as the chase died a death.
Harjeet Brar made a century as 2nd Forfarshire piled up 267 away to 2nd Falkland. Whilst 2nd Falkland have talented batters in their ranks, this was a challenge too far and they were all out for 124.
Kinloch have rarely perfected the approach to a 45 over innings, and 197 at Freuchie is decent on paper, but it doesn’t look so clever when you’ve not used 10 of the available overs. An unbeaten 54 from Ian Stonebridge eased Freuchie to a 6 wicket win.
In the Eastern Premier League Du Preez Stander had a front row seat as his fellow 10 Stoneywood Dyce batters were dismissed at the other end. Stander was 43 not out in a total of 88 that took the best part of 38 overs to accrue as they struggled against the bowling of Chris Greaves who picked up 6 for 35. Only Stander and Lennard Bester hit boundaries against an exceptional Grange bowling line up. The Grange reply was unabashed Bazball stuff as defensive shots were a rarity. Abdullah Khalid will be delighted with the 2 beautiful deliveries that bowled Budge and Greaves but it was all over within 10 overs as Grange won by 6 wickets.
An undefeated 63 from Marcus Harvey helped Meigle post a fairly uninspiring 182 for 9 at home to Watsonian, Liam Naylor taking 4 for 28. Oli Hairs went off like a train as usual, but Zahid Rasheed bowled him as he rattled through the top 4 Watsonian batters. Andrew Chalmers seemed to have the reply under control, but 2 cheap wickets for Raju Gayashan hastened a fairly irresponsible collapse and Chalmers was left high and dry on 55 as they were dismissed for 127.
Bryce Allchin took 3 for 19 for Forfarshire to bowl out Falkland for 119. Forfs needed just under 20 overs to complete a 7 wicket win.
Carlton and Stewart’s Melville were both all out for just over 100 in their respective games against Heriot’s and RH Corstorphine, but the weather intervened to save them from probable defeats.