It was a day to be a bowler at People’s Park in the Eastern Premier League clash between Stoneywood Dyce and Carlton. Tom Simpson was the only Carlton batter who got to grips with things at Stoneywood as wickets fell at regular intervals. His reaction when he was out for 43 to make Carlton 86 for 6 may well get him a weekend off fairly soon. 9 runs later and the innings crumbled as 4 wickets fell with the score stuck on 97, David Kidd taking a hat trick to finish with 5 for 35. Stoneywood Dyce lost their first wicket on 27 and with the score at 51 for 2 they must have sensed a chance of victory. Enter Ali Evans and exit Bester, Elliott and Kumar as the second hat trick of the game arrived. Rudy Adair then cleaned up the tail as 78 for 5 became 79 all out.
Grade 1 has new leaders as Mannofield beat Master Blasters by 5 wickets to open up a small 4 point gap at the top. Aarush Sharma and James Robb took the first 7 Master Blasters wickets to fall as only 44 went on the board. Pehlaj Tenneti made an unbeaten 47 and Jay Gajjar 42 as Varinder Sood picked up 3 for 18 to leave Master Blasters all out on 136 in the 29th over. The Mannofield reply didn’t have a promising start as they were reduced to 42 for 4, but a 37 ball undefeated 56 from Sood secured a 5 wicket win.
Gordonians moved into the tie in 2nd spot after an 83 run victory over AberGreen. 47 from Harshad Parkar set up the innings but it was a quick 35 not out from Tanish Kirodian at the end that lifted the total to 204 for 9. Ashfaq Bashir with 5 for 16 made a mess of the AberGreen middle order, Salman Bedaar top scoring with 37 out of their total of 121.
Cults are one point behind the 2nd place log jam after a comprehensive win over Crescent. Unbeaten knocks of 122 from Saqib Ali and a 43 ball whirlwind 82 from Ubaid Ullah took Cults to 288 for 5. Crescent did well to bat out the overs and take maximum batting points on 182 for 9, Asad Hashmi (53) controlling a 59 run partnership at the end.
The Knight Riders knightmare continued as Fraser Lawrance had the remarkable figures of 8 overs, 5 maidens, 4 for 4, to bowl them out for 108. Trevor Norval made 53 as Inverurie won by 9 wickets.
The Grade 2 game of the day didn’t last much of the day as Mahesh Challa with 8 for 10 skittled Ellon for 28 in 14 overs. AGSFPs won by 9 wickets within 8 overs.
Sam Rotheram kept his batting average above 100 despite being out for 74 as Banchory visited Huntly and were dismissed for 154. Charlie Kennedy topped the scoring with 40 as Huntly eased to a slightly unexpected 6 wicket win.
An unbeaten 45 from Mike Hordley built on a solid top order start for Methlick against Portcullis at Duthie Park. Shivam Malaviya took 3 for 27 on debut for Portcullis as Methlick posted 168 for 6. Faced with some tight bowling, the Portcullis reply never really sparked into life, and they were bowled out in the 39th over for 117. Methlick are joint top alongside AGSFPs.
A Cory Bowie half century is usually a reliable platform for a Fraserburgh win and his 65 was the mainstay of their 200 for 8 against 2nd Knight Riders. Chris Gospel had his bowling boots on taking 4 for 33 to bowl out 2nd Knight Riders for 140.
The 2nd Grampian v 2nd AberGreen match turned into a last ball thriller. 2nd Grampian were 146 all out and at 126 for 4 it looked like 2nd AberGreen had the chase under control, but it came down to the final over with 2 wickets in hand and 4 runs required. Whilst the final 6 balls took quite a while to get through, the short bursts of action were frenetic. A wicket fell first ball and 4 far from stylish scrambled singles gave 2nd AberGreen victory.
Crathie top Grade 3 after notching up their 3rd win of the season. Jeff Schuneman took 4 for 13 as 2nd Methlick found run scoring difficult making 109 for 7 off their 40 overs. Crathie weren’t in a hurry in their innings but Fergus MacLeod paced it well with 53 to give Crathie a 6 wicket victory.
2nd Master Blasters were surprisingly beaten by 3rd Gordonians who were playing their first match of the season. Amol Deshmukh made a run a ball 52 but the Master Blasters total of 187 for 7 was below par for Countesswells. 3rd Gordonians used 9 bowlers and only conceded 9 wides. A 133 run partnership between Mahesh Patel (71) and 13 year old Riyansh Kirodian (65) set up a 6 wicket win.
Alex Mitchell picked up 4 for 17 as Dunecht were bowled out by 2nd Mannofield for 178. Alan Burnett will have been delighted to have removed Stuart Horne first ball to keep the shackles on any pretensions of a run chase. 2nd Mannofield batted out the overs to finish on 138 for 8.
66 from Martin Reid was the highlight of the Stoneywood Dyce score of 164 for 9 against Stonehaven. He was one of 5 victims for Zafeer Hussain who was also in at the end of the Stonehaven innings as they scraped home with 2 balls to spare. Andy Gale batted through unbeaten on 70, whilst Nathan Macaulay-Dicks had got them off to a good start with 43.
Huntly stay top of the SPCU North East Championship but they were made to work hard for the win by Strathmore. Jordan Squire with 5 for 20 was instrumental in bowling out Strathie for 118. Liam Sweeney and Kris Grant took 3 wickets apiece as Huntly were 8 down before getting over the line.
Shehroz Khan made a half century for Kinloch at Aberdeenshire, but their tail that had shown so much resistance against Gordonians were bundled out by Findlay Anderson and David Gamblen as they subsided to 131 all out. Shire were in a bit of trouble at 69 for 6, but John Dickinson (43no), with steady support from Anderson put on a 63 run partnership to see Shire pick up the points.
Varun Kumar took 3 good wickets to help Gordonians bowl out Freuchie for 152, although Mayank Bhandari did what every good skipper should do and cleaned up the last 3 wickets for only 2 runs. The Gordos batting misery continued as Robbie Wright and Jeandre Niemann took regular wickets to bowl out Gordos for 86, Bhandari top scoring with 32.
Safyaan Sharif has been in great form for Perth Doocot, but even his 43 and 3 for 18 couldn’t make up for some otherwise average Perth batting as they lost by 5 wickets to 2nd Forfarshire.
Pranav Saravanan took 5 for 8 to back up the opening spell of 4 for 18 by Keegan Crawford as Arbroath had an easy 9 wicket win against 2nd Falkland. They stay top with Huntly.
In the other Eastern Premier League games Michael Leask was in top form with 139 for Forfarshire against Stewart’s Melville who were never going to chase the 333 for 7 that Forfs totalled. Scott Cameron took 4 for 32 as Stew Mel were out for 196.
Grange made it 4 wins out of 4 as they cruised past Watsonian who are pointless from their 3 games. Angus Brown took 6 for 26 for Grange to tee up a comfortable 9 wicket win.
Heriot’s are also unbeaten and Lloyd Brown batted through for 136 to pave the way for a 103 run win over Falkland.
Brandon McMullen showed his international form as he piled up a quick 111 not out at Meigle for RH Corstorphine. 283 for 4 was too much for Meigle who were all out for 131.
The weather wasn’t helpful on Sunday for the cup ties. In the Scottish Cup Aberdeenshire v Grange was postponed. Crescent and Cults will try again in the Aberdeenshire Cup next Sunday, and the Bon Accord Cup tie between Huntly and 2nd Knight Riders will have to be rearranged.
The Bon Accord Cup match at Fraserburgh survived and the home side made a very useful 143 for 3 with Omar Rahani making 59 not out. Mausam Thapa replied with a half century for Banchory but nobody else was able to make any inroads and they finished 42 runs short.
The Northern Lights travelled down to Edinburgh to play Watsonians in the Women’s Premier League. Megan McColl opened up with a half century as they amassed 210 for 7 in 30 overs, and it was a merciless bowling display as Emily Henderson took 4 for 17 to bowl out Watsonians for 91.