Mannofield retained their position at the top of Grade 1 with a win over Inverurie. An opening partnership of 78 between Rameez Hashmi and Rizwan Tahir saw them through the opening burst of the Inverurie bowling, and whilst none of the other Mannofield batters made major contributions, they posted a respectable 211 for 9. Jordan Thom took 3 for 44 for Inverurie, including the belated wicket of Tahir for 88. Chris Watson and Jordan Thom gave the Inverurie reply a solid platform, but wickets fell when the acceleration was required and Inverurie were all out for 141. Andrew Hastie topped the bowling for Mannofield with 3 for 33.
Indy Pandit made his first century since 2018 as he scored 101 out of a Gordonians score of 264 for 8 against Cults at Countesswells, although 2nd top on the scorecard was a remarkable 57 wides. Ibrahim Niamatullah took 4 for 57 to remove the Gordos middle order. The Cults chase ran out of overs on 243 for 9, but their proximity to the Gordos score was largely due to Ali Gohar contributing 99 off only 59 deliveries.
It was a good day for the Master Blasters bowlers as they skittled Grampian for 58. Safeer Peedikayil took 6 for 24 to improve his bowling average as Master Blasters won by 10 wickets.
AberGreen would have been quite happy with their score of 210 for 3 against Knight Riders, with half centuries from Salman Bedaar and Hassan Masood. The Knight Riders batters buckled down and completed a comfortable 7 wicket win with unbeaten half centuries from Somu Kumarasamy and Sivaganesan Palianappan.
It was carnage at Links as Fazal Awan hit 12 sixes in his 127, part of an opening partnership of 218 with Khawar Ahmed for Bon Accord. Crescent were never going to get anywhere near the 341 for 7 set by Bon Accord, and were all out for 120.
Sean Harrower was the surprise package in the bowling department for AGSFPs as his 6 for 31 bowled out 2nd Knight Riders for 111. Alex Keith would have had his eye on another half century, but a wide finished the match as he was poised on 46. An 8 wicket win for AGSFPs. Methlick share joint top spot with AGSFPs after a walkover against Ellon.
Omar Rohani picked up 5 for 27 as Fraserburgh bowled out 2nd AberGreen for 119. Tanweer Khan took 4 wickets as Fraserburgh almost made a hash of the chase, but Usman Shirzad held his nerve as the final wicket partnership gave them a narrow victory.
A rare batting failure from Sam Rotheram opened up the way for Mausam Thapa and Mark Herbert to do the run scoring for Banchory against 2nd Grampian. Both made it to half centuries as Banchory closed on 250 for 9, too much for their opponents who were all out for 163.
Portcullis notched up a 3 wicket win against Huntly as they overhauled 152 with a few overs to spare.
3rd Gordonians stay top of Grade 3 with a 9 wicket win over 2nd Mannofield. The latter were all out for 142 and Adi Mukhopadhya was in a hurry for Gordos as he crunched an unbeaten 72 off only 36 balls.
Dunecht batted out the overs against a strong 2nd Methlick bowling attack, John Moore taking 3 for 31 to restrict Dunecht to 135 for 9. It was game on at 57 for 6, but Tom Acton and Mike Hordley used their experience to stem the fall of wickets and give 2nd Methlick a 4 wicket win.
In the SPCU North East Championship, Aberdeenshire went to Freuchie and put 234 for 9 on the board with Kenny Reid making 80. This should have been enough, but numerous solid batting performances from the Freuchie line up took them home to a 3 wicket victory. David Gamblen was the only Shire bowler to make a meaningful impact with 3 for 22.
It was a bit of a mixed bag of bowling from Aman Arora as Gordonians were at Perth Doocot. His good balls were very good and saw Joel Rush and Safyaan Sharif edging to the keeper and to slip. Abrar Ahmed picked up 4 for 12 to finish off a fairly tame Perth effort of 128. The Gordonians openers took the attack to Perth and Ahmed and Arora put on 86 for the first wicket. Sharif returned to the attack to take 4 quick wickets and Gordos rather stumbled to a 4 wicket win.
2nd Forfarshire suffered at the hands of Andrew Petrie and Jack Mitchell as Huntly reduced them to 93 for 8, but a wagging tail led a recovery to 161 all out. 72 from Jay-Dee Oliver should have paved the way for a straight forward Huntly win, but regular wickets at the other end, plus 3 wickets in the 35th over meant that Andrew Petrie had to fulfil his number 11 duties and scurry between the stumps as they squeaked home with 9 wickets down.
Haseeb Kiyani had been turning out for Dunnikier in the ESCA Championship but he was back on the field for Strathmore making 50 out of their 152 for 8 against Arbroath. Ross McLean took 4 for 27 for Arbroath. An unbeaten 3rd wicket partnership of 134 took them to a comfortable win and they stay top alongside Huntly.
Kinloch had a 6 wicket win over 2nd Falkland as they chased a target of 183.
Watsonian posted the highest score of the day in the Eastern Premier League as Stoneywood Dyce visited. A century from Liam Naylor and a quick 50 from Oli Hairs helped set a formidable 313 for 7. Tom Pratt took 4 for 45 to clean up a decent Stoneywood Dyce lower order as they were all out for 196. Watsonian leapfrog Stoneywood Dyce who are the only EPL side without a win.
Forfarshire, Grange and Heriot’s maintained their unbeaten runs with wins over Meigle, Falkland and RH Corstorphine respectively.
Tiaan Brits was the only Meigle batter to really get going, his 73 being a large chunk of their 132 as Jack Hogarth and Michael Leask spun out 7 batters. The Forfs openers cruised to a 10 wicket win.
Jack Henderson batted throughout the Falkland innings for an unbeaten 102, but their total of 174 for 8 wasn’t enough as Foulds and McCreath both made 68 to secure an 8 wicket win for Grange.
It was the battle of the Scotland regulars as Brandon McMullen was 132 not out for RH Corstorphine as they scored 254. Matt Cross went higher with 145 not out for the successful Heriot’s reply.
Riyaad Henry took 4 for 34 for Stewart’s Melville including the scalps of both Carlton centurions. 299 for 6 was beyond the Stew Mel batters as they lost by 86 runs.
In the Scottish Cup on Sunday, Ryan Flannigan scored 102 of the Grange total of 256 against Aberdeenshire for whom Lewis Munro took 4 for 50. Josh Goodwin replied with 115 for Shire, but Jack Jarvis ran riot with 5 for 22 to dismiss Shire for 189.
Gordonians were at home to Dunnikier in the Challenge Cup and the visitors managed 181 for 7 off their 40 overs. The Gordos reply started well with Arora and Ahmed putting on 81 before Ahmed was out for 49. Things went a bit downhill from there and at 150 for 7 it needed all the experience of Chamila Perera and Ash Bashir to steer Gordos into the next round.
Blink and you’d have missed the Aberdeenshire Cup tie between Crescent and Cults. Only 3 Cults batters scored any runs as they were shot out for 30, Rana Ahmed taking 4 for 4. Crescent only needed 19 deliveries to move into the next round.
In the Reid Cup 2nd Gordonians worked hard for their 111 for 9 against 2nd Methlick at Lairds, Grant Cordiner picking up 3 for 16. The first Methlick wicket fell with the score on 25 and then the Gordos bowlers took command to bowl them out for 55 as an all Gordonians final remains a possibility.