With glorious weather over the weekend it was perfect conditions for high scoring cricket. with only 2 teams in Grade 1 not totalling more than 200.
Mannofield stay top, but it wasn’t plain sailing against Grampian for whom all 8 batters who made it to the crease reached double figures. Alwin Nimmy top scored with 49 out of their 240 for 6, Andrew Hastie a little unlucky not to pick up more than 2 for 50. 56 from Lokesh Saraswat got the Mannofield reply off to a steady start and Hastie claimed a man of the match gong for his unbeaten 50 as they won with 9 balls to spare.
Inverurie almost pulled off a surprise at Links as George Hadden and Trevor Norval put on 112 before Norval was first out for 74. Hadden almost batted straight through for his 86 as they posted 250 for 5. Fazal Awan couldn’t make it to a 5th century, but when he was out for 64 Bons were 154 for 3 and looking comfortable. 224 for 4 became 224 for 6 and another couple of wickets fell before Presanth Gopinathan launched a 6 off the last ball of the 39th over to reach his 50 and win the match.
Mannofield and Bons are the only teams to have lost only one game as Master Blasters beat Gordonians at Countesswells to leave them both with 2 defeats. Gordonians batted first with Ash Bashir contributing 53 of their 209 for 7. 3 wickets from Pranav Gollakota reduced Master Blasters to 176 for 7, but with 7 needed off the last over Jay Gajjar hit 8 off the first 3 balls to clinch victory.
AberGreen got off to a dreadful start with the bat against Cults at Harlaw, but 55 from Salman Bedaar and 53 wides helped them to 240 for 9. What looked a daunting total turned out to be a bit of a cakewalk for Cults as a century from Saqib Ali and an unbeaten 65 from Ibrahim Niamatullah saw them home for the loss of only 2 wickets and with 7 overs to spare.
The Knight Riders resurgence continued as they had a 6 wicket win over Crescent. Tharun George took 4 for 23 and Sivaganesan Palaniappan 3 for 9 to bowl out Crescent for 95. Knight Riders lost 4 wickets as they won in the 22nd over.
AGSFPs lead the Grade 2 table after a convincing win over Methlick. Agha Haider picked up 4 for 13 as they kept Methlick down to 138 for 8, Adam Veersema top scoring with 47. Unbeaten half centuries from Alex Keith and Haider eased AGSFPs to the points in 19 overs.
89 from Jonny Barrett set up a useful 162 for 8 as Ellon faced Huntly at Gordon Park. A solid 32 from Anuj Dawar got the Huntly reply off to a good start, and when wickets began to fall Charlie Kennedy saw Huntly to a 4 wicket victory with an undefeated 33.
Shakhawat Hossain was out 5 runs short of a century as 2nd Grampian piled up 240 for 7 at Inverdee against Portcullis. Harry Murphy opened up with 41 for Portcullis and they got themselves in a position for a late slog, but the fireworks didn’t happen and they were all out for 202.
2nd Knight Riders lost 7 wickets as they overhauled the 160 all out of 2nd AberGreen.
In Grade 3 Stoneywood Dyce totalled 211 for 6 against 3rd Gordonians who weren’t quite quick enough out of the blocks in their innings, and despite some good contributions from their middle order, Chris Waggott took 4 for 25 to bowl out Gordos for 196. Gordos 2nds had a walkover against 2nd Methlick.
2nd Master Blasters moved back to the top of the table with a win over Crathie, although they had to rely on their late order batters to hoist them to 209 for 9. Crathie didn’t have their best day with the bat, on loan Mike Baldry making the highest score of the match with 48 as they were all out for 126.
Akshay Nagesh scored 110 and Jason Gouws weighed in with 70 as Stonehaven declared in the 32nd over on 302 for 8 against 2nd Mannofield. Everyone got a bat as Mannofield did well to bat out the 40 overs with Marcus Vila making 32 at the top of the order as they replied with 182 for 9.
In the SPCU North East Championship, Aberdeenshire were all out in their final over for 288 against 2nd Falkland. A belligerent 53 from Lewis Munro was followed by a similar knock from Josh Goodwin who was unbeaten on 82 as he watched George Gallagher pick up 5 late wickets for 39 at the other end. Graeme Watson made 80 in the Falkland reply, but they were never in with a serious shout of winning and were all out for 196.
Huntly are in 4th position in the league just 3 points ahead of Shire, and this despite a heavy defeat at home to Kinloch. A painstaking 51 from Hafeez Noumann set up the Huntly total of 210 for 9, Cameron Stewart and Jordan Squire taking 3 wickets apiece. Noumann hadn’t been asked to bowl in previous Kinloch matches, but he delivered 4 for 20 as Huntly were surprisingly bowled out for 94. Squire top scored with 24, but Hammad Hussain was actually the pick of the Kinloch bowlers with 4 for 8.
Abrar Ahmed kicked off the Gordonians innings against Strathmore with 80, but other than 41 from Adi Mehta, nobody else made it into double figures until Shubhan Kistareddy made 16 at number 11. 180 all out seemed well below par, but Strathmore seemed to be slipping to defeat as they lost their first 8 wickets for 84. With plenty of overs available the Strathmore tail showed the earlier batters how it should be done until Kistareddy was thrown the ball and took the final wicket to give Gordos a narrow 10 run win.
Craig Cameron took 5 for 17 as Arbroath bowled out Perth Doocot for 202, Joel Rush again in the runs with 79. Arbroath lost 3 wickets in a comfortable chase, Jared Meiring again the star batter with 88 not out. Arbroath stay top by a hefty margin.
In the remaining fixture Freuchie scored 223 for 3 to give them a 7 wicket win over 2nd Forfarshire.
In the Eastern Premier League, Jamie King was back with a bowling bang as he took 5 for 18 to help Stoneywood Dyce bowl out Forfarshire for 203, the latter losing their last 5 wickets for 13 runs. When George Ninan was out for 46 Stoneywood Dyce were on track at 82 for 2 but then wickets tumbled and they were all out for 150.
Grange stayed top of the EPL but Meigle will be wondering how they let a winning position slip through their hands in what turned out to be the match of the day. Tiaan Brits made an imperious 183 as Meigle went big with 354 for 6. Ryan Flannigan was out for 121 in the Grange reply, and as they chased boundaries Adi Hegde picked up 4 for 77. Thomas Foulds has a curious set up to his batting stance and rarely played a conventional shot as his unbeaten 58 off only 20 balls took Grange to a head shaking victory with 4 balls to spare.
Carlton didn’t get out of first gear with the bat as they totalled 212 for 7 against RH Corstorphine who also struggled to find any acceleration as they were all out off the last ball for 202.
Heriot’s lost their first league game as Stewart’s Melville put 251 for 9 on the scoreboard, Harry Armstrong top scoring with 64. Lloyd Brown made 77 opening for Heriot’s, but Riyaad Henry and Connor Shorten took early wickets as they worked their way through the batting order to bowl Heriot’s out for 181.
Liam Naylor took 4 for 30 as Watsonian bowled out Falkland for 179. A short rain break reduced the target to 173 and some late order jitters saw Watsonian stumble to a 1 wicket win.
Sunday saw the quarter finalists for the Cricket Scotland Challenge Cup decided, and North East interest remains with Crescent and Bon Accord getting through. Shannon Thorp took 5 for 21 as Northern Counties bowled out Crescent for 163. Dave Gibson took wickets at the right times to stifle the progress of Northern Counties and Pankaj Somusundaram picked up 4 for 17 to give Crescent a 42 run win.
Kelso skipper Greg Davidson took 5 for 18 including the wickets of Awan and Mirza as they bowled out Bons for 124. Having only got 9 with the bat, Fazal Awan made up for it with the ball as his 5 for 21 engineered a Kelso collapse to 73 all out.
A half century from Aman Arora was the main feature of a good Gordonians batting display as they scored 244 for 9 at home to Edinburgh South. Edinburgh South opener Adnan Mufti paced the reply perfectly with 133, but when he was out their lack of batting depth was exposed and they stumbled nervously to victory with 4 balls to spare.
The Aberdeenshire Cup quarter final between AberGreen and Grampian brought a 7 wicket win for Grampian. Jeby George with 52 and Josino Aluvathingal with 41 helped them ease past the AberGreen total of 139 with lots of time in hand.
49 from Cameron Stewart set up a Bon Accord Cup win for Huntly against 2nd Knight Riders. 140 for 4 proved too much for Knight Riders as they were restricted to 103 for 6.
A quick 82 from Mark Lambley took Stoneywood Dyce to 179 for 5 against 2nd Gordonians in the Reid Cup semi final. 52 from Alex Hounsome and an unbeaten 45 from Shahid Mir kept the game alive, but Gordos ended 10 runs short in their chase.
The ECB Vitality Under 13s national finals day saw Gordonians lose their semi final to Glasgow Accies, who then lost the final to an impressive Grange side. Gordonians comfortably won the 3rd/4th place play off against Perth Doocot.