It was another topsy turvy weekend at the top of Grade 1, although for those who like to keep up with the live scoring, or watch a live stream, Saturday was yet another frustrating day at the hands of the system providers, or in this case, non-providers.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the national under 14s finals day coming to Mannofield and Countesswells on Sunday. Uddingston had a surprisingly easy win against Watsonian in the semi final at Countesswells and Gordonians piled up too many runs for the Perth Doocot batters in the other semi at Mannofield. At this level batters have to retire at 30 and Prayuj Patel, Riyansh Kirodian and Rudra Chouksey all did so as Gordos posted 162 for 4 compared to Perth with 130 for 1 with 3 of their batters also retiring.
In the final none of the Uddingston batters made the retiral figure and Siddharth Seenivasan with 6 for 13 restricted them to 94 for 9. Kirodian and Chouksey both retired for Gordonians who only lost 2 wickets as they won in the 14th over of 20. This is the second time Gordonians have won a national junior title to follow on from their under 13s win in 2018, and builds on finishing runners up at under 15s and under 16s, and 3rd place at under 13s earlier this season.
The downpour in the centre of Aberdeen on Saturday killed off the Grade 1 games between Grampian and Gordonians, and Mannofield and Crescent, and the Bon Accord versus Cults game at Links was also a victim of the weather. No such issues at Inverurie although it was a tough afternoon for an understrength home side who laboured to 116 all out from their full 40 overs with Stuart Murrison top scoring with 36. Nikhil Chaudhari went home with a 5 wicket haul and Knight Riders recovered from losing 2 early wickets to ease to a quick 7 wicket win with Gautam Bhatia unbeaten on 54.
Given the weather in the City, it was a surprise that the game at Allan Park survived, but in a reduced overs game AberGreen posted a very useful 169 which included another half century from Hassan Masood. Ajay Narne of Master Blasters benefitted from the late scramble for runs as he took 4 for 23, and the Master Blasters reply was beautifully paced as Abhinav Kache opened up with 83 to help them to a 6 wicket win.
Gordonians made a good start in their match against Bon Accord on Sunday, but Bons fought back with Fazal Awan taking 3 for 15 to reduce them to 95 for 6. It was a vital last wicket partnership between Shaunak Bhatta and Mati Yar that helped Gordos to 169 for 9. An on form Bons would have coasted to victory, but the shine has been off their batting for a few weeks and 9 single figure batting scores highlighted their issues as Gordos bowled them out for 112.
Master Blasters are now top with Gordonians second and Bon Accord only 4 points behind the leaders.
Grammar had another stumble as they lost by 1 wicket to 2nd Knight Riders at Groats Road. 66 from Agha Haider was the only score of note as AGSFPs made 154 for 9. Mohan Vallatharasu was out for 51 but the good start for Knight Riders dissipated as the Grammar part time bowlers took wickets and it needed an unbeaten 26 from Bino Zachariah as a last wicket partnership of 20 took them home off the second last ball.
It was a slightly quicker game at Inverdee as Fraserburgh rattled through the 2nd AberGreen batters to bowl them out for 46 with Omar Rohani taking 3 for 9. Mustansar Ghazanfar took 4 for 16 as Fraserburgh showed their own batting frailties as they lost 6 wickets in picking up the win.
The Methlick decline continued at the hands of Ellon and it needed 42 from Mike Hordley to get their innings to 73 with Jonathan Barrett taking 4 for 3. Barrett was undefeated on 23 as Ellon didn’t have it all their own way in a 4 wicket win.
2nd Grampian discovered the secret to success and that was to include Mynul Nadim for their game versus Banchory. His 83 dominated their 135 all out as Tayyab Khalid took another 5 wicket haul for Banchory. Banchory had a series of low scores as Sony Gopinathan picked up 4 for 28 to bowl Grampian to a 58 run win.
Only 9 boundaries in the Huntly innings of 149 for 8 as Portcullis visited Castle Park. The Portcullis reply wasn’t exactly free flowing until Stuart Horne made an unbeaten 41 to give them a 5 wicket win with 11 balls in hand.
In Grade 3, 2nd Master Blasters stayed top as they comfortably defeated Dunecht. Rohith Eedara took 5 for 16 to bowl out Dunecht for 80 and a 6 wicket victory.
31 from Varun Kumar rescued a below par batting performance by 3rd Gordonians who were bowled out for 115 by Stoneywood Dyce, although that seemed like a fantastic score as Viji Nair took 6 for 6 to skittle an understrength Stoneywood Dyce for 44.
Siddharth Seenivasan warmed up for under 14s finals day as he made 83 out of the total of 210 by 2nd Gordonians against 2nd Methlick. Graeme Fowlie with 48 was the only Methlick batter to get going as they were all out for 136.
Jason Gouws picked up 5 for 20 as Stonehaven bowled out 2nd Mannofield for 144, but 4 for 10 from Sampath Rajapaksha took out the Stonehaven middle order and they were dismissed for 104.
The Eastern Premier League card was wiped out other than Oli Hairs fans getting to see him smash 91 off 42 balls for Watsonian against Carlton. Watsonian made 223 for 8 and Carlton didn’t make much impression as they were bowled out for a disappointing 115.
With 3 weeks to go, Grange carry forward a big points cushion at the top.
The SPCU North East Championship derby between Gordonians and Aberdeenshire didn’t set the heather on fire as the Gordonians batters had an off day and were bowled out for 86 with Manu Saraswat the main recipient with 5 for 20. Shire lost 4 wickets as Lewis Munro was 35 not out.
The Kinloch against Strathmore and Freuchie versus 2nd Falkland games didn’t start, and Huntly went a long way to Perth to watch the rain before heading home.
The surprise of the day was at Arbroath as the hosts made hard work of a reduced overs match against 2nd Forfarshire. The Arbroath bowling attack lacked their usual penetration and Forfs made 169 for 8, and despite 57 from Jared Meiring, Arbroath suffered their first league defeat as they fell short on 154 for 9.