Stoneywood Dyce skipper Jamie King hopes to enhance their Eastern Premier reputation by beating perennial challengers Grange.
The Edinburgh side head to Aberdeen this weekend to take on unbeaten Stoneywood Dyce, with King looking to build on an impressive start to the campaign.
Victory over Arbroath United last weekend, anchored by 99 from overseas amateur Garreth Wolmarans, was their third win of the season, on the back of a T20 triumph against Aberdeenshire and a 166-run demolition of Falkland.
King hopes Stoneywood Dyce can get to the stage where seeing off the league’s bigger sides is no longer seen as a surprise.
“There’s a great feeling around the club and we’re going into Saturday’s game confident and with nothing to lose,” he said. “Grange, Heriot’s, Watsonians can come up to Dyce and no-one expects us to get a result.
“But we want to be beating these sides and I don’t want it to be a shock that Stoneywood Dyce are beating Grange. We’re playing against sides with more money than us and we’re holding our own; it’s a great sign for Aberdeen cricket.
“Grange are missing a few but they will have a good squad no matter who is playing. It’s a great chance for us to take them on but they will put up a fight. We have to be prepared for that.”
The People’s Park side will be without Lennard Bester this weekend, who is resting a side injury picked up during his century against Falkland. George Ninan returns to the team at the top of the order while David Kidd, a regular alongside King in Stoneywood Dyce’s seam-attack in recent years, will continue his comeback with the seconds.
“All the bowlers have bowled well so far and deserve their place in the squad,” added King. “David took three wickets in the T20 game and for the seconds, so he’s knocking on the door waiting for his opportunity.
“It’s great for the club to have players like David and Shaun Coetzer playing well in the seconds.”
Huntly look to build on first Strathmore win
Meanwhile, in the North-East Championship Huntly captain Jack Mitchell is keen to build momentum after recording their first win of the campaign.
After last weekend’s triumph against Strathmore Huntly welcome Stoneywood-Dyce 2nds to Castle Park.
The Strathbogie side would appear to be stronger with the ball in hand rather than the bat.
But Mitchell – who made 60 their total of 166 last time out – reckons their batting unit will continue to improve.
The skipper said: “We want to try to build some momentum after winning last weekend, we’ve built some confidence in the team and hopefully that can help us push on.
“The next couple of games are quite important for ourselves because they’re games we’ve targeted.
“We’d definitely class ourselves as a bowling side and I think we’d rather bowl a side out than knock the runs off.
“But we have batters who are starting to get runs so I believe we can post good totals and if we do that I’d back our bowlers to defend it.”
Elsewhere in the North-East Championship Aberdeenshire will bid to make it four wins out of four when Strathmore visit Mannofield.
Gordonians make the trip to Forfar to tackle Kinloch at Lochside Park in Forfar.
