George Ninan hopes ending their losing run can help Stoneywood Dyce play “fearless” cricket until the end of the season.
Stoneywood Dyce ended their nine-game losing streak with victory over RH Corstorphine last weekend, with Ninan chipping in with 43 with the bat and three wickets for the ball.
It has been a tumultuous time for the People’s Park side, who had seen their promising start to the season ebb away amid a desperate search for form.
During that period they changed captain, with Jamie King departing to go travelling and Lennard Bester taking the reins.
Change of approach
They now have just two games remaining in the campaign, starting with Heriot’s on Saturday and Ninan hopes their fortunes have changed.
“People were putting their hands up but somewhere in between we lost a bit of momentum. We have been playing parts of games well but not finishing it.
“That’s the reason why we are where we are in the league. Hopefully the first win in 10 weeks turns a corner for us and we go into the rest of the season playing fearless cricket.
“If you had asked at the start of the season if we’d have been happy with these results, then we’d have said no. We did well in the first third of the season then tailed off a bit.
“But we’ve had a change of leadership in the middle, which is not easy, and we’ve lost a quality player in Jamie.”
The change of approach from King to Bester may take some adjusting to but Ninan believes they will see the benefits of it.
“There’s a lot of respect for Lenny from the team and with the intensity he wants to play at, you can definitely see a change start to happen in the squad,” he said.
“Jamie was a bowling captain and Lenny is a batting one, so it’s a different perspective. They’re both good in their own right but over the last couple of seasons we have struggled with the bat, so having a batting captain should help us get better at that.”
Shire not losing hope in promotion push
Meanwhile, in the North-East Championship Kenny Reid has called on Aberdeenshire to take the title race to the final day of the season.
With two games left Meigle, who are away to Arbroath United 2nds tomorrow, top the table. Shire face Strathmore at Lochside Park.
Although it appears unlikely the Mannofield side will achieve promotion back to the Eastern Premier Division captain Reid hasn’t given up hope.
He said: “Meigle’s two games are Arbroath and Dundee who you would expect them to beat. All we can do is concentrate on what we can do and if we win our last two games you don’t know what might happen.
“It seems unlikely but we just need to concentrate on what we do. We want to win and take it to the last day because you never know what can happen.
“Meigle have only lost once this season, which was against ourselves, so credit to them. We’ll see where we end up at the end of the year, but it’s out of our hands.”
Elsewhere, third-placed Huntly play Stoneywood Dyce 2nds at People’s Park and fourth-placed Gordonians welcome Kinloch to Countesswells.
