North-east cricket enjoyed its best weekend of the season with Stoneywood-Dyce, Aberdeenshire, Gordonians and Huntly all picking up wins.
Stoneywood-Dyce ended a run of eight defeats to pick up their first win of the Eastern Premier League season at Meigle.
Lennard Bester, the Stoney captain, hailed his 88-run winners, saying: ”The potential for a win of this quality has always been there.
“We dominated the game. It’s just great to have turned in a complete performance.
“There were some outstanding individual performances, including Shaun Wolmarans’ bowling return of five for 33, while Jon Grant’s three for 18 was no less impressive.
“At the top of the batting order Du Preez Stander gave us a great start with a splendid 48.
“Ewan Davidson found his form with a battling 24 before going on to take two magnificent catches.
“We now need to build on this, and go from strength to strength.”
Just Shaun Wolmarans doing some Shaun Wolmarans things. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/gkIRZwVJXS
— Stoneywood Dyce (@StoneywoodDyce) June 25, 2023
The 168 set by Stoneywood-Dyce proved too much for the home side as they crumbled to 88 all out in the face of the pace of Wolmarans and Grant with only Peter Drummond Jnr offering any resistance with a stubborn 29.
The good showing sets Stoneywood-Dyce up nicely for the second half of the season which starts with a testing trip to Edinburgh on Saturday when they play defending champions Heriots.
Grange continue to dominate proceedings at the head of the division after nine wins in nine starts.
Bhandari content with display
In the North East Championship, Gordonians made it four wins on the bounce, although they made hard work of seeing off 2nd Forfarshire in a low scoring game at Countesswells.
After bowling out the visitors for 106, the Aberdeen side lost wickets at an alarming rate, relying on low order batsman Adi Mehta to steer them home with a workmanlike, unbeaten 33 to win by two wickets.
Captain Mayank Bhandari said: “It’s good to be up there, seeking a high finish.
“The close encounter made for good entertainment. It’s very enjoyable for us at the moment.”
Bhandari was once again grateful for the all-round contribution of Abrar Ahmed who took two wickets for three runs before opening the Gordonians innings with a sparkling 31.
”Abrar is in the form of his life. Long may it continue,” he said.
At a sun-soaked Mannofield, Aberdeenshire looked to be heading for defeat at the hands of Strathmore after failing to bat out their allocation of 45 overs, slumping to 207 all out from 35.4 on a near-perfect wicket on which Joshua Goodwin, stroked a magnificent 95 before getting out to a beauty from Lance Trueman when in sight of his century.
But Shire applied themselves with great energy in the field, dismissing the Angus side for a meagre 112, mainly due to an inspired spell of bowling from Calum Howard who took five for 33 from eight overs.
Howard put aside his groundsman duties to make his comeback game to the delight of captain David Gamblen.
He said: “We didn’t score enough when we batted but compensated in the field with some aggressive attacking cricket.
“Calum was just magnificent, although he was selected for his batting. We are still on target for a high finish.”
Huntly bounced back to form, making it three wins out out of three for the region after racking up 240 away to Freuchie and then bowling them out for 206.
Captain Jack Mitchell and fellow opene Jay-Dee Oliver set the tone with a century partnership in which both scored 54.
Jordan Squire was the pick of the Huntly bowling attack, taking four for 27.
”That’s us back on track after three defeats, allthough it’s hard to see anyone catching leaders Arbroath,” said Mitchell.
In the Grades, Mannofield lost top place at the head of Grade 1 when they were beaten by new leaders Bon Accord by 87 runs at the Links.
Fazal Awan was the main man for the Bons, smashing 113 runs to take his tally for the season to nearly 900.
Master Blasters Aberdeen kept themselves in the title hunt with a two wicket win over Crescent, while in Grade 2, Aberdeen Grammar cruised to a seven wicket win at home to Ellon Gordon, keeping them on track for a return to the top flight.
This weekend’s results…
EASTERN PREMIER LEAGUE
Stoneywood Dyce 156 (25 points) (D Stander 48, S Wolmarans 29, A Hegde 2-14, M Scott 2-21) Meigle 68 (0 points) (P Drummond 27no, S Wolmarans 5-18, J Grant 3-18)
Grange 302 for 8 (25 points) (D Budge 55, F McCreath 52, E Ruthven 3-68, J Kinghorn-Gray 2-54) Heriot’s 167 (0 points) (L Brown 70, P Ross 47, D Budge 4-40, T Foulds 2-9)
Falkland 204 (25 points) (J Henderson 52, S Campbell 30no, S Pillay 4-41, M Miller 3-21) Stewart’s Melville 197 (8 points) (P Ritchie 56, R Henry 38, J Martins 3-26, J De Jager 2-30)
Carlton 185 (4 points) (S Khan 38, H Simpson 32no, J Hogarth 4-49, J O’Neill 2-15) Forfarshire 189 for 5 (25 points) (C Wallace 54, C Garden 44, S Khan 3-36)
Watsonian 287 for 7 (25 points) (M Carson 111, A Chalmers 84no, C Whitefoord 3-47, C Clarkson 2-59) RH Corstorphine 276 (8 points) (G West 107, A Dunford 38, J Davidson 4-47, R Tait 3-35)
BREEDON SPCU NORTH EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
Aberdeenshire 207 (25 points) (J Goodwin 95, N Veletta 38, L Sweeney 4-31, L Trueman 2-29) Strathmore 112 (9 points) (G Hewitson 22, M Mudie 22, C Howard 5-33, L Bain 3-15)
2nd Forfarshire 106 (6 points) (F Duncan 44, F Ross 24, M Yar 3-22, A Ahmed 2-3) Gordonians 112 for 8 (25 points) (A Mehta 33no, A Ahmed 31, J Girolami 4-47, G Carnegie 2-27)
Huntly 240 for 8 (25 points) (J Oliver 54, J Mitchell 54, J Niemann 3-21) Freuchie 206 (10 points) (I Stonebridge 45, S Birrell 32no, J Squire 4-27, I Hussain 3-36)
Kinloch 69 (1 point) (C Ross 6-4, J Meiring 2-16) Arbroath United 70 for 2 (25 points) (J Meiring 22no, D Sinclair 20no)
2nd Falkland 151 for 4 (6 points) (H Ferguson 42, G Cutler 30, M Hussain 4-25) Perth Doocot 153 for 4 (25 points) (R Khan 72no, T Hussain 39, G Langlands 2-32)
NORTH EAST SCOTLAND CRICKET GRADES
GRADE 1
Culter Curry Bon Accord 314 for 6 (30 points) (F Awan 113, M Ahmed 57, A Hastie 3-68) Mannofield 227 for 9 (16 points) (R Hegde 71, K Yahathugoda 52, A Chattha 4-41, T Malik 2-52)
Knight Riders 240 for 8 (30 points) (S Arumugam Vijandiran 82, V Ramaswamy 45, A Mukhopadhya 2-24, A Bashir 2-35) Gordonians 213 (18 points) (A Mukhopadhya 57, M Khosla 40, S Kumarasamy 3-27, V Amirtharaj 2-21)
IDI Services Crescent 154 (16 points) (S Sharma 63, R Ahmed 21, V Vijapur 4-17, M Kakarla 2-32) TechForce Master Blasters Aberdeen 158 for 8 (30 points) (H Mohan 33, J Gajjar 22, V Rao 3-46, R Ahmed 2-29)
Inverurie 267 for 8 (30 points) (J Thom 85, G Hadden 62, U Upadhyaya 3-40, M Shahid 2-38) AberGreen 209 (18 points) (M Hassaan 56, S Bedaar 35, G Hadden 3-27, A Mirashi 3-44)
Grampian 232 for 9 (30 points) (J George 51, S Hossain 43, H Safi 3-39, I Niamatullah 3-55) Ash Accountancy Cults 230 for 8 (19 points) (H Safi 39no, T Singh 37, S Joseph 2-48)
GRADE 2
Quilter Cheviot Ellon Gordon 102 (8 points) (A Ovenstone 38, A Haider 3-19, K Anand 2-26) AGSFPs 103 for 3 (30 points) (A Haider 51no, H Penman 20no, R Wade 2-21)
2nd AberGreen 160 (30 points) (T Khan 42, K Qaiser 22, J Moore 4-24, G Cordiner 3-37) Methlick 142 (17 points) (A Veersema 34, A Smith 24, T Khan 3-19, A Hashmi 2-26)
Portcullis 167 for 9 (14 points) (S Horne 70, P Azhakath 34, S Rotheram 4-24, T Khalid 2-34) Banchory 171 for 5 (30 points) (W George 58no, B Wiles 35, A Sood 2-20)
Huntly 124 (9 points) (A Petrie 27, L Myron-Petrie 25, L Broadley 3-18, C McLeman 2-20) Fraserburgh 125 for 3 (30 points) (N Gray 46, C Gospel 35, L Paterson 2-11)
2nd Knight Riders 318 for 6 (30 points) (B Selvaraj 88no, M Vallatharasu 79, V Sasidharan 2-36) 2nd Grampian 222 (16 points) (N Khan 62, B Gopinathan 38, N Chaudhari 3-39, S Kodur 3-42)
GRADE 3
2nd Gordonians 237 (21 points) (S Mir 64, P Morgan 58, B Davidson 4-72, A Zahid 3-41) Stoneywood Dyce 237 for 6 (25 points) (J Slater 70, S Reid 57, S Gollakota 3-63)
Crathie 104 (7 points) (S Naseer 25, M Henzell 23, M Baldry 6-16, V Mani 2-50) Dunecht 105 for 2 (30 points) (M Witz 62no, B Lynas 21no, S Naseer 2-8)
Stonehaven Thistle 54 (3 points) (G Singh 3-4, V Nair 2-9) 3rd Gordonians 55 for 2 (30 points) (N Maheshwari 20, C Hinchcliffe 2-10)
