Stoneywood-Dyce’s tale of woe continued in Edinburgh where they lost by 46 runs against Carlton.
The People’s Park side scored 215, their second highest total of the season, but were beaten in a rain-affected game, eventually decided by the dreaded Duckworth/Lewis method.
Meigle, the side beneath them in the only Eastern Premier League relegation slot, also lost, picking up fewer losing bonus points than their Aberdeen counterparts.
Another positive was that Du Preez Stander proved he is a class act with bat and ball, scoring a superb 69, inspiring some of his fellow batters to turn in their best performances of the season.
Wicket-keeper Ailsa Lister turned in a determined, gutsy 22 before being the last wicket to fall as they chased the 261 set to win.
Shaun Wolmarans hit 24, while veteran Shaun Coetzer chipped in with a useful 21 in arguably their best batting performance of the campaign to the pleasure of stand-in captain Ewan Davidson.
Coetzer was also instrumental in keeping the home batting under control with his wily off-spin bowling which yielded three for 68, backing up the opening attack of Wolmarans and Stander (two for 48).
They were, however, unable to curtail home batsmen William Hardie (68) and Garreth Murray (68).
Davidson said: “‘I thought we batted really well.
“Du Preez at the top of the innings is becoming a cult figure at People’s Park.
“We didn’t get any breaks from the weather, nor the Duckworth/Lewis method, but our six bonus points were vital at this stage of the season.
“I believe we can pick up wins in the run-in, including next week at home to Watsonians.”
At the head of affairs, Grange’s four wicket win away to Watsonians, keeps them firmly on track for the Eastern Premier League title.
Positive day for north-east trio
In the NE Championship, leaders Arbroath made it 12 wins out of 12 starts after amassing 309 against Falkland before proceeding to bowl their Fife opponents out for a paltry 16.
Encouragingly for the three north-east representatives, Huntly, Aberdeenshire and Gordonians all won, enabling them to occupy third, fourth and fifth places in the division but with little chance of overhauling Arbroath United.
At Castle Park, Huntly were 18-run winners against Strathmore, but owed much to opener Jay-Dee Oliver whose imperious 105 from 112 balls, included six fours and seven sixes, while Irtaza Hussain ensured the home side were able to successfully defend the lowly 158 set by his batsmen, taking four for 23.
Captain Jack Mitchell, who took two for 23, admitted his side were 40 runs short of a decent total but said: ”Jay-Dee and Irtaza were just magnificent and we are still in the chase, although Arbroath will be hard to catch.”
In St Andrews, Aberdeenshire’s 189 against Kinloch was also deemed to be too low by captain David Gamblen.
He said: ”The 56 hit by Lewis Munro was crucial to the win, as was Joshua Goodwin’s 38.
“We were well short of posting a decent score but our bowlers came good and we eased Kinloch out for 179, mainly due to Joshua’s three for 22 but we fielded well and we are on track for a high place.”
Arguably, the best north-east performance of the day was at Freuchie where Gordonians chased down 225, easing through by three wickets, boosted by 78 from Abi Menka and an equally classy knock of 53 from captain Mayank Bhandari, while Rudra Chouksey’s four for 14, curtailed the home batting.
“It was a great team win with every player making a huge contribution to the afternoon in an entertaining game,” said Bandari.
In the Aberdeenshire Grades, it was all change at the top of Grade 1 after Master Blasters Aberdeen took advantage of Bon Accord’s slip up at Groats Road where defending champions Knight Riders recovered from being 85 for seven to overhaul the Bons total of 154 and win by three wickets.
At Mannofield, the Master Blasters held off the challenge of the home side who failed to chase down the 197 set them by the new leaders, falling 15 runs short.
This weekend’s results
EASTERN PREMIER LEAGUE
Carlton 239 for 7 (25 points) (W Hardie 76, G Murray 68, S Coetzer 3-68, D Stander 2-48) Stoneywood Dyce 215 (6 points) (D Stander 69, S Wolmarans 24, H Simpson 2-21, R Adair 2-34)
Meigle 112 (2 points) (C Clark 23, M Rasheed 21, A Dunford 6-34, C Whitefoord 2-27) RH Corstorphine 113 for 3 (25 points) (D Rane 51no, R Gayashan 2-27)
Stewart’s Melville 204 for 8 (25 points) (A Appleton 67, C Shorten 43no, L Robinson 3-31, S Cameron 2-22) Forfarshire 187 (8 points) (H Brar 51, C Garden 31, D Burgess 5-7, R Henry 2-40)
Heriot’s 207 for 7 (25 points) (L Brown 53, M Ahmad 50no, L Briggs 4-17) Falkland 133 (2 points) (K Jacobs 47, J De Jager 23, E Hutchinson 3-22, N Alexander 2-20)
Watsonian 139 (6 points) (T Pratt 26no, T Wylie 25, B Davidson 4-25, R McGlasham 3-28) Grange 136 for 6 (25 points) (DLS Target 136) (F McCreath 37, G Goudie 26no, G Carr 2-19, J Davidson 2-46)
BREEDON SPCU NORTH EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
Freuchie 225 for 8 (11 points) (J Niemann 114, R Wiseman 31, R Chouksey 3-14) Gordonians 226 for 7 (25 points) (A Mehta 78, M Bhandari 53, R McLaugulin 3-23)
Aberdeenshire 189 (25 points) (L Munro 56, J Goodwin 38, H Hussain 4-34, J Shah 2-30) Kinloch 179 (12 points) (T Niazi 38, J Shah 29, J Goodwin 3-22, M Saraswat 2-23)
Huntly 158 (25 points) (J Oliver 105, L Trueman 4-36, S Saeed 2-13) Strathmore 140 (10 points) (M Mudie 39, U Ahmed 24, I Hussain 4-23, J Mitchell 2-23)
Arbroath United 309 for 2 (25 points) (J Meiring 145no, D Sinclair 88no) 2nd Falkland 16 (1 point) (R Plomer 5-7, C Robb 4-5)
Perth Doocot 251 for 8 (points) (J Rush 103, R Khan 35, C Robertson 2-38, T Msarara 2-43) 2nd Forfarshire 185 (9 points) (J Sim 57, C Robertson 32, A Naeem 3-4, R Khan 2-7)
NORTH EAST SCOTLAND CRICKET GRADES
GRADE 1
TechForce Master Blasters Aberdeen 197 for 8 (30 points) (J Gajjar 59, A Kache 50, A Hastie 2-32, V Sood 2-63) Mannofield 182 (18 points) (W Anderson 44, A Hastie 22, S Peedikayil 3-23, A Narne 2-30)
IDI Services Crescent 41 (1 point) (U Ullah 4-17, S Ahmad 2-6) Ash Accountancy Cults 43 for 0 (30 points) (S Ahmad 32no)
Gordonians 234 for 9 (30 points) (Ash Bashir 85, Ak Bashir 61, S Bedaar 4-41, M Hassaan 2-43) AberGreen 100 (14 points) (C Perera 3-13, S Mehta 2-17)
Inverurie 195 for 9 (30 points) (T Norval 76, J Thom 38, J Varghese 3-44, M Nadim 2-13) Grampian 111 (14 points) (K Godbole 5-31, J Jessiman 2-31)
Culter Curry Bon Accord 154 for 9 (15 points) (F Awan 39, N Mirza 32, B Vijayaraj 4-25, S Palaniappan 3-25) Knight Riders 155 for 7 (30 points) (U Reddy 40no, B Vijayaraj 24no, F Awan 2-25, N Mirza 2-35)
GRADE 2
Quilter Cheviot Ellon Gordon 79 (12 points) (A Addy 29, A Subramaniam 3-9, B Zachariah 3-19) 2nd Knight Riders 80 for 9 (30 points) (B Webb 3-15, J Barrett 3-25)
AGSFPs 223 for 9 (30 points) (H Javaid 108, B Garwood 20, C Gospel 3-26, R Duthie 2-42) Fraserburgh 136 (16 points) (O Rohani 52, N Gray 23, G Morrison 2-3, R Swiergon 2-20)
Methlick v Portcullis – Match Abandoned – Outfield Waterlogged
Banchory 205 for 6 (30 points) (B Wiles 107, W Redpath 23, N Coffey 2-29, G Reid 2-37) Huntly 122 (12 points) (F Cameron 37, M Myron-Petrie 24, T Khalid 4-18, B Wiles 2-8)
2nd Grampian 236 for 6 (30 points) 2nd AberGreen 72 (9 points)
GRADE 3
Stonehaven Thistle 122 for 9 (15 points) (N Macaulay-Dicks 25, D Reeve 2-11, G Fowlie 2-21) 2nd Methlick 123 for 9 (30 points) (A Smith 55no, N Macaulay-Dicks 4-8, C Hinchcliffe 3-16)
2nd Gordonians 173 for 9 (14 points) (S Chouksey 50, A Hounsome 33, M Patel 3-15, P Patel 2-36) 3rd Gordonians 174 for 5 (30 points) (N Maheshwari 70, S Aravind 61, U Basavaraju 3-38)
2nd Mannofield 116 for 9 (13 points) (M Vila 39no, C Waggott 3-16, A Zahid 3-17) Stoneywood Dyce 118 for 8 (30 points) (B Davidson 29, L Wood 2-11, A Nagdeve 2-22)
Crathie 158 for 9 (30 points) (F MacLeod 39, L O’Brien 34, K Desai 4-30, R Eedara 2-25) 2nd Master Blasters Aberdeen 156 (17 points) (S Nishanth 70, J Humphrey 4-25, J Thomas 2-19)
