Stoneywood-Dyce’s battle to avoid relegation from the Eastern Premier League looks likely to go down to the last game of the season in four weeks’ time when they meet fellow strugglers Meigle at the People’s Park.
The Aberdeen side suffered a demoralising nine wicket home defeat to Watsonians, leaving both relegation-threatened sides with only one win.
They both have three other games to rectify the situation but Stoneywood-Dyce captain Ewan Davidson accepts that will take a dramatic improvement in form.
He said: “A total of 124 is never going to be enough to win a game at this level.
“We need greater application and concentration when we bat, even our bowling was not up to standard.
“All round, it was a poor performance.
“We must get our heads up and face up to the situation, and see what we can get out of the games at Falkland and Forfarshire, and at home Corstorphine before we meet Meigle.”
Watsonians won the toss and elected to field, and at 23 for no wicket, Stoneywood-Dyce looked to be on target to set the Edinburgh side a challenging total, only to lose three wickets for two runs, sparking off a collapse which led to the entire side being bowled out for 124.
Only Sai Sawan Kumar’s 29 remotely halted the visiting attack, in which Farhan Khan was the pick with four for 24.
Set such a lowly target, the Myreside men strolled to victory in the 24th over, led by a classy unbeaten 62 from Michael Carson.
Meigle gave a better account of themselves at home to Forfarshire, scoring 211 in a bid to hunt down 243.
Ward-Armstrong hits century
In the NE Championship, Arbroath United, closed in on the title with a thumping seven wicket win after bowling Strathmore out for 45, while Huntly kept up the chase in second place, easing to 17 run win away to 2nd Forfarshire.
Elijah Ward-Armstrong hit a stunning 107 for the visitors, which included 12 fours, while captain Jack Mitchell chipped in with a responsible 42.
Barry Newlands took the bowling honours for the Castle Park side claiming three for 47, as they bowled out the hime side for 217.
Mitchell said: “Arbroath may be out of sight but we played well, and half way through our five year plan are in a good position, including a great youth development scheme.”
At Mannofield, Aberdeenshire and Freuchie took advantage of the perfect conditions on a manicured wicket to rack up 541 runs between them.
The lion’s share of 320 going to Shire of which opener Kenny Reid contributed a sparkling 119 which included 15 fours, putting behind him a recent run of poor form.
Shire captain David Gamblen said: “It was a sound win, keeping us on track for a high finish.”
At Countesswells, Gordonians looked on track to chase down the 235 set by Perth Doo’cot of which 102 was scored by Scotland player Safyaan Sharif but after being 65 for no wicket, crumbled to 154 all out in the face of a deadly spell of four for 14 from Muskahar Hussain.
Home captain Mayank Bhandari said: “It was a great game of cricket, made better by Sharif’s century but in Abrar Ahmed we had our own hero.
“His 60 was just superb but we played well and aspire to improving on our fifth place.”
In the Grades, it was all change again after Master Blasters Aberdeen were surprisingly beaten by Grampian by 66 runs.
Bon Accord were quick to take advantage easing back to the head of affairs after bowling Crescent out for 207 as they attempted to hunt down the 304 set them by the Bons at the Links.
Nawraz Mizra’s 126 being the difference between the two sides, although Haroon Ahmed’s five for 20 finally tipped the balance for the new leaders.
Results
EASTERN PREMIER LEAGUE
Stoneywood Dyce 124 (0 points) (S Kumar 29, F Khan 4-34, T Pratt 3-18) Watsonian 129 for 1 (25 points) (M Carson 62no, D Voas 36no)
Carlton 159 for 5 (W Hardie 47, D Da Costa 41, R Henry 2-27) v Stewart’s Melville – Match Abandoned
Grange 264 for 4 (H Carnegie 71, J Jarvis 60, J Henderson 2-64) v Falkland – Match Abandoned
Heriot’s 193 for 2 (H van Der Berg 92no, L Brown 60) v RH Corstorphine – Match Abandoned
Forfarshire 254 for 9 (points) (L Robertson 68, S Cameron 57, R Gayashan 2-29, C Clark 2-30) Meigle 211 (6 points) (T Brits 83, S Ejaz 36, L Clark 2-5, A Bailwal 2-11)
BREEDON SPCU NORTH EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
Aberdeenshire 320 for 7 (25 points) (K Reid 119, J Goodwin 91, M Hastie 2-55, R Birrell 2-64) Freuchie 241 (11 points) (I Stonebridge 86, D Stonebridge 68, A Cummings 2-32, L Munro 2-36)
Kinloch 274 for 8 (25 points) (S Ahmed 141, J Shah 78no, R Jennings 3-37, C Langlands 2-41) 2nd Falkland 201 for 8 (10 points) (C Langlands 57, I Wheel 28, H Hussain 2-38, S Shafi 2-40)
Strathmore 45 (2 points) (C Robb 4-4, C Ross 4-7) Arbroath United 46 for 3 (25 points) (J Choudhray 2-25)
Huntly 230 for 8 (25 points) (E Ward-Armstrong 107, J Mitchell 42, F Duncan 2-35, C McConnachie 2-37) 2nd Forfarshire 213 (10 points) (C Robertson 66, J Sim 65, B Newlands 3-47, J Oliver 3-49)
Perth Doocot 235 (25 points) (S Sharif 102, J Rush 44, R Chouksey 4-42, P Wig 2-19) Gordonians 154 (11 points) (A Ahmed 60, A Vitthala 27, M Hussain 4-14, T Hussain 2-21)
NORTH EAST SCOTLAND CRICKET GRADES
GRADE 1
Grampian 208 for 9 (30 points) (M Nadim 46, J George 45, V Vijapur 4-46, S Peedikayil 2-26) TechForce Master Blasters Aberdeen 142 (16 points) (H Mohan 36, A Kache 23, J Varghese 4-30, M Nadim 3-23)
Knight Riders 233 for 8 (30 points) (V Ramaswamy 83, S Vijandiran 27, W Khan 3-32) AberGreen 145 (16 points) (W Khan 41, H Masood 23, N Chaudhari 4-30, T George 2-19)
Inverurie 175 for 7 (18 points) (G Hadden 45no, C Watson 26, A Hastie 2-29) Mannofield 179 for 8 (30 points) (V Sood 37, L Saraswat 37, C Watson 4-34, J Thom 2-23)
Culter Curry Bon Accord 304 for 7 (30 points) (N Mirza 126no, M Ahmed 59, P Boni 5-65) IDI Services Crescent 207 (17 points) (R Sujaya 66, A Sharma 36, S Ahmed 5-20)
Gordonians 271 for 6 (30 points) (Ak Bashir 64, C Perera 43no, S Nazir 5-53) Ash Accountancy Cults 122 (12 points) (A Gohar 29, C Perera 5-25, Ash Bashir 2-5)
GRADE 2
2nd Knight Riders 135 (12 points) (M Vallatharasu 53, G Reid 3-20, A Parkin 3-23) Huntly 136 for 5 (30 points) (I Parkin 37no, F Cameron 27)
2nd Grampian 215 for 8 (30 points) (N Khan 42, R Paul 37, L Crutchfield 3-31, G Fowlie 2-47) Methlick 141 for 7 (15 points) (T Acton 83, V Kannan 2-19, S Joseph 2-26)
Fraserburgh 206 (15 points) (M Watson 47, K Khan 43, L D’Costa 4-33, B Garwood 2-59) AGSFPs 208 for 5 (30 points) (L D’Costa 79, B Garwood 47no, O Rohani 2-42)
Portcullis 118 (9 points) (A Sood 30, T Khalid 3-18, S Rotheram 2-9) Banchory 119 for 3 (30 points) (C Counsell 41, S Rotheram 40no)
GRADE 3
3rd Gordonians (30 points) walkover 2nd Methlick (0 points)
2nd Gordonians 119 (30 points) (P Gollakota 21, U Basavaraju 20, L Belton 3-16, J Thomas 3-23) Crathie 87 (14 points) (L Belton 28, S Seenivasan 2-3, P Gollakota 2-8)
2nd Master Blasters Aberdeen 142 (30 points) (M Khan 24, J Dunston 3-20, A Nagdeve 3-28) 2nd Mannofield 35 (10 points) (K Desai 6-17, R Krishnamoorthy 2-5)
Dunecht 89 (12 points) (M Baldry 42, B Snelling 3-3, N Macaulay-Dicks 3-20) Stonehaven Thistle 93 for 8 (30 points) (R Blackwood 21, V Mani 2-6, A Burnett 2-11)
