A measured display of bowling and batting ensured that the Carlton Stars won convincingly at a cold and squally Myreside.

With captain Cameron K electing to bowl, controlled overs from Murray 1-4, Cameron K 1-19, Connor 0-4, Jamie 0-5 and Dylan 0-6 set a solid foundation. Three wickets fell with the score on 17: two catches from Cameron K – one off Muz and one off his own bowling and a sharp run out. Further wickets fell - an accurate pair of overs from Cameron G 1-5 was capped with a wicket lbw, and a further run out brought Watsonians to 47 for 5 before a cloudburst of horizontal sleet had players and spectators running to the safety of the new pavilion.

Resuming after the break Akilan and Fin kept on the pressure, with Fin taking one wicket bowled, and Stefan another to a fine catch from Jamie. Final overs from Cameron & Murray wrapped up the innings at 79, with Muz finishing on an impressive 2-5.

The Stars innings was built on an excellent opening partnership of 52 between Robbie & Cameron. Overcoming early communication issues, both batsmen played excellently, running 1s and 2s with confidence and keeping the scoreboard ticking over without the need for flamboyant shots. After Cameron played on for 20, Murray joined Robbie and accelerating the scoring they eased to 80 after 13.2 overs.

Many thanks to Watsonians who played the game in good spirit, and who agreed to play out the remaining overs to give some batting practice to Dylan, Fin, Cameron G and Akilan.

This was a really good team performance, achieved without heroics and with some very sensible batting. The only disappointing part of the game was the 33 extras we conceded (14w, 7nb, 12b) – over a third of the Watsonians total and an extra 21 balls or 3½ overs out in the cold!

Everyone should take some confidence from a positive performance at Grange Loan this week. Yes, we lost the game … but we again showed that we can bowl tightly in spells and that individual batsmen can score the 20-30 runs we need to win.  We just need to put it all together in one game!

Electing to field, the first four Stars bowlers completed some tight spells, and with Cameron K taking two wickets in his first over, we restricted Grange to 38-2 off the first 8 overs.  However, two strong batsmen took advantage of the looser deliveries and despite a wicket for Connor (Fabian catching a skyed leading edge), a total of 128-3 (28 extras) was perhaps 20-30 runs too high. 

We lost openers Robbie and Fabian early, both caught behind playing the same cut shot against the Grange off-spinner. Muz and Dylan put pressure on the fielders with some hard running and we were 35-2 after 8, not far behind Grange at the same score.  Unfortunately we then got a bit carried away with quick singles and first Dylan then Muz fell attempting runs that weren’t really there. A lively partnership of 20 between Muz and Cameron K had pushed us along, but we then lost several wickets in succession and fell 28 runs short.