Weekend round up 20th/21st April
Unseasonably warm and sunny conditions created the perfect backdrop for the final series of pre-season matches. On Saturday the 1st XI hosted Watsonians 1s at Grange Loan while a young 2s side made the short journey to face Watsonians 2s at Myreside. After a minutes silence was observed in memory of Con de Lange the 1s were invited to bat first and posted 206 all out. Half centuries for Ali Shah and new recruit Will Hardie were the backbone of the home side’s batting effort, but Harry Simpson & Calum Everett added some useful runs for the final wicket. In reply Watsonians lost wickets steadily and when skipper Carson fell to stand-in skipper Arun Pillai it left them 71 for 4 at the halfway stage. The visitors’ innings then subsided well short of the target with Simpson and Pillai picking 3 wickets each for not many.
At Myreside the 2s also lost the toss and were inserted. They posted 153 based around two good partnerships from skipper Nick Martin and new man Liam Jenkins and then GMac and Callum Sibley. Unfortunately it proved too little as Watsonians ground their way to a 2 wicket victory. Nick White picked up 3 wickets while Ru Mac & Saif got 2 each.
On Sunday a 3s/4s Select entertained Peebles County in a 40 over a side contest. Al Murray completed a trio of lost tosses but this time Peebles elected to bat first and set Carlton 254 to win, a total that would have been considerably more had it not been for some excellent catches by the juniors in particular. Mo was the most successful bowler with 5 wickets but Ru Mac bowled two fine spells to finish with 8-1-1-16. In reply the home side fell well short but there were encouraging performances from Gav (50 retired) Clement (37) and Ru Mac (30).