Weekend roundup – 27th/28th April
The 1st XI entertained near neighbours Watsonians for a pre-season friendly after the start of the Eastern Premier League was pushed back a week following the poor weather this Spring. Carlton batted first and although Will Hardie fell 3rd ball, Ru Main & Daniel Da Costa added 49 for the 2nd wicket before Da Costa played on for 19. Making his Arrows debut Chris McBride joined Main and the pair added 64 before Main was bowled for 55. Arun Pillai & McBride produced another half century stand, broken with the skipper pinned in front for 16. Lewis O’Donnell joined the fray and took the score to 218 before he holed out for 36. McBride then brought up 3 figures with a big 6 onto the pavilion roof and retired. Angus Beattie (18) and Rory Allardice (18) added some quick runs to help the home side post an impressive 288 for 7 from their 40 overs. The visitors reply got off to the worst possible start as O’Donnell claimed an lbw first ball. Wickets fell at regular intervals as the Myreside men never really threatened the home total. Pillai finished with 3 wickets and there were 2 each for O’Donnell & Rudy Adair as Carlton bowled Watsonians out for 108 in the 23rd over.
The 2nd XI got their ESCA Division 1 season underway at Myreside taking on Watsonian 2s. Captain Charles Stronach won the toss and elected to bowl first. Jamie Beattie struck in the first over but the home side dug in. It wasn’t until the 10th over that Stronach claimed the 2nd wicket and the next over Beattie claimed his 2nd to leave Watsonians 25 for 3. Another rebuilding exercise for the home side was broken by Harry Simpson in the 17th over and a runout and another wicket for Simpson reduced Watsonians to 86 for 6 in the 27th over. Kyle Burgess was introduced to the attack and picked up 2 in 2 balls to make it 98 for 8. Stronach came back and claimed his 2nd wicket and a runout saw the home side bowled out for 122 in the 39th over. In reply Gav Murray & Ben Thurman made a watchful start and added 22 runs before Thurman was bowled for 9 in the 7th over. Simpson joined Murray but he was dismissed cheaply in the 9th over. Ben D’Ulisse made his way to the middle and the pair consolidated before taking the game to the bowlers. Murray moved past 50 and accelerated, only to hole out for 79 with 18 runs still needed. Rory Ledingham was the next man in and got the 2s within sight of the finishing line before D’Ulisse picked out mid-on for 13. Ledingham then hit the winning runs in the 24th over to get the 2s campaign off to a winning start by a margin of 6 wickets.
With the 4th XI game called off earlier in the week, the final game on Saturday saw the 5th XI welcome newly promoted Edinburgh Accies 3s to Peffermill. Skipper Keith Murray won the toss and inserted the visitors. A good start with the ball reduced Accies to 22 for 3 in the 8th over with Atreya Subr taking 1 wicket and 2 for Aadi Khadse. Rahul Khadse replaced Subr and Noah Moncur came on for Khadse Jnr. Tight bowling led to a runout and a wicket for Khadse Snr and another runout had the visitors in trouble at 60 for 6 in the 23rd over. However the strong Accies batting line up kept the scoreboard ticking over and began to accelerate. Aadi Khadse broke the 7th wicket partnership with the score on 104 and then another good partnership was broken by Rahul Khadse in the 38th over with 140 on the board. Subr was back on at this stage and picked up the final 2 wickets in the 39th over to bowl Accies out for 145. In reply Murray & Khadse Jnr made a quiet start before Khadse fell in the 6th over with only 6 on the board. Martin Robertson came & went but Benji Risi added some much needed impetus to the innings. Sadly he fell for 23 in the 11th over which brought Mike Kennedy to crease. He kept the momentum going but holed out just before drinks for 31 with the score on 68. Unfortunately no other batters could make a meaningful impact on the game and the home side were bowled out for 89 in the 34th over to lose by 57 runs.
On Sunday the Women got things off to an early start with an interclub T20 at Grange Loan which gave valuable match practice to the wider Women’s section.
Later on Sunday the 3rd XI hosted Murrayfield DAFS 2s in the opening round of ESCA Division 2. Captain Brad McKay lost the toss and the visitors chose to bat first. A good start with the ball from Dougie Firth & Hector Murray saw Firth claim the first wicket in the 3rd over with the score still on 0. Firth claimed a second in the 9th over to leave MDAFS 17 for 2. The visitors recovered and took the score past 100 before McKay picked up both set batters and then a 3rd to make it 104 for 5 in the 29th over. Shreyas Tekale then took 2 in 2 in the 32nd over and a 3rd in his next over. Murray came back and claimed the 9th wicket and a runout in the 36th saw the visitors bowled out for 122. In reply Tom Hathorn fell in the 2nd over but Iain Hathorn and Alex Fedenczuk took the score to 24 before Hathorn Snr was pinned in front in the 8th over. David Simpson followed in similar fashion 2 balls later and the home side was in trouble. Things got worse as wickets tumbled to leave Carlton 50 for 8 in the 16th over, but Josh Cully & Murray staged something of a recovery. They took the score to 88 before Murray was bowled and McKay entered the fray. The skipper did see the home side to another batting point but in the end the 3s were bowled out for 92 in the 29th over to lose by 30 runs.
The final game of the weekend saw the Mixed Development XI travel to Newfield Arti to take on Edinburgh Accies. Skipper John Beattie lost the toss and the home side chose to bat first. They amassed 157 for 4 from their 30 overs with Eliot Ambrose, Ollie MacCallum and Tom Sweet the successful bowlers as well as a Euan Murray runout. In reply the highlights with the bat were 50* for Beattie and 14 from Dylan Amin as the Dev XI finished on 123 for 8 from their 30 overs. Technically this was a 34 run loss, but the reality was that cricket was the winner.