Weekend roundup – 22nd/23rd August
The 1s welcomed Forfarshire to Grange Loan in the penultimate round of the Eastern Premier League. Regular skipper Daniel Da Costa was out injured so Arun Pillai (sponsored by Umair Mohammed Cosmetic & Sports Dentistry) had the reins. The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first. A decent start was undone when Conor Regan trapped the opener in front with 37 on the board. Ferg Foley deflected the ball back onto the stumps to run out their No 3 and when Regan struck again Forfs were in trouble at 65 for 3. The 4th wicket added 39 before Ben Stronach claimed a wicket and shortly after he got a second thanks to a catch from brother James behind the stumps. The visitors recovered again before Pillai struck three time to make it 194 for 8 and then Foley picked up the last 2 wickets to bowl Forfs out for 235. In reply both openers fell cheaply but Shiv Jhala was going well. When he went for 41 and Pillai followed shortly after the Arrows were in trouble at 84 for 4. Tom Hathorn on debut and James Stronach had other ideas and the youngsters took the score to 178 before Hathorn was pinned in front for 42. Stronach was going well but struggled to find anyone to stay with him. 201 for 6 became 219 for 9 and victory looked a long way away. Regan defended stoutly at one end and Stronach took the attack to the bowlers at the other and the Scotland U17 man smashed his 5th 6 to win the match by 1 wicket and finish on 98 not out.
The 2s were away at Edinburgh Accies looking for a win to finish 2nd in the ESCA Championship. Captain Gav Murray won the toss and chose to bat first. Both openers fell cheaply and when Tom Pedley went for 25 the Arrows were struggling at 51 for 3. Murray and Hamish Foley took the score to 112 before Murray was trapped in front for 36. Foley and Rory Ledingham added 36 more runs before Foley offered a return catch to depart for 52. Ledingham went shortly after for 21 and then the tail collapsed in a heap as the Arrows were bowled out for a disappointing total of 156. With the ball Charles Stronach did pick up an early wicket but Accies were scoring freely. With the finishing line in sight Max D’Ulisse picked up another wicket but the Arrows were well beaten as Accies cruised to victory in the 27th over.
The 3s hosted Drummond Trinity 2s on the 2nd square at Fettes. The visitors won the toss and inserted the Arrows. Wickets fell fairly regularly but Charlie Kentish continued his recent good form with the bat. He hit a flurry of boundaries on his way to his maiden Carlton century. Unfortunately no other batter could find anything like the same form as Kentish (108) although the Arrows did manage to bat out their overs, they finished on 214 for 9. In reply skipper Brad McKay picked up 2 wickets with the score on 33 and then Atreya Subr struck to make it 63 for 3. A Euan Keatinge runout and a wicket next ball from Elliot Peltenburg saw DTs 103 for 5 in the 25th over and then McKay came back to claim his 3rd to make it 128 for 6. Keatinge came up with another runout and DTs were in trouble at 139 for 7 but some big hitting from their lower order kept them in the game. John Gill did pick up 2 wickets but with 2 overs to go DTs needed 13. Pavan Yaradi conceded a 6 but Peltenburg took a good catch off the next ball to give the Arrows the win by 5 runs.
Also on Saturday the U14 & U16 girls were in action in the finals of the Scottish Cup at Strathallan. Up first were the U14s against Stoneywood Dyce. Bowling first there were wickets for Aggie Foley (4); Shoba Kallamadi (3); Linsay Thompson & Emily Jobson. Everyone contributed with the bat as the young Arrows secured the first ever U14 Girls Scottish Cup.
Sadly the U16 girls couldn’t emulate the success of the U14s, falling agonisingly short by just 4 runs to MDAFs.
On Sunday the Women’s 1s welcomed East Kilbride to Grange Loan. With the league title already in the bag for the Arrows, the visitors won the toss and elected to bat. The hosts struggled to make early inroads and it took until the 27th over for Ikra Farooq to make the breakthrough with the score on 174. Sonia Amin came into the attack in the 30th over and took 2 in 2 balls to make the score 187-3. There was further success for Farooq and both Agnes Foley and Elsie Fraser picked up a wicket each to restrict the visitors to 241-6 off their 40 overs. The Arrows looked well set in the chase with the score on 95-1 after 17 overs, however the wickets of Charis Scott and Samantha Evans stunted the home sides prospects leaving them at 114-3 at drinks. Despite Farooq’s knock of 77 the Arrows were bowled out for 204 in the 26th over, ending their unbeaten streak across league and cup competitions.
The 4s ended their ESCA Division 5 season away to MDAFs 3s at Roseburn Park. Skipper Al Murray won the toss and opted to bowl first. A strong start from MDAFs was reined in to leave the home side 104 for 0 at drinks. Dan Mowat struck in the 22nd and Finlay Thompson got the other opener in the 25th to make it 126 for 2. MDAFs recovered and started to accelerate until Chris Brenna made the breakthrough at 197 for 3. Abhi Mehta then picked up 2 wickets and there was 1 for Taha Khan, a Basil Khan runout and another for Mowat as the home side finished on 242 for 8. In reply wickets fell regularly including David Simpson for 31. At drinks the Arrows were 102 for 5 and skipper Murray & Brennan added 63 for the 6th wicket to keep them in the chase before Murray departed. Mehta & Brennan produced some big hits before Brennan was bowled for 54. Wickets continued to fall, including Mehta for 29, leaving last wicket pair of Mowat and Jake Heller needing 26 of 15 balls. They got it down to 12 off 6 and then 4 off 2, but couldn’t quite get the Arrows over the line as they fell short by just 3 runs.
The 5s finished Sunday’s senior fixtures off with a trip to Westquarter & Redding 2s. Captain Keith Murray won the toss at Bailliefields and asked the hosts to bat first. 2 early strikes for Rohan Jena had Westquarter in trouble but they recovered to 51 for 2 before the introduction of Kartic Subr had an immediate impact with 2 wickets in his 1st over. Benitto Santhosh then picked up a wicket and a direct hit runout from Seb Gupta left the Falkirk side reeling at 61 for 6. They recovered again but Raghuram Parasur then picked up 2 wickets to leave them 112 for 8. That became 112 for 9 as George Barry came back on and the youngster picked up the final wicket to bowl Westquarter out for 143 in the 34th over. In reply Dan Barry fell early and then skipper Keith Murray top edged a sweep in the 11th over to make it 32 for 2. Vijay Raghavan was going well and he found good support from Ishan Samanta and the pair took the score to 93 before Samanta went for 22. Parasur joined Raghavan in the middle and added 37 runs before Parasur was bowled for 20. Gupta made his way to the middle and held down an end as Raghavan got the required runs, finishing on a run-a-ball 82* as the 5s ended their season with a 6 wicket win.
Earlier in the day the U14s took on Clydesdale in the final of the U14 Scottish Cup at Meigle. The Glasgow side won the toss and chose to bat first. Arjun Shelke got the 1st wicket in the 5th over to make it 22 for 1. Captain Ruben van der Merwe was next to strike in the 10th over to leave Dale 37 for 2. Sid Vishnu then picked up a wicket in the 14th over to make it 53 for 3 and the Arrows kept the pressure on with tight bowling and good fielding. Shelke picked up a 2nd and Alexander Murray effected a runout in the final over as Dale were restricted to 81 for 5. In reply Dilan Amin fell early but Sam Gilmour and van der Merwe took the score to 56 before Gilmour went for 26. van der Merwe went shortly after for 20 but Ollie McCallum and Shelke leveled the scores after 12 overs. All that was left was for McCallum to hit the 1st ball of the 13th over for 6 and the Arrows claimed the U14 Scottish Cup for the first time.
