Weekend preview – 1st/2nd July
It’s the tenth round of league cricket this weekend which means that the second half of the season is upon us. The Arrows have just the five senior fixtures this weekend, but the U15 cup side have their finals day on Sunday.
On Saturday the First XI are on the road again as they visit Victory park for their fixture against Meigle. Meigle currently are languishing at the bottom of the table, with one win from their nine matches. In this season’s league game at Grange Loan the Arrows won the toss and opted to bowl first. A decent start from the visitors was undone by a direct hit run out from Rory Allardice and then shortly after Ally Evans pinned the other opener in front. Meigle consolidated and a rain break saw the game reduced to 45 overs a side. The 3rd wicket partnership was eventually broken by Allardice to leave the visitors 108 for 3 in the 22nd over. Another handy partnership was broken by a run out from Finn Thornton and Allardice collected another run out shortly after to leave Meigle 144 for 5 in the 33rd. Evans returned and picked up 2 wickets and Allardice claimed 2 more leaving Rudy Adair on debut to pick up the final wicket to bowl out the Perthshire outfit for 179 in 43 overs. In reply, Ru Main fell in the first over but Thornton and Daniel Da Costa ensured there was no more drama until the 17th over when Thornton holed out for a well made 40, just short of a 100 run partnership. Pillai joined Da Costa at the crease and with 75 runs still needed the skipper was content to push the ball about and let the well-set Da Costa make the running. The plan worked perfectly as the young South African brought up his century in the 26th over. All that was left was for Pillai to launch the ball for a straight 6 to wrap up an 8 wicket win with more than 18 overs to spare.
The 2nd XI are at home for the second week running as they welcome Edinburgh CC. The Bonaly side are 3 places below the Arrows in 8th place. The game at Campbell Park was washed out earlier in the year without a ball being bowled.
The 3rd XI will welcome Tranent and Preston Village to Peffermill. TPV are currently sitting in a promotion spot, 8 places above the 3s. In the game in Tranent the Arrows lost the toss and were inserted. Only Ben Thurman (40) found any fluency with the bat and despite decent cameos from David Simpson (18*) and Abhi Mehta (19) the visitors were bowled out for 142 in the 38th over. That total always looked a little light and so it proved to be. A fighting performance with the ball saw Carlton pick up 8 wickets – 3 for Andrew Lang, 2 for young Hector Murray and one each for Mehta & Thurman plus a run out, but the home side got over the line in the 32nd over for a 2 wicket win.
To conclude action on Saturday 4th XI are heading south where they will take on Melrose. Melrose are currently sitting one place above the 4s in 9th place. Earlier in the season the sides met at Grange Loan. The Arrows won the toss and elected to bowl first as the weather started to close in. In the end they only managed 8 overs before conditions became too wet to continue and the game was abandoned with the Borderers on 46 for 1 with Dan Mowat taking the solitary wicket with a fine delivery, squaring up the visiting skipper.
On Sunday the 5th XI will entertain MDAFs 4s at Grange Loan. The away side are in 6th place at the halfway point, 5 places below the 5s. The 5s won the toss and chose to bat first. Although Keith Murray fell early Tom & Iain Hathorn put on 53 for the 2nd wicket before a mix up saw young Tom run out for 15. Hathorn Snr departed shortly after for 35 but all the other batters got starts. Martin Robertson (30) & Mike Kennedy (36) put on 64 for the 5th wicket in typically brisk fashion. All that was left was for U14 Hamish Turner to hit 48* off only 31 balls to propel the 5s to 214 for 7 from their 40 overs. With the ball late call up Jake Heller took 2 early wickets but a good 3rd wicket partnership was eventually broken by Turner. Hathorn Jnr claimed the next wicket but a strong 5th wicket partnership threatened to take the game away from the 5s. The skipper turned to Shreyas Tekale and the youngster did the job and picked up the wicket of the set batter in his second over. With 15 needed off the last two overs Turner & Tekale held their nerves, helped by run outs from Aadi Khadse & Tekale, ensured the 5s got off to a winning start with a 7 run victory as the home side were restricted to 207 for 7 from their overs.
Also on Sunday the U15s will be looking to win the ECB Vitality U15 Scottish Cup Finals day through in Glasgow. The team will face Perth Doo’cot in the semi-final and should they progress they will play against either Glasgow Accies or Gordonians.