116 all out

Rajan Bhopal 44*

A wicket offering reward for bowlers who placed the ball in the right spot, and a lack of bounce, made the decision to put Big Ferg in as a big-hitting opener seem rather optimistic. Sadly, that turned out to be the case when Ferg lost his middle stump in the second over. Fellow opener and skipper Rajan (below), however, had quickly worked out what was required and decided to get forward to everything with a straight bat. All that was needed was for the other batsman to play round him. Unfortunately, nobody seemed able to fill the role as a succession of batsman were bowled or lbw – with a suicidal runout thrown in for good measure.

Three things saved Carlton here and enabled them to post over 100. One: Rajan kept his head; determined not to give his wicket away. Two: The home side contributed a healthy dose of extras. Three: Carlton batted all the way down to number 11.

A lot of credit goes to young Ruari at 10 who showed his seniors a thing or two about how to bat on the surface and number 11 Haris (not a bad last man) who made sure he stayed with Rajan before being dismissed off the last ball. The skipper carried his bat for a hard-earned 44.

What followed next showed the potential of this Carlton outfit. Seamers Mo, Gair and Rajan bowled tight spells, backed up by some superb fielding, that, crucially, yielded very few extras. Although wickets didn’t come the pressure was building and it was no surprise when two runouts put the home side on the back foot. The crucial breakthrough came when Haris deceived Chris Cash to bowl the left-handed opener. Two wickets in two balls for Fraser ended the game as a contest and he almost picked up a hat-trick when his half-tracker was smashed through Rajan’s hands close-in.

After 11 overs of tight bowling and exceptional fielding, the Carlton effort turned sloppy almost allowing Watsonians back in for an unlikely win. A few big hits were, happily for Carlton, intermixed with wickets and the home side were all out off the final ball, still 16 runs behind.

Carlton have a home tie in the second round against Stenhousemuir, Stirling County or West Lothian. (Note: Carlton's second round opponents subsequently decided to concede the tie)

92 for 5

Kyle Macpherson 41*, Mo Ahmed 35

90 for 4

Rajan Bhopal 2 for 20

Thanks to the efforts of the Carlton groundstaff, who spent Saturday evening and early Sunday morning on preparation, the Under 18s of Carlton and West of Scotland were able to play on a grass wicket despite the preceding week’s deluge.

West had first use of the true, but inevitably slow, strip and struggled early on in the face of an accurate start from Rajan Bhopal and Mo Ahmed. Mo picked up the first wicket before the second followed soon after thanks to some typically tight fielding from the home side. However, the talented duo of Andrew Umeed and Gavin Main took the game to Carlton despite tight bowling from Gavin Rittoo and left arm spinner Chayank Gosain (4 overs for just 9 runs). Although Rajan picked up two wickets, including that of Main, in his final over, the total of 90 for 4 off West’s 20 overs looked a decent effort given the tricky batting conditions and the slow outfield.

Openers Kyle Macpherson and Fraser Allardice were watchful early on against the opening duo of Singh and Umeed, before Fraser pulled a rare long hop straight to square leg. Skipper Rajan was soon back in the pavilion having played back and found himself pinned lbw. Mo joined Kyle and the pair consolidated to the halfway stage, with the run rate by then up to 6.5 an over.

Both batsmen began playing with growing confidence and a big 6 by Mo off his legs into the trees was the catalyst for the home side to step up the run rate, being particularly severe on the leg spin of Umeed off whom Mo smashed another big six down to the nets.

With the game almost won, Mo played his first rash shot of the innings and was castled on 35 by the returning Main. Matt departed in the same way next ball before Fergus was run out in the following over leading to one or two jitters on the sidelines. However, Kyle remained calm and took his side home with a trademark straight drive for 4, with seven balls to spare.

Kyle finished undefeated on 41, his partnership of 71 with Mo ultimately proving decisive. A remarkably mature effort from the two young batsmen.

Carlton now go forward to finals day on Sunday 28th August. 4th September. 11th September

35 for 0 (4 overs)

Ali Shah 24*

34 all out (13.2 overs)

Gavin Rittoo 4 for 10

The rescheduled under 18s cup final started bright an early with the 8:30 meet which was chosen by Andy Macpherson who subsequently chose to go to Glasgow to watch his younger son captain Scotland under 15s, presumably to get bit of a lie in.

We arrived at Doo’cot Park following a slight detour when coach for the day Grant Newman led two cars up a dead end,  but on arrival the ground was looking fantastic. With Clydesdale not far behind, toss was won and advice from Mr Ahmed senior stuck Clydesdale into bat on a used wicket with a slight grass covering. This turned out to be a brilliant decision from our veteran skipper, seeing opener Paige fall to an Anderson-esque “wobble” seam delivery by Smoky Mo Ahmed in the first over.

And this was to set the tone for the rest of Clydesdale’s innings with wickets falling with regularity. Gair picked up one in his spell bowling well but his real impact on the game was yet to come. Bringing on Cheek and the human metronome Gavin Rittoo, the runs dried up and with the batsman not spotting Gair at short fine leg then took on his rocket left arm which duly sent the ball flying down to hit the stumps at the bowers end running out Clydesdale’s dangerous opener by some distance. The Clydesdale running left a lot to be desired, as did there shot selection chipping up several easy chances for Ali Shah at backward point and Allardice at cover. And with this it wasn’t long before they were finally dismissed for 34 in the 14th over. 

Although a small one it was still a target to chase down, however following his sparkling ton against Grange the day before Ali was not in the mood to hang about dispatching his first ball for four (the first boundary of the day). And this was to set the tone with Ali and Kyle making light work of the total, crashing boundaries regularly and knocking off the modest target inside 5 overs. This was an excellent win but with it being finished we had plenty of time to kill before the final. And with this time we made a small trip into Scotland’s newest and 7th city, Perth to see what it had to offer.

Bowling figures:

Mo Ahmed 3-2-4-1

Gair Currie 3-0-10-1

Cheeky Gosain 4-1-8-2

Gavin Rittoo 3.2-1-10-4

149 for 6 (20 overs)

Fergus Whatley 2 for 20

Returning with sandwiches and a variety of snacks our venture into the unknown was resounding success. On our return the Grange,-Huntly game was in full flow and we made full use of the time by paying close attention to our possible opposition in the final. Huntly made hard work of a weakened Grange side with only 10 men (1 being under the age of 12) but they eventually defended their total and with the time getting on we quickly got the toss done.Winning it for the second time today we stuck them in to bat.

The Huntly chase started well with runs flowing. Misdirected bowling was duly punished with the in-form openers peppering the leg side boundary. Ringing the changes eventually paid off with a wicket to Cheeky, and this was backed up by excellent fielding from Gavin with a great direct hit in the field running out the Huntly captain who was looking very dangerous. Then Fraser and Ferg bowling well picking up a wickets and slowing the run rate. The back twelve overs were very well controlled and helped reduce what was due to be a very large total. Huntly 159-6 off 20 overs.

The Carlton chase was already in trouble before it began with Kyle taking a nasty knock in the field when he collided with the mighty frame of Gair Currie. This saw Fraser move up the order and open with Ali. They looked good, but the tall Huntly opener looked dangerous from the start, both openers struggling with his pace and bounce. At the other end there was a lot less pace on the ball, we could see Ali’s eyes light up at the prospect, however it was all over to soon with Ali swinging too early and getting cleaned bowled. This was a major setback, but Fraser was joined by Matt and they were making good progress running well and hitting the occasional boundary. Sadly both Fraser and Matt fell in quick succession and the pressure pilled on new batters Mo and Zaki. Mo immediately telling Zaki he needed to run more. Their partnership also grew before Mo ran himself out looking to push the run rate up, with boundaries becoming harder to come by.

Ferg came and went caught behind looking for a boundary, soon after as the run rate crept up to 12 and over. This gave Gair the chance to open his shoulders and he struck a few lusty blows to the leg side boundary. Zaki soon went and this saw a nail biting finish, but Carlton came up just 5 runs short to a very good and highly motivated Huntly team.

There were lots of positives to take away from the day, with not a single drop in the outfield all day and three run outs surely making it one of the best ever Carlton fielding displays. We all had fun and hopefully with only Ferg leaving the team for this year’s competition Carlton under 18s can push on and lift this elusive trophy.

Bowling figures:

Mo Ahmed 4-0-22-0

Gair Currie 1-0-18-0

Gavin Rittoo 4-0-22-0

Cheeky Gosain 4-0-16-1

Fergus Whatley 3-0-20-2

Fraser Allardice 4-0-30-2