1st XI
Congratulations to our rivals, Stoneywood-Dyce, on halting our magnificent winning run at 15, thus preventing our lifting the league title on their home patch. They were the better team on the day!

David Gamblen won the toss and immediately inserted our rivals on a pitch that proved very tricky throughout the match for each set of batsmen; lateral movement and frequent instances of very low bounce were to prove menacing for the entire match.

When Luke Bain snatched the prized wicket of the in-form home captain, Ewan Davidson, our supporters breathed a sigh of relief; the feel-good factor was even stronger shortly thereafter, when Luke also removed the other opener, Jack Lambley, with just 40 on the board. Cameron Brown then had a bowl for the first time in a few weeks and picked up a couple of wickets to increase the pressure on the home side. Our spinners, Calum Howard and Manu Saraswat joined in, each with a couple of wickets and when our professional, Harsha Vithana, showed superb athleticism and skill to throw down the stumps to run out Stoneywood’s top scorer, Michael Van Staden, Aberdeenshire looked to be in a strong position. The tail was mopped up with only a few more runs added to leave our lads a target of 129 runs!

Seemingly a modest total!

Our reply started badly with the removal of our openers with only 24 on the board. Surely a couple of our in-form bats would dig in and build a partnership. Stoneywood bowlers, Nathan Elliott and Joshua Vorster had other ideas as they settled to bowl a series of overs that were probing. By bowling a full length on to an inconsistent surface, they repeatedly found gaps in the Aberdeenshire defences. Wickets then fell alarmingly easily and in a very short space of time the league leaders were soundly beaten. The home team had coped with the conditions better and had won with surprising ease. We had failed to turn up for the second half of the game and our batting was very poor for the first time this season.

Our lads have excelled in many matches this season. This disappointing display has been the only setback to date and comes after that wonderful run of fourteen league wins. The task facing the side is now obvious: to get back to winning ways straightaway!

This week. We travel to Huntly, often a tricky venue, where the home team may prove stiff opponents. The current Aberdeenshire side clearly has the talent to take the points in this crucial tie. Steady heads, determination and a clear match plan will be needed to see us take this match.

We, the supporters, all believe that the lads can and will deliver this time!

2nd XI
In the absence of Rahul Chandu, Aarush Sharma was given the honour of captaining the seconds against very challenging opponents, Master Blasters, on Saturday. The playing conditions at Inverdee were very different to those at Mannofield and, as with the firsts on Sunday, a low scoring match was in prospect. Marcus Vila, the form player at present, again tried to play the anchor role as wickets fell regularly at the other end. Vila’s 31 runs was the leading contribution to the team total of 116 all out. Huge credit must be given to opposing bowler, Murthy Kakarla. He returned the magnificent figures of 7 for 33 of 7 overs, a season’s best and match-winning stuff! Though Murthy did most of the damage, the Master Blasters bowled well as a unit, prompting young Marcus to tell me afterwards that this was the best bowling combination that he had faced this season. In reply, the league-leaders were hugely indebted to a hard-hitting innings of 64 runs, including no fewer than 5 maximums. Others in the line-up did enough and Master Blasters passed their winning target for the loss of just 6 wickets.

Arnav Saraswat bowled very effectively to take 3 for 18 off 7 overs, while Aarush supported him with a couple of wickets. This was a decent showing by Sharma’s side against strong opponents. Next week they will no doubt relish the return to Mannofield to play Inverurie. These sides have met twice this term and the honours are even. Home advantage should give our lads a slight edge in this game.

3rd XI
Grampian was the visiting side at Mannofield to face our thirds. They took full advantage of benign, batting conditions to make an impressive total of 274 for 4. Only tight early bowling from Adi Nagdeve prevented a larger score.
Ethan Shedbal strove valiantly to chase down this mighty total; his 59 runs at just less than a run-a-ball included 9 boundaries. Ethan is emerging as yet another talent in our super juniors’ squad; he is definitely a player to watch in future. On Saturday the support was largely lacking however, despite the efforts of Rene Van Oorschot and Adi Nagdeve. In his youth Rene was a bowler who impressed many with his potential; he served Mannofield Eleven very well over a number of seasons, including a spell as Captain. It is very encouraging to see him turning out to support the youngsters in our line-up as a useful bat and occasional wicket-keeper.