Our regular openers, Marcus Vila and Kenny Reid were given first go on a wicket, producing variable and often low bounce. Kenny Reid decided to deal with these challenges in his now anticipated manner: he set about the bowling aggressively and, by scoring eight boundaries and a maximum in just 36 deliveries faced, he dominated an opening partnership of 92 runs and scored 53 runs in the process. At the other end Marcus batted in a more contained manner, in scoring a fine innings of 40 runs. An opening partnership like this can often lead to an enormous total, but our momentum was halted by a remarkably successful spell of seam-bowling by Dundee youngster, Sulman Irfan; the promising medium-pacer bowled a full length, allowing the ball to swing- the variable bounce added to his menace. Thus, he dismissed no less than six of our batsmen and put the brakes on our galloping scoring-rate.

Clearly, we needed to rebuild the second half of our innings and were well served at this point by Ewan Davidson. Batting at a lower place in the order, Ewan used his experience and ability to keep the score ticking over, while, crucially, remaining at the wicket; he was well supported at this time by Nathan Elliott. This pair built a valuable partnership, worth 60 runs, before the big seam-bowler lost his wicket. Enter Gambo! David, I have to say I was really impressed by this innings. By striking the ball effectively, in the main selecting your shots wisely and by running well between the wickets you and Ewan stole back the momentum in this match. Gallant stuff, lads! I would certainly have to qualify my enthusiastic praise by pointing out that the High School bowling at this stage carried very little threat; apart from Irfan, they were a largely impotent force! Still, you did cash in. Ewan finished with a worthy half-century and the Vice- President with 37 runs, off merely 38 deliveries. As a result of this pair’s efforts, Luke Bain was able to take our total past 250 with a violently smeared maximum of the last ball of the innings – such timing!

Throughout the Aberdeenshire innings, it became clear that overhauling a large total on this pitch would be challenging. We have been on the wrong side of a 300 plus chase earlier in the season. However, for a team to chase 252 on Dalnacraig an Saturday would have required a special performance!

Especially, against Lewis Munro!

Our leader really did bowl well on Saturday! Lewis has a classical out-swinging shape to his action and slips, gully and wicket-keeper can expect to be busy, when he finds this rhythm that he showed on Saturday. In this match he was far too good for the early Dundee batsmen and his haul of 5 for 17 effectively ended the match as any sort of contest. Spare a thought for High School opening batsman, Jared Spies. He was stranded helplessly at the other end as Lewis destroyed his team’s batting order. In the end, Spies remained undefeated, with 43 runs. Nathan, Manu Saraswat and Luke the “all-rounder” shared the wickets of a disappointing Dundee High School side, who will need to up their game significantly next week to avoid relegation, with St Modans playing Stoneywood-Dyce in Bannockburn.

We have ended up third this season and will use the coming months to prepare for another crack at promotion to the Premier League in 2026!

The seconds had a tough fixture on Saturday against title hopefuls, Knight Riders. The visitors batted first and were indebted to a carefully built fifty by Guatam Bhatia along with a lustier, more aggressive 72 runs from Kiran Balasubramanian, for a team total of 239 for 9 off the full 40 overs. The bowler who did most to hinder Knight Riders progress was in fact the Club President! At a time when we need more spin options in the first eleven, will we have to seriously consider Clarkie as an option? I can think of one club member who certainly thinks so! On Saturday, he did well, trapping three key batsmen to seriously slow down our opponents’ run-rate. There were wickets also for our fledgling spinners, Vikaash Saravanan and Kanishk Tata, as they continue to gain valuable experience of Grade 1 cricket.

As we set about the chase, it was clear that Bijin Vijayaraj Jayakumam was the biggest threat to our progress. In fact, Bijin removed the key batsmen in two bowling spells that gave him figures of 4 for 30. For our part, this innings proved to be a highly frustrating effort; no less than five experienced players made good starts to their knocks, yet none built a match-winning innings, thanks largely to the afore-mentioned Bijin. In the end we fell 43 runs short!

However, it is no disgrace to lose to Knight Riders! They are a fine side and returned to Mannofield on Sunday to triumph in the premier event of Grade Cricket: The Aberdeenshire Cup Final! Many congratulations to Knight Riders and to the runners-up Master Blasters on producing a fine match for the occasion!

Our third eleven face their own “Cup Final” on Saturday at Groats Road, when they meet fellow title-challengers, Master Blasters, in a match that could prove decisive in their championship bid. “The thirds chasing a title?” you may ask. This side was only formed very recently and had to spend two challenging seasons, searching for the odd victory; times have changed and today we have much greater depth in our playing ranks. We are building on a potent blend of our emerging talents from our junior ranks supported by mature, talented and generous senior players. Much of this is orchestrated by our Juniors Supremo, Phil Wood, who occasionally finds time to play. Phil will have the tricky task of team selection for Saturday, but it is certain that, whatever line-up is chosen, these players will give their best for Aberdeenshire Cricket club.

The team with toughest task this season has been the newly-formed fourth eleven, who have had to face the challenge of being the new side in their league, often competing with more seasoned opponents. In addition, a club’s fourth team will face more than their share of call-off difficulties. To their immense credit, this squad of talented youngsters and loyal senior players have stuck together well and have achieved ever-improving results. As more talent emerges at the club, we will inevitably field ever-stronger sides in the coming years.

Aberdeenshire cricket Club is rightly proud of all your displays in this your first season.
Well done!