Thursday 20th June

Stewart’s Melville CC 140 for 7 (20 overs); Edinburgh Academicals 99 all out. SMCC won by 41 runs.

The 1st XI cruised to a third win in this season’s Masterton Trophy competition against Championship side Edinburgh Academicals. Steven Parker on winning the toss chose to bat first and was rewarded with openers Kris Steel (19) and Ben Wilkinson (26) getting off to a high octane start taking eighteen runs off the first two overs and then past 50 before Steel was bowled by first change bowler Max Banks in the ninth over. The loss of a further two wickets in successive overs slowed the momentum of the innings until Steven Parker (23) joined Hayden Sweet (28) adding 38 runs for the fourth wicket off 33 balls, 100 for 4 in the sixteenth over. Andy Wallace (18) and Greg Bissett (8) kept scoring going so that the self imposed team target of 140 was attained last ball of the innings.

The first three Accies bats Andrew Cosh (13), Max Banks (23) and Omais Altaf (26) all made starts in taking the reply to 71 for 3 in the 12th over with the occasional lusty boundary hit but once they were gone the innings petered out as wickets were lost at regular intervals as they fell further behind the asking rate. Callum Steel took 3 for 9 from the eight balls he bowled as the innings was wrapped up in the 18th over for 99 and a 41 run win.

With three wins from five games we are challenging to qualify for a spot in the four team play offs with bogey team Corstorphine and Edinburgh CC still to play in the round robin.

View scorecard https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-06-20-EDIN-ACADS-STEWMEL-match-scorecard.pdf

Saturday 15th June

Stewart’s Melville CC 69 all out (33.3 overs); RH Corstorphine 72 for 3 (20.5 overs). RHC won by 7 wickets. Match Ball sponsor – Steve Kerr

The 1st XI lost to RH Corstorphine for the second time in a week again being bowled out for a low score. On this occasion they will feel there were some mitigating factors given the less than perfect batting conditions the side batting first would face. The start was delayed by half an hour to allow a very damp and soft pitch, particularly so at one end, to dry out somewhat. Unfortunately on this occasion captain Steven Parker made the wrong call and we were put in to bat. Calum Whitefoord, an exceptionally quick bowler and professional Mohammed Saad provided a formidable opening pair and Whitefoord in particular wreaked havoc bowling a fairly full length and capturing the wickets of Kris Steel (caught behind), Shaylen Pillay (lbw), Hayden Sweet (bowled) and Greg Bissett (bowled) scoring only 4 runs between them. At the other end Kyle McCallum (9) and Ben Wilkinson (0) went to Saad and all that left us 15 for six. For the remaining bats the object of the exercise was simply to accumulate a respectable total knowing that former Scotland off spinning star Majid Haq had still to come on. Ultimately a total of 69 was achieved with Mikey Miller top scoring with a patient 19 runs. Without achieving an early breakthrough with our bowling the result was never in doubt as RHC picked their way through 21 overs for the loss of three wickets.

View scorecard https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Cscorecard-SMCC-v-RHC-18.06.19-1.pdf

There was an unusual backdrop to the match in that a rugby league match was taking place on the pavilion pitch between the Edinburgh Eagles and the Rockets from the North East of England. It was the writer’s first live experience of Rugby League (as a bag carrier) since the Stew Mel 1st XV made a weekend trip to Wigan aeons ago for fitness and training purposes.

Thoughts turn to next week with league leaders Forfarshire waiting at Forthill to complete the first half of the season. Last Saturday of the month we face Aberdeenshire at Inverleith in what is becoming a must win match following their first win of the season against their near neighbours Stoneywood Dyce. And … well done to the 2nds who got off the mark with a win against RHC’s 2nd XI in East Division One.

Saturday – EPL. Watsonians 34 for 3 (14 overs) v SMCC (Match abandoned). Ball sponsor – Alf Bissett.

Sunday – Scottish Cup. RH Corstorphine 142 for 8 (50 overs); SMCC 40 all out. (21.1 overs) Lost by 102 runs. Ball sponsor – John Archer.

Following recent wins against Heriot’s CC and Grange there was disappointment on Saturday when having removed Watsonians three main run scorers Zach Place, Michael Carson and Andrew Chalmers for 13 the rain came in leading to the abandonment of play after 14 overs with Watsonians in the process of a mini recovery.

Sunday’s match at Inverleith started out in similar fashion. Having won the toss captain Steven Parker inserted RHC on the inevitably slow pitch and Stew Mel captured the first three wickets for 15 runs. Thereafter RHC set about the recovery process and their numbers 4 and 5 Mohammed Saad who played for Pakistan A v the touring England Lions team during the winter and Australian Sam Flett, took the score to 88 before Flett on 39 was out. RHC grafted on eventually taking the score to 142 in their full quota of 50 overs with Saad top scoring with 55. In amongst this a notable event occurred with Callum Steel taking a hattrick before finishing with four for 30 from his seven overs.

It was accepted that 142 would be a challenging total in the conditions and after opener Patrick Ritchie was an early run out in a misunderstanding with his partner Greg Bissett the batting continued on a downward cycle with only Andy Wallace 12 not out and Hayden Sweet 10 reaching double figures.

On Saturday, league business brings us Corstorphine again, this time at Barnton.

View scorecard v RHC

https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-06-09-SMCC-v-RHC-scorecard-4.pdf