1st XI come up short against Hillhead
Greenock XI vs Hillhead
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Sunday 20th April 2014
| Greenock | 162 | ND Flack 70*; N Potts 4 for 18 |
| Hillhead | 163 for 8 | G Burns 64; JPC Hempsey 3 for 22 |
Sunday’s game featured Glasgow side Hillhead in what has become an annual pre-season encounter and the city side won a much better and testing match than Saturday's game by just two wickets.
Again Greenock batted first and young Neil Flack demonstrated further fine early season form, batting through the innings to be not out 70. Unfortunately Flack was unable to be supported by others in the side apart from Chris Hempsey who made 22 runs coming in at number three. When he departed with the Greenock score at 58 for 2 in the fourteenth over, Greenock looked well on course to set a target in excess of two hundred runs for the Hillhead side to chase but, following contributions of 10 runs from Guy Crichton and 14 runs from Louis Ware, the remainder of the Greenock batting line up failed to make any meaningful runs as Flack was left stranded not out on 70 when the innings closed on 162 with nine balls of the set forty overs still remaining.
Hillhead’s overseas player Nick Potts was the pick of the visitors bowlers with 4 wickets for 18 runs from his allotted 8 overs. Mohsin Ali 2 for 31 and Richard Bond 2 for 23 were the other wicket-takers.
A couple of early wickets from Jonathan Hempsey put Greenock in control as the Hillhead innings stumbled in the first few overs, and when Greg McDougall picked up a third wicket to put the visitors 27 for 3, a second weekend win for Greenock seemed a likely outcome. However, a fine innings of 64 runs from Gordon Burns brought Hillhead back into the game as firstly he and Mohsin Ali (29) added 72 runs for the fourth wicket and then with Andrew Tervert (22) a further 39 runs were added for the sixth wicket.
A superb caught and bowled by Greenock’s young up and coming pace bowler Louis Ware to dismiss Burns with the visitors on 140, made for an interesting final part of the match as Greenock picked up a further two wickets to make the result hang in the balance as the last few overs approached. However, former Greenock player Richard Bond with 9 not out saw the visitors home as Hillhead made 163 for the loss of 8 wickets with three overs still remaining of the 40 available.
Jonathan Hempsey with 3 for 22 from six overs was Greenock’s most successful bowler while Greg McDougall, Guy Crichton, Sam Sanghera, Neil Flack and Louis Ware each picked up one wicket.