Greenock achieve their aim of Premier Division safety

Greenock retained their place in the Premier Division of the WDCU when their match at Glenpark against Poloc was called off with the umpires deeming the pitch unfit for play after some rain from the 48 hours prior to the match, got in under the covers. While it was an unsatisfactory end to the season, it is fair to point out that Greenock won six games during the season while Ayr, who were well beaten by Dumfries on Saturday, won only four.

 

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table

	Played	Won	Lost	Tied	Points	Net Run Rate	%
Ferguslie	14	13	1	0	330	1.63	94.29
Clydesdale	15	10	5	0	278	0.17	74.14
Stirling County	15	8	5	2	233	0.09	62.14
Uddingston	15	7	8	0	212	-0.12	56.54
Prestwick	15	7	8	0	206	-0.24	54.94
West of Scotland	14	6	8	0	191	-0.26	54.58
Poloc	13	5	8	0	163	0.39	50.16
Greenock	14	6	8	0	163	-0.89	46.58
Dumfries	12	3	7	2	124	-0.24	41.34
Ayr	15	4	11	0	139	-0.68	37.07

 

The main aim for the Glenpark side at the start of the season was to play well enough to finish no lower than eighth position. That was achieved, and a bit more, as during the season Greenock had a number of very fine performances.

Champions Ferguslie were given their only league defeat of the season at Meikleriggs. Second placed Clydesdale only just managed to beat Greenock at Titwood in a high scoring match at the end of May and the Glenparkers defeated third placed Stirling County, fourth placed Uddingston (twice) and last season's champions Prestwick, as well as bottom team Ayr.

Also, in what has been widely recognised as being one of the very best summers for around 40 years, Greenock had the misfortune to have no fewer than four home matches cancelled due to wet weather and so ground advantage was lost on those occasions. Not a single away match was cancelled due to the weather.

There were a number of standout performances during the season. Team captain Neil Flack scored a magnificent 119 runs against Clydesdale, and in the win against champions Ferguslie at Meikleriggs he top scored with 76 runs while Saurabh Bandekar and Jonathan Hempsey each took four wickets in what was arguably the team's top performance of the 2018 season.

As the season moved into its last third, and with Greenock in a battle at the lower end of the league table, a very fine win was achieved against 2017 champions Prestwick at the Henry Thow Oval, with Chris Hempsey (61) and Saurabh Bandekar (56) sharing a 105 run second wicket partnership.

Finally, just a week ago, in a must win match at New Williamfield, overseas players Saurabh Bandekar and Laurens Smit played a hugely important match-winning, unbeaten 135 run partnership against Stirling County to give Greenock a buffer between themselves and the bottom two teams Ayr and Dumfries.

Bandekar and Smit proved to be two very important players for Greenock during the season. They each contributed well to the team with both bat and ball, providing a very necessary strength to the side which ultimately led to the team's retention of its Premier Division status.

Both players came into particularly good form with the bat in the second half of the season with Bandekar scoring 402 runs at an average of 80 and Smit also scoring well and averaging 40 runs per game.

Overall, Bandekar was fifth highest run scorer throughout the Premier Division with a total of 567 runs with a season average of 51.55. Bandekar also took 20 wickets and Smit 14 wickets during the league season.

Finally, congratulations must go to Neil Flack, who up to this season has been particularly noted as a top order bat. As well as scoring a total of 399 runs, Flack has emerged as the highest wicket-taker in the Premier Division with 32 wickets during the league season.

So, although Greenock just managed to stay in the Premier Division for another season, there have been a number of highlights and achievements which are positive signs for the future for the team.