Weekend washout but West League Cup campaign starts well
The weather was the only winner as cricket across the west of Scotland was washed out on Saturday afternoon due to the torrential downpours which provided scenes more akin to November than May.
Greenock did travel through to Stirling County’s New Williamfield ground, and were on the point of starting their match, when the rain clouds which had been forecast arrived and ended any hopes there had been that play might be possible.
Such are the vagaries of weather in this country that only a short distance away in Edinburgh, there was no rain and the three Premiership matches at Grange, Heriots and Watsonians all took place, as did the matches further up the east coast at Arbroath and Stoneywood Dyce.
Greenock 155 for 2 (RD Berrington 68*, LR Butterworth 66*)
Kelburne 94 for 5 (SL Hamilton 34*)
On Thursday, Greenock 1st XI played their opening West League Cup match against Kelburne at Whitehaugh in Paisley and gained an impressive win.
Batting first Greenock piled on the runs with Richie Berrington and Luke Butterworth both in fine run-scoring form. They came together in just the third over of the innings with the score on 12 for the loss of the two opening batsmen, Hislop and Baum, and nudged the score along until the ninth over when they began to open up. Seventeen runs were smashed off Kelburne’s opening bowler Campbell’s fifth and final over, which ruined his analysis for the evening, and thereafter the runs flowed.
Berrington hit eight boundaries and two 6s in his 68 not out while Butterworth managed four boundaries and one maximum in his undefeated 66. Their partnership of 143 provided what proved to be an unassailable total and demonstrated just how important such top quality players are to Greenock. In the last six overs of the innings the pair plundered 69 runs to take the game out of sight of the home team.
Needing almost eight runs per over to win in this 20 overs per side match, Kelburne were never in touch with the necessary run rate and lost wickets regularly. Butterworth captured his first wicket for Greenock when he caught and bowled opener Cook for 7, while Dougie Wylie with 2 for 23 from his five overs lengthened his extensive list of victims in a career which began as a player at Whitehaugh before he moved to play for Greenock in 2002.
Scott Hamilton with 34 not out was Kelburne’s top batsman, with Steve McLister and Ross McLean both contributing 18 runs but the Greenock total was too great for the Paisley side.
Greenock have two games in the week ahead, firstly against Prestwick at Glenpark on Thursday evening in another West League Cup match and then against Arbroath United also at Glenpark on Saturday in the SNCL Premiership. The scheduled West League Cup match against Ferguslie at Glenpark on Sunday has had to be postponed until Sunday 26 June due to the Paisley team having to travel down to the Borders to play their postponed Scottish Cup 1st Round match v St Boswells. But will the weather relent?
