Big game for Greenock against Stirling County this Saturday
Stirling County are the visitors to Glenpark this Saturday for what is a big game for Greenock. Only two league matches remain before the half way mark in the CSL Premier Division West is reached and so far the Glenpark club have managed just one success from five matches played. This weekend’s opponents are just one position ahead of Greenock in the league placings and a win would be not just morale boosting for the players, but also useful in staying in touch with the teams immediately above.
Cricket Scotland Western Premier Division 2012
Standings:
| Team | Played | Won | Tied | Lost | BPL | PP | Pts | % AGE | NRR |
| McCrea FS West of Scotland | 5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
41 |
82.00 |
13.31 |
| APD Dumfries | 5 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
40 |
80.00 |
13.53 |
| PSL Team Sports Clydesdale | 3 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
20 |
66.67 |
21.00 |
| Tunnock's Uddingston | 4 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
18 |
45.00 |
-0.88 |
| Local Life Ayr | 5 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
22 |
44.00 |
-7.33 |
| Stirling County | 3 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
12 |
40.00 |
-8.95 |
| Greenock | 5 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
20.00 |
-19.77 |
| Drumpellier | 2 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0.00 |
-14.67 |
The victory against bottom placed Drumpellier two weeks ago at Glenpark was an important win, but Greenock must ensure that there are more successes during the season, and this Saturday provides a good opportunity to further the team’s winning tally.
To compete successfully, however, at the top level of Scottish cricket teams need to have quality players and also, at times, good fortune. The latter, good fortune, has not been much in evidence at Glenpark this season.
Firstly, opening bat Phil McIntosh damaged his hand in an early season match and has not played since. Secondly, when overseas amateur Craig Schlebusch returned home to South Africa for personal reasons Greenock’s request to seek a replacement overseas amateur was rejected by Cricket Scotland and just last week, the Club’s appeal regarding that decision was also rejected by an Appeal Hearing held at Stirling County Cricket Club.
Thirdly, Richie Berrington, Greenock’s international Scottish Saltires player, has managed to play in only three of the Premier Division West league matches so far due to illness and injury and may miss this week’s game also if his hand injury, sustained while playing for Scotland against Hampshire a couple of weeks ago, does not respond sufficiently well by the weekend.
Also out for this week’s important league match is wicket-keeper batsman Alex Baum. The Scotland Under-19 squad player is unavailable due to a Scottish Universities cricket commitment. His loss will be keenly felt as he has established a good opening bat partnership with Shailesh Prabhu in recent weeks and he is also the number one wicket-keeper for the Club.
Greenock will therefore rely on pro Mpho Sekhoto to come good this weekend and get runs on the board. The South African, who plays first class cricket for Eastern State back in his homeland, came to Greenock with a reputation for scoring runs and indeed while playing for Lowestoft in the East Anglian Premier League a couple of years ago scored almost two thousand runs in the season. So far, in the CSL Western Premier Division he has shown the signs of being a class player but has not yet been able to get the big score which both he and the Club are keen to see happen.
Shailesh Prabhu has had a fifty and two scores in the forties in recent weeks and is showing the form of which everyone at Glenpark knows he is capable. Chris Hempsey may open with Prabhu on Saturday and he along with his brother Jonathan have the ability to get runs if they can stay at the crease. Greenock captain Ryan Begley played an important innings last Saturday at Hamilton Crescent with 41 not out and not for the first time this season showed he can be an important middle order contributor. All will need to put runs on the board on Saturday.
Greenock’s pace bowler Waleed Jamal suffered a slight groin strain at West last Saturday but is hoping to be fit for the Stirling County match and if Richie Berrington is also declared fit, then the Glenpark side has a very potent opening bowling attack.
Back into the side this weekend comes Mark Robertson, who picked up wickets with his slow off spin early in the season, and he along with Mpho Sekhoto, Jonathan Hempsey and Greg McDougall will be in the group of players to provide the bowling options for skipper Ryan Begley.
Stirling County have a well balanced side with a number of players capable of scoring runs. Gavin Anderson, Josh Edwards, Nick Farrar, Srinivasa Reddy and Gautham Rai have all had good scores this season and Reddy along with young George Buchanan-Smith and Shakel Shakoor have regularly been among the wickets in the matches Stirling have played this season. County have had a stop-start season due to weather having affected a number of their matches and they have won just one Premier League match this season, which was against McCrea West a couple of weeks ago. However they have come close in the other two league matches which they have managed to play and will undoubtedly be difficult opponents.
Greenock will therefore need to be at their best on Saturday, but with home advantage and a good local support urging the side on, then a second league win of the season can be won at Glenpark this weekend.
Greenock Cricket Club wish to acknowledge the generous support of Ronnie Peterson's Fishing Shop which will be using the Presidential Suite during the match.
The Glenpark XI came down to earth with a massive bump last Saturday after a spell of success. An inexperienced team was no match for a strong Partick eleven and succumbed by ten wickets. This Saturday, the team are off on their travels again and they head for new territory when they play Williamfield (Stirling County's 2nd XI). This will be the first time that these teams will have met and therefore it is something of an unknown journey for the Glenparkers. A squad of twelve has been picked for the game, led this week by Peter Hempsey, and they will hoping for better fortune this time. This match starts at 1.00pm.
The Hillend XI were disappointed to have last Sunday's fixture against St Michael's cancelled when the opposition were unable to travel and will be hoping for better luck on Sunday when they travel to Prestwick for their latest WDCU Sunday league fixture. No team details are presently available.
Meanwhile, at Glenpark there is an attractive fixture between the Western Warriors Under-15 XI and the Eastern Kinghts Under-15 XI in the District Championship.The game will afford the opportunity to see some of the brightest talent in Scotland at this age group and featuring in the Western Warriors team will be Greenock's Neil Flack who is enjoying a most successful season. The game starts at midday.
