Wet weather washes out Saturday cricket across the country

Saturday was a washout across Scotland for cricket. The 1st XI's match against Stirling County at Glenpark was called off before 9am as the incessant rain and dreadful forecast for the day made cricket in central Scotland as likely as the Sahara freezing over in mid-summer. The Glenpark XI's match at Stirling against County’s Reserve side Williamfield was also cancelled for similar reasons.

There was better news on Sunday however. The rain stopped and occasionally the sun appeared. The large cover at Glenpark did its job well, with the square dry and the outfield in remarkable condition. As a result, the Under-15 representative match between Western Warriors and Eastern Knights in the Scottish Under-15 District Championships was able to go ahead as scheduled and a brief report is provided below.

Unfortunately, the Hillend XI's WDCU Sunday League fixture to be played at the Henry Thow Oval at Prestwick failed to go ahead as the ground had been too badly affected by the Saturday downpour.

Scottish Cricket Under-15 Inter-District Championships

Eastern Knights 157 all out

Western Warriors 158 for 4 wickets

After the heavy rainfall of Saturday, Roger Hardie (Groundsman) and David Glancy (Ground Convener) did a tremendous job in getting Glenpark ready for the West v East Under-15 Inter-District Championship match.

Greenock had one player in the Western Warriors Under-15 line-up, Neil Flack, who as wicket-keeper and opening bat was sure to play an important part in the match for the team.

Neil Flack

Western Warriors captain, Ross Armour (Poloc) won the toss and opted to bowl.  However, the early Warriors bowling was far too short and did not really ask any serious questions of the opening batsmen Dickinson and Carmichael, who started very well, took their singles and played some fine shots as they cleverly picked off the bad ball.  The introduction of Robbie Henderson (Ayr) as first change bowler immediately paid dividends as Dickinson was clean bowled for 22.  Nutton joined Carmichael and another 40-run partnership was built. 

The last couple of overs of the bowling powerplay finally saw the Warriors build some pressure as Mitchell Rao (Prestwick) and Adil Ghaffar (Clydesdale) combined to slow the runs.  Rao then had Nutton smartly stumped by Neil Flack (Greenock) and  Ghaffar bowled Carmichael 3 balls later to leave the Eastern Knights on 83 for the loss of three wickets.  Ghaffar and Rao continued to bowl well, kept the run rate decreasing and gradually brought the Warriors back into the game. 

Ten overs and 30 runs later, Rao had MacPherson caught and the Warriors pulled off another double-breakthrough with Muhammed Azeem  (Kilmarnock) bowling McCreath.  Dryden and Sloman then put on 32 for the 7th wicket before a Henderson hat-trick (caught, bowled and lbw) and a wicket for Nicky Pyne (Drumpellier) left the Knights 157 all out in the 45th over. Eastern Knights having been 73 for 1 at the drinks break, this was a great fightback from the Warriors.

Umpires Ron Irvine and Jim Murphy

After tea, the Western Warriors tactics were to build partnerships and Flack and Azeem  got the innings solidly under way. They saw off Eastern’s Scotland Under-15 opening bowling duo of Hilton and Sloman, with Flack in particular playing some excellent shots to the boundary. Unfortunately for Flack with the Warriors score on 51 he was adjudged LBW, having scored a well crafted 31 runs.

Neil Flack turns the ball to leg in his innings of 31

Pyne and Azeem then added 32, before Pyne was bowled.  The Warriors third wicket pair of Azeem and Armour added 52 before Armour was lbw for 29 and, although Azeem was caught for 48,  Rao and Pryde, who hit the only six of the day, saw the Warriors home to a comfortable 6-wicket win, with 17 overs to spare.