Greenock meet West of Scotland in top of table clash

One of the oldest cricket fixtures in Scotland resumes this weekend when Glasgow club West of Scotland are the visitors to Glenpark. Having played in separate divisions of the WDCU leagues for the past few years, the two clubs have not had the opportunity to come head to head in league cricket for some time.

But with West's relegation from the Premier Division at the end of last season, normal service is resumed, and the rivalry will remain intense, as both Greenock and West are seeking to return to the top divison, with only a few percentage points currently separate the teams. So it could be a defining afternoon in terms of promotion prospects.

Last Saturday West suffered a blow when they lost at home to third placed Poloc, who moved top as a consequence of the win, with league leaders St Michael's from Dumfries losing heavily to Irvine. Another loss for West on Saturday would see the Glasgow club slide further down the league table.

Of course, a win for Greenock could see the Glenparkers go top in the rather unlikely event that Poloc were to slip up at home to Glasgow Accies.

WDCU CSL First Division Table (at 4th June)

West began their quest to make an immediate return to the Premier Division in fine style by recording two good wins in their opening two league fixtures against Stirling County and Hillhead, but discovered that their journey would not be straightforward when defeated by Irvine in match three.

A further defeat against a much fancied Poloc side last week means West have slipped to fourth position in the league table and flagged up to them that gaining promotion will not be easy.

No single player has been an obvious 'stand out' for West in their league games to date but rather a number of different players have contributed with both bat and ball. Jonathan Fearn, batting at number five in the West line-up has been most consistent and hit his best of the season (70) last week against Poloc. Others who can score well include Ian Young and Gregg Watson, but the Glasgow side's top order has lacked consistency in line-up and run scoring.

In attack, West have a number of options and usually open with Gavin Smith and David McNulty to be followed by Brock McLachlan, Toby Gardiner and young Lucas Farndale. The latter has had considerable success and Greenock will do well to be wary of the youngster when he comes into the attack on Saturday. Over the last two matches, Farndale has picked up a total of seven wickets against Renfrew and Poloc. <

However, Greenock should go into this match with confidence. Wins against Renfrew in the league and Stirling County in the Scottish Cup last weekend, and the good form shown in the season so far, have been the result of fine all round team performances.

Australian overseas amateur Damon Rootes has given the Greenock batting line-up a much more robust appearance than has been the case in recent seasons and last Sunday at Stirling County he notched up his first century of the season. But he has not been alone in scoring runs. Numerous others such as Neil Flack, Louis Ware, Shailesh Prabhu, Sehmat Pandher, Phil McIntosh and Chris Hempsey have all shown good run-scoring form at times this season.

Greenock's bowling attack is without doubt one of the most potent in Division One. It is spearheaded by Declan White, whose pace has caused opposing batsmen problems in all matches, and is backed up by a variety of options from others such as Jonathan Hempsey, Phil McIntosh, Greg McDougall, Neil Flack, Louis Ware, Sam Sanghera and Damon Rootes.

The Glenpark bowling unit will hope to present real problems to the West batsmen and keep their run-scoring down to enable a fourth straight league win when the sides meet this weekend.

So the scene is set for another important Saturday afternoon at Glenpark. A win for Greenock will consolidate their position at the top end of the table and will maintain their promotion prospects as the half way mark in the league programme approaches. Such a result would also be a further blow to West, who are very much one of Greenock's main rivals in this season's race to return to the Premier Division.

The team for the match, which starts at the usual time of 12 noon, is unchanged from the one that defeated Renfrew last Saturday.

*****Interesting point of information.....exactly 36 years ago to the date of this Saturday's match, 11 June 1980, former Greenock and Scotland international player Jack Clark captured the 1000th wicket of hsi illustrious career for the Glenpark club

This match is sponsored by ACT Construction (UK) Ltd

The Glenpark XI play the Partick XI at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow on Saturday, in the Reserve League with the match starting at 12noon. The team have put together three straight wins in the last couple of weeks, two in league competition and one in the Western Cup. The league wins have hoisted them into a good mid table position and are very encouraging for the side which includes a number of Greenock's younger players for whom the Club has high hopes in the seasons ahead. However, they will have their work cut out for them on Saturday as Partick in recent years have been a very strong team and they currently sit in second place in the table, behind the unbeaten leaders, Shawholm. The eleven selected for the match shows a few changes from recent teams and they will be keen to maintain that winning run.

The Hillend XI have no fixture this weekend.

Greenock Cricket Club is sponsored this season by Cleaning Supplies 4U.