The games keep coming for the 1st XI

Greenock will be keen to get back to a winning way this weekend after narrowly losing out last Saturday in a high scoring Premier Division match at Dumfries and then crashing out of the Scottish Cup at Drumpellier on Sunday.

On Saturday, Prestwick are Greenock's opponents at Glenpark for a Premier Division match, and on Sunday the Glenparkers travel up the M8 to Paisley for a Western Union 40 Cup match against Ferguslie

A good midweek win over Renfrew on Wednesday evening in the McCulloch West League Cup will undoubtedly have boosted the team's morale and they will be looking forward to Saturday's match with Prestwick.

In the T20 match, Renfrew batted first and scored 113 runs for the loss of 7 wickets with professional Farhan Khan top scoring with 65 and Mo Alam 29. Kyle Scrimegour kept up his good bowling form with 4 wickets for just 13 runs. Greenock eased to a comfortable win with two full overs still available when they made 114 for the loss of 4 wickets. In-form opening bat Neil Flack scored 44.

This summer's Premier Division competition is wide open for the first time in many years as almost all teams are winning some matches but also losing some matches. Only Kelburne at the bottom of the table have shown consistency, but theirs is a record which no other side wishes to emulate ... played 5, lost 5.

WDCU CSL Premier Division Table (at 3rd June)

Prestwick have made a good start to their league programme with wins over Kelburne, Dumfries and Poloc and these results have taken them to third top position, but the Ayrshire side has also suffered two reversals against Ayr and Uddingston.

Greenock had a good month of league and cup matches in May, playing nine and winning seven. Last weekend was, hopefully, just a blip in form with Sunday's reversal at Drumpellier particularly disappointing but perhaps a consequence of the long journey and narrow loss to Dumfries.

A number of Greenock players have shown good form so far in the season. Kyle Scrimegour is in a rich vein of bowling form having taken fifteen wickets in the last five matches and tops the team's wicket-taking table with 26 wickets so far, just three ahead of Julian Hulbert who has taken 23 wickets.

Meanwhile, Neil Flack is the Club's top run-scorer with 581 runs already at an average of 52.82 with Kyle Scrimegour 345 runs at an average of 24.7 and Louis Ware 245 runs at an average of 22.3 also in the runs regularly.

In overall Club stats, a couple of notable career landmarks were reached recently with Greg McDougall and Neil Flack both passing 100 wickets taken for Greenock.

Saturday's opponents, Prestwick, lost out last Saturday at home to Ayr. Having bowled out Ayr for 181 in slightly under 47 overs, they scored 167 all out in 48.3 overs and so lost by 14 runs. The defeat would have been much greater but for a fine rearguard action by number nine batsman Mitchell Rao who scored 66 not out in partnerships with Fazal Jawad (23) and Gavin Pitt (17).

The Ayrshire side have a good battery of bowlers, with former Irvine professional Sachin Chaudhary and youngster Mitchell Rao two players Greenock know will require to be treated with respect. Also in the line-up may be former Greenock player Willie Rowan, but he has not been an ever present for Prestwick and may not play on Saturday.

Prestwick have been generally reliant on their top four batsmen to score runs and once again Sachin Chaudhary has been an important player along with openers Shazad Rafiq and Fraser MacDonald.

Greenock will be without Harry Briggs and Shailesh Prabhu who are both unavailable for Saturday's game against Prestwick.

The match at Glenpark is well set to provide an interesting afternoon of cricket and if Greenock perform as they can then a third Premier Division win could be theirs by the end of play on Saturday evening.

Greenock have chosen a squad of twelve for the match with Sehmat Pandher and Fraser Godsman added to the team that lost to Dumfries last Saturday, with Harry Briggs dropping out. The match will start at the usual time of 12 noon.

The match against Prestwick is kindly sponsored by Roger Hardie

On Sunday, Greenock play their second round match in this season's Western Union 40 Cup competition against Ferguslie at Meikleriggs in Paisley. This match will be the first of three matches between the two sides in the space six days, all of which will be played at Meikleriggs. On Wednesday the sides meet in the McCulloch West League Cup and next Saturday it is Premier Division business.

Greenock will be keen to win this first of three games not just to progress to the quarter final but also to gain a psychological advantage. Ferguslie are currently riding high at the top of the Premier Division but if all of Greenock's players play to the best of their form then a winning result is certainly possible.

A midweek match between the two sides earlier in the season was narrowly won by Ferguslie and Greenock will be keen to make amends for that reversal. The prize for the winners of this second round match is a quarter final tie at home to Poloc.

Greenock's selection shows a few changes from Saturday's squad with Jamie Nowell and Shailesh Prabhu included and Phil Mcintosh dropping out. This match which will start at 1pm.

The Glenpark XI travel down the coast on Saturday to play Marress (Irvine's 2nd XI) in the Reserve League First Division. The Glenpark team have had a mixed season so far but this Saturday surely represents a good chance of recording a win as their opponents have lost all five games played this season, and in some instances quite heavily. The game will start at 12 noon.

To finish off a busy weekend for Greenock's senior team cricketers, the Sunday side, Hillend XI are at home to a Glasgow Accies XI in the Western Union Sunday League Division 2. The match at Glenpark will begin at 1pm.

Junior cricketers at Glenpark also have matches this weekend. On Friday evening, Greenock's Under-11 team play Renfrew Under-11s at Glenpark while the Under-15 side, which is combined with Helensburgh travel to Glasgow to play Poloc's Under-15 team at Shawholm. On Monday, the Under-13 team play Ferguslie Under-13s at Glenpark, while the Under-18 side, also combined with Helensburgh, travels to Paisley to play a joint Ferguslie/Hillhead Under-18 side.

Junior training evenings are held at Glenpark on Wednesday evenings 6pm until 7.30pm and new young players are always welcome. Training is provided by a team of qualified and Disclosure-checked coaches.

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