A win and a loss as the 2024 season gets underway
With the sun shining at last, even if it was not especially warm, the Club got its 2024 season off to a reasonable start over the weekend by winning one and losing one of their pre-season friendly matches. On Saturday they went down by 28 runs to fellow Western Premiership Two side Kelburne while on Sunday they defeated Renfrew, also a Western Premiership Two team, by 100 runs.
The matches provided the Club's two young Australian amateurs, Connor Nowlan and Angus Tolhurst, with their first taste of cricket in Scotland and both showed very promising signs for the forthcoming league season which begins next weekend.
| Kelburne | 228 for 11 | L Farndale 51, A Gilmour 50; |
| Greenock 1st XI | 200 for 11 | CS Calder 40 |
The club got the 2024 season under way on Saturday against a Kelburne XI at Glenpark. It was a high scoring 50 over-a-side friendly with over 400 runs scored during the afternoon. But it was Kelburne who were the winners by a margin of 28 runs.
Batting first, Kelburne amassed 228 from their fifty overs with Gilmour and Farndale both scoring fifties in the middle / lower order to rescue the visitors who had earlier looked likely to score less than 150.
Gilmour and Farndale began their partnership with their team in some trouble midway through the innings on 86 for the loss of 7 wickets. But the pair added 107 runs to take the score to 193 before Farndale was removed for 51 in the 44th over.
Gilmour departed for 50 in the 47th over and by the end of the 50th over Kelburne had reached 228.
Captain Greg McDougall gave nine players an opportunity to bowl during the visitors' innings and seven managed to pick up at least one wicket during their bowling spell with Usman Mansoor 2 for 28 and Connor Nowlan 2 for 20 the top performers.
Nowlan and Angus Tolhurst, the two Aussie amateurs who have joined the team for the summer, both showed that they will be very useful bowlers for the Club. Nowlan is a pacy right arm bowler while Tolhurst is a left arm spinner.
In reply, the home side made a slow start to their innings scoring 70 runs from the first 23 overs and losing 4 wickets during that time.
Cammy Calder going in at number five in the batting line-up helped boost the Greenock score with a fine innings of 40 which included a six and five boundaries.
Only Mo Ahmadzai (23), batting at the tail-end of the innings, managed to get over 20 runs while five others got into the teens but were unable to progress their innings further.
| Greenock 1st XI | 228 for 8 | CJ Nowlan 100, AS Tolhurst 42 |
| Renfrew | 128 | F Khan 48 |
On Sunday, in a 35 over-a-side friendly, the home team rattled up 228 runs for the loss of 7 wickets and then bowled out the visitors for 128.
Man of the Match was one of the team's Aussie amateurs, Connor Nowlan, who scored an unbeaten maiden century for the Club and took 2 wickets for 30.
Nowlan and former 1st XI captain Shailesh Prabhu opened the innings and put together a fine partnership of 103 runs for the first wicket. Prabhu (18) was the player removed. He had played an anchor role while Nowlan took the opportunity to attack the Renfrew bowling.
Number 3 batsman Vishal Yadav was caught on the boundary in front of the clubhouse off the last ball before the mid-innings drinks break having scored 10 runs.
The wicket brought the side's second Australian amateur Angus Tolhurst out to the middle to join his compatriot and the pair enjoyed a good partnership which only ended when Nowlan retired having scored an excellent century. His 100 not out included eighteen boundaries and one massive six over the clubhouse and onto Brisbane Street.
Tolhurst was looking good for a fifty until Renfrew's opening bowler Khera returned for a second spell and had him removed for 42.
By this time, the score had moved on to 196 for the loss of 5 wickets and only four overs of the innings remained. In a late flurry of run scoring Chris Hempsey was not out 16 as Greenock reached 228 for the loss of 7 wickets.
Renfrew's reply began badly with opening batsman Mubeen Maqbool caught off the bowling of Usman Mansoor in just the first over.
A second wicket stand of 46 runs from Khan and Majeed was the best partnership of the Renfrew innings and once Majeed was out for 19 caught by Shailesh Prabhu from the bowling of Fahim, opener Khan regularly ran out of partners as wickets tumbled.
Renfrew were all out for 128 in the 33rd over, opening batsman Khan being his side's top scorer with 48 runs.
Team captain Greg McDougall once again gave nine of his side the opportunity to bowl a few overs. Nowlan, Tolhurst, Fahim and Rakesh each picked up two wickets as the match was won by the comfortable margin of 100 runs.
