Another double-header weekend for the 1st XI

The 1st XI travel across the central belt to Braveheart country on Saturday to play Stirling County at New Williamfield. The Premiership Two match will take place with the nearby Wallace Monument providing an impressive back-drop to the County ground.

The side will go into the match with just one win from three league games completed and having not played for three weeks due to rain washing out the last two Saturday league fixtures and also a mid-week cup match against Ferguslie at Paisley.

Stirling on the other hand will be in confident mood with three wins from four matches completed and with less impact from the wet weather. The County side completed their league match against East Kilbride with a resounding win two weeks ago when most other fixtures failed to survive the wet weather.

And last Saturday, a fourth win was looking very likely when heavy rain arrived and called a halt to County's match against Kilmarnock, with the Ayrshire side bowled out for just 120.

So, the 1st XI will need to draw on some of the William Wallace courage of centuries ago and also plenty of cricketing skills and abilities as they take on a County side which has made a very positive start to the first quarter of the 2025 league programme.

The Glenparkers have had the misfortune to have had their matches against Irvine and East Kilbride cancelled and abandoned due to the recent poor weather with no points awarded. But earlier in the season, during the warm and dry spell, Stirling gained full points from wins against those two sides and another win against Langside.

Collectively, these three teams are at the foot of the league while the wins have propelled Stirling into third top spot in the Premiership Two league table.

The two sides last met in season 2023 when they were both in the top Western Premiership One division. Only the fixture at Glenpark in the month of June was completed and that resulted in a win for the visitors. County batted first and scored an impressive 252 all out while the 1st XI managed 174 before being bowled out.

At the end of the season, Greenock were relegated while Stirling escaped the drop finishing in third bottom position.

The County side is a much changed one from two years ago with current team captain and wicketkeeper Manav Malik one of only three or four players still regularly featuring this season. Malik has been their most consistent run scorer. Batting in the middle order, his highest score of 77 not out came against Helensburgh in the opening league match, and he currently has an average of 66 across all matches played.

The 1st XI for their part are also a side almost completely unrecognisable from two years ago. Saturday's team will include only Greg McDougall and Aryan Sanghera who played against Stirling in 2023.

On Saturday, a number of players are unavailable who have featured in the team this season. Out are Harry Briggs, Cammy Calder, Chirag and Sehmat Pandher and Shailesh Prabhu.

But in-form Callum Henry will look forward to continuing his fine form with the bat and will be supported by a number of others such as Aryan Sanghera, Nikhil Kadyan, Will Jenkins, Sam Sanghera and Ewan Stewart, who have already scored well in various matches.

With the ball, skipper Aryan Sanghera will place a lot of hope on opening pace bowler Will Jenkins. He had his best performance of the season in the last completed league match which was at Glasgow Accies three weeks ago. On that occasion, Jenkins picked up 4 wickets for 44 runs and bagged himself the rare feat of capturing a hat-trick.

On Sunday, the 1st XI face Dundee HSFP at Glenpark in the first round of the CS Challenge Cup. Greenock have opted to enter this competition this season as opposed to the Scottish Cup as it is felt that the level of competition in this cup is more akin to that of the 1st XI. The selected teamm play a side that appears to have had a mixed start to their season but it is hard to gauge just what sort of opposition they will provide. The match will start at 12 noon.

The Glenpark XI are at home on Saturday with Bute County & Cowal the visitors. The Glenparkers boast a 100% record so far this season while Bute have won two of their three games played to date. They are led by ex-Greenock player, Louis Ware, and he is a batsman in prime form, the leading run-scorer in the division with a century and a fifty under his belt. He is the man that Eddie Ahmad's team will look to dismiss as early as possible. No team has been selected as yet for the fixture which will start at 12 noon.

The Club is grateful for the continued sponsorship from Cleaning Supplies 4U.