Forty Club too strong for Greenock oldies

Senior XI v Forty (XL) Club
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Sunday 28th June 2026

Forty (XL) Club 153 for 7   T Preston-Jones 35
Senior XI 91   RDG Wylie 3 for 11

Forty (XL) Club defeated Senior XI by 62 runs

Scorecard

The annual fixture between Greenock and the Forty Club has been eagerly anticipated in recent years; Sunday's event had the added attraction of being the first outing for the newly developed Greenock Seniors team.

After an intense warm up, Glenpark legend Tom Black led out his gang of past and present players on to familiar turf that, thankfully, had not been too disrupted by overnight rain. Soon Ali Calder defied the years without ball in hand, sending down an opening over of accurate seam bowling. With Dave Sharma embracing the senior tag and forgetting his boots, TB himself stood up to bowl at the other end; delighting his fans with banana away swing. In spite of this attack, the XL openers saw these maestros off and steadily put on a partnership.

Charlie Craig and Dave Sharma (now with appropriate footwear) were the change bowlers, and Dave managed to remove the batting pair thanks to excellent catches by Ali and Charlie. From thereon in, honours were fairly even: there was steady bowling from Toby Matthews, Rod Mountford and Jon Ventham - all taking a wicket apiece, whilst the opposition put together partnerships, but never really building on the opening stand. Ali and Charlie returned to close out the innings, also getting a wicket each, the final total appearing to be a par score of 153 for 7 from the allocated 40 overs.

There was a short innings break before Shailesh Prabhu and Charlie Craig strode out to open for the home team. Mimicking the Forty Club they gave their team a solid start, but both perished trying to push up the run rate.

Unfortunately the middle order failed to capitalize in spite of some promising starts and Tom showing glimpses of his brilliance. With Tom, Sudeep Chaudhary, Jon and Peter Robertson back in the hutch, Greenock Seniors still held out hope with Toby, Chris Hempsey and Rod still to bat, particularly when the not so senior Toby hit a couple of boundaries.

Bizarrely he then decided to impersonate a world cup footballer in the penalty area, took a dive out of his crease and was summarily stumped (the third stumping of the innings). Chris holing out heralded the last four wickets falling for no runs, leaving Dave Brabender not out and Greenock ending well short on 91.

In spite of the result, everyone enjoyed the day, played in great spirit and with valiant performances from the veterans. Even the Scottish weather respected the event with none of the heavy showers that fell in the area allowing the game to be played without interruption, and the enjoyment of a post-match barbecue put on by PJ Bryceland, Cammy Calder and Emily Norris - thanks to them, and everyone who turned up to support.