Saturday – EPL. Watsonians 34 for 3 (14 overs) v SMCC (Match abandoned). Ball sponsor – Alf Bissett.

Sunday – Scottish Cup. RH Corstorphine 142 for 8 (50 overs); SMCC 40 all out. (21.1 overs) Lost by 102 runs. Ball sponsor – John Archer.

Following recent wins against Heriot’s CC and Grange there was disappointment on Saturday when having removed Watsonians three main run scorers Zach Place, Michael Carson and Andrew Chalmers for 13 the rain came in leading to the abandonment of play after 14 overs with Watsonians in the process of a mini recovery.

Sunday’s match at Inverleith started out in similar fashion. Having won the toss captain Steven Parker inserted RHC on the inevitably slow pitch and Stew Mel captured the first three wickets for 15 runs. Thereafter RHC set about the recovery process and their numbers 4 and 5 Mohammed Saad who played for Pakistan A v the touring England Lions team during the winter and Australian Sam Flett, took the score to 88 before Flett on 39 was out. RHC grafted on eventually taking the score to 142 in their full quota of 50 overs with Saad top scoring with 55. In amongst this a notable event occurred with Callum Steel taking a hattrick before finishing with four for 30 from his seven overs.

It was accepted that 142 would be a challenging total in the conditions and after opener Patrick Ritchie was an early run out in a misunderstanding with his partner Greg Bissett the batting continued on a downward cycle with only Andy Wallace 12 not out and Hayden Sweet 10 reaching double figures.

On Saturday, league business brings us Corstorphine again, this time at Barnton.

View scorecard v RHC

https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019-06-09-SMCC-v-RHC-scorecard-4.pdf

Thursday 6the June

Stewart’s Melville CC 133 for 6 (20 overs); Grange 125 for 9 (20 overs)

The 1st XI added Grange to their success list with an exciting win in the fourth T20 match of the Masterton Trophy series.

Stew Mel fielding the same team which had beaten Heriot’s at the weekend won the toss and elected to bat first. Grange opened their bowling with T Foulds and C Shorten. Patrick Ritchie and Ben Wilkinson were early victims and were followed soon after by Kris Steel so that Stew Mel were 26 for 3 in the fifth over. That brought Hayden Sweet in to bat with Shaylen Pillay who looked to consolidate the innings taking the score to 59 for 3 after twelve overs. The next over produced fifteen runs with Hayden hitting a four and a maximum off the final two balls of Aslam’s over, 74 for 3. Goudie and Foulds restricted Stew Mel to six runs in the next two overs, 80 for 3 after 15 before the batsmen raised their sights and taking 48 off the next four overs with Hayden being particularly severe adding three sixes and a four losing Shaylen on the way to a catch on the boundary. Ultimately Hayden was out first ball of the last over for a great knock of 65 with a bat borrowed from Shaylen having broken his own at the weekend. Five runs came from the last five balls giving StewMel a final total of 133, considered competitive but gettable.

Stew Mel had early successes with the ball while Grange remained in touch with the required run rate. Shaylen removed both openers, former Scotland players Gordon Goudie and Ryan Flannigan bowled in his first two overs, Goudie going for 23 off 19 balls while Greg Ruthven captured the wicket of no 3, Daniel Stewart (not the same !), bowled second ball. The second wicket brought in former Scotland captain Preston Mommsen a master at timing a run chase and the outcome appeared to rest with him. Ultimately he fell for 29 off 41 balls caught Kris Steel bowled Callum Steel at deep mid wicket leaving Grange 114 for 6 needing 20 to win with 14 balls left. Harris Carnegie on 33 was then out next ball caught by Hayden Sweet and the remaining Grange batsmen managed only another 11 runs to finish on 125 for 9 and nine short of the win.

View scorecard: https://www.play-cricket.com/website/results/4053549

Saturday 1st June

Heriot’s CC 152 all out (46.4 overs); Stewart’s Melville CC 153 for 5 (48 overs). Won by 5 wickets. Match ball sponsor – Ryden LLP

The was much celebration after the 1st XI scored an important league win over a strong Heriot’s side at Inverleith four days after losing to the same club in a T20 Masterton Trophy match. The history books were out again to see when the last league win occurred against Heriot’s – season 1990 to be precise but in mitigation in the intervening period we have been in the same league only in 1997, 2013, 2014 and 2017 and some of the scheduled matches fell to the weather.

After some pretty horrible weather in the preceding days the Inverleith ground staff did a good job in having the ground in a very presentable state for the 1pm start.

Heriot’s won the toss and chose to bat first which seems their preference these days. The top three in their order were the exact same that hit 346 against us at Goldenacre last season but on this occasion they were well contained by our bowlers so that in the twentieth over they were 55 for 3 with all the aforementioned gone to catches off the bowling of Shaylen Pillay, Ben Wilkinson and Hayden Sweet the first of these being an outstanding catch behind by Patrick Ritchie to remove Johann Potgieter off Shaylen’s bowling.

Stew Mel rotated seven bowlers and of these all bowled to three runs an over or less except Andy Wallace who picked up the last two wickets for 19 runs in 2.4 overs when the Heriot’s tail was pushing for runs. A pleasing aspect of the performance was not letting Heriot’s exploit the closing overs to a greater extent. Hayden Sweet 3 for 30 and Greg Ruthven 2 for 27 each bowled their full allotment of 10 overs.

Taking a line through our batting in chasing down 169 against Stoneywood Dyce at Inverleith three weeks ago there were hopes that we could do so again. Patrick Ritchie and Kris Steel had to face the difficult fairly quick opening period against our former player Elliot Ruthven and Joe Kinghorn-Gray who moved from RH Corstorphine for this season. Steel was out in the 10th over to Kinghorn-Gray and Ritchie in the 15th to the first change Michael Shean. Ben Wilkinson (42) and Shaylen Pillay (28) set up our response. There was some concern among home supporters when Elliot Ruthven removed both in close proximity during his second spell but after a slow period between overs 30 and 40 Hayden Sweet (21 no) and Greg Ruthven (26 no) stepped up the pace and stayed together to achieve a win in the 47th over which most East cricket observers would have deemed unlikely. All in all a great performance and well done.

View scorecard: https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/20190601HERIOTS.pdf