Saturday 18th May

Heavy overnight rain and persistent drizzle resulted in the cancellation of Saturday’s match v Grange with the final decision to cancel just after 2pm.

Ball sponsor for the day was Ron Scobie, stalwart and former captain of Stewart’s FP sides of the late 1960s and early 1970s. A great supporter of the club despite living in London Ron has family connections with Grange sides of the past.

This week’s matches are against Watsonians at Myreside in the Masterton Trophy on Thursday evening (6pm) and at Arbroath in the EPL on Saturday (12 noon).

Thursday 16 May

Stewart’s Melville CC 99 for 7 (20 overs); Carlton 100 for 3 (16.4 overs)

The 1st XI had Carlton as visitors in the first of this season’s T20 Masterton Trophy matches.

Andrew Wallace a recruit from Premier League Forfarshire and Patrick Ritchie, last year’s school cricket captain and made their debuts.

It was another player new on the Edinburgh cricket scene, Carlton’s South African professional Corne Dry who caught the attention with his quick bowling capturing the early wickets of Ritchie and Shaylen Pillay both bowled. Greg Bissett batting at no 5 scored 26 not out and Chris Hill at no 8 added a rapid 19 to take the Stew Mel score up to 99 for our 20 overs but it was a total unlikely to cause Carlton too many issues and so it proved as Carlton comfortably reached their target inside 17 overs.

Sam Tait with 2 for 21 from his four overs had the best bowling figures. Andrew Wallace showed he will be a useful acquisition to the team in a spell of 3.4 overs conceding only 15 runs.

Scorecard – click on link

https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Scorecard-SMCC-v-Carlton-MT.pdf

Saturday 11 May

Stoneywood Dyce CC 169-9 (50 overs) Stewart’s Melville CC 172-3 (42.1 overs)

The 1st XI scored an important first league win of the season against a Stoneywood Dyce, promoted from the Championship last season, who came to Inverleith with a two out of two win record this season.

Stoneywood won the toss and somewhat unusually for visiting teams to Inverleith elected to bat. Stew Mel opened the bowling with professional Shaylen Pillay from the road end and wicket keeper turned bowler Ben Wilkinson from the Castle end. Shaylen claimed a first wicket with his first ball of the fifth over bowling opener, Liam Lindsay for 6 with the score at 13. Further Stew Mel success followed at regular intervals helped by a run out and two catches behind by stand in keeper, Greg Bissett and one by Sam Tait at mid on, 44 for 5 after 15 overs. In the next over two further wickets, both caught, fell to Ben Wilkinson’s bowling and at 50 for seven there were expectations of an early tea and a low total to chase.

Ewan Davidson (no 7) and Garreth Wolmarans (no 9) didn’t follow the script and set about restoring Stoneywood’s innings playing with caution against a combination of slow bowling from Greg Ruthven, Hayden Sweet, Kyle McCallum and Sam Tait, and gradually lifting the score to 103 in the 41st over when Davidson with an uncharacteristic swipe fell to a catch in the deep by Greg Ruthven off Kyle McCallum’s slow left arm bowling.

Stoneywood’s number 10 David Kidd joined Wolmarans at the crease and together they lifted to tempo to take the score to 169, Kidd being stumped off the last ball of the 50th over. The main architect of the recovery, Wolmarans finished on 67 not out. After the early elation it was a subdued Stew Mel side that left the field for tea.

Kyle McCallum and Kris Steel opened the batting for Stew Mel and Kyle showed every intention putting runs on the board quickly but was given out to a leg side catch by the wicket keeper in the second over so that Ben Wilkinson joined Steel at the crease. Both looked comfortable against the bowling attack and took the score to 61 before Wilkinson on 27 fell lbw to Stoneywood veteran ex Pro, Jan Stander’ s accurate medium pace bowling. That brought Shaylen Pillay to the crease and after a cautious start he and Steel took the total on to 120 after 32 overs before Shaun Coetzer, brother of Scotland’s captain Kyle, bowled Steel for 40. Shaylen by now looking wholly confident was joined by Hayden Sweet and with time to spare got the 50 runs needed for the win in ten overs to secure a very good seven wicket win with eight overs left. Shaylen finished on 56 not out and Hayden 21 not out.

The capability of the side is much determined by the availability in any given week but at least for the moment we have got ourselves into the middle orders of the league.

Scorecard – click on link below

https://www.stewartsmelvillecricket.com/11-05-19-scorecard-stewarts-melville-v-stoneywood/