Stoneywood-Dyce missed out on a great opportunity to beat Grange, one of the perennial title challengers in the Eastern Premier, at People’s Park.
The hosts reduced the Edinburgh side to 72 for the loss of eight wickets but failed to force home their advantage, enabling the understrength visitors to reach 141.
The lowly total proved to be beyond the fragile batting of the home side who slumped to 46 for the loss of their five top order batsmen before their lesser acclaimed batters kicked in with a defiant attempt to overhaul the Grange total.
Even then Stoneywood-Dyce were left on 109 for nine with only captain Jamie King and last man Jon Grant at the crease.
To their credit the two clawed their way to within three runs of victory when Grant was caught for five leaving King stranded agonisingly on 27 not out in sight of a famous win in a stand worth 30 runs.
For Grant, the day was a bittersweet one, having returned the excellent figures of five for 44, including taking a first ever hat-trick with his final three balls of his 10 over allocation.
Not content with his five wicket haul, the left arm opening bowler then proceeded to take a brilliant catch off the bowling of George Ninan to dismiss Grange’s top scorer and captain Thomas Foulds who had held the Grange innings together with a splendid match-winning 67.
Grant said: “Had I hit the winning runs, instead of getting caught, it would have made for the perfect day and kept our 100% record. I am just sorry my first ever hat trick did not result in a win for the team.”
Scotland player and former Stoneywood-Dyce favourite Gordon Goudie marked his return to People’s Park with another fine bowling performance.
The 90-times capped player claimed three home scalps for 41.
King, who was celebrating his 26th birthday, was disappointed by the outcome, putting his hand up to indicate he had not bowled well in his second spell when his side had Grange on the rack, but said: “We will learn from this lesson. It was a highly competitive game, but our batting has to improve. This was a game we should have won.”
The birthday celebrations were not surprisingly muted, as were the ones for George Ninan’s 200th game for the club and Scotland player Jan Stander’s 150th match.
Across at Mannofield, in the North East Championship, Aberdeenshire made it four wins in a row, maintaining their title challenge at the expense of Strathmore.
After posting a solid 230 in which captain Kenny Reid led the way with a sensible knock of 56, it was Lewis Munro who grabbed the headlines with a blistering unbeaten 92.
He then went on to star with the ball, taking four for 51 to help hold off the challenge of the Forfar side who were bowled out for 214.
Tiaan Brits top scored for the visitors with a classy 120.
Reid said: “We are playing well, getting good contributions from all over the team. Four wins out of four is exactly where we want to be. It’s most encouraging.”
At Huntly, the home side enjoyed a comfortable second win of the season, easing past derby rivals 2nd Stoneywood-Dyce who were bowled out for 148 of which Martin Reid scored a fine 43. A total surpassed by Huntly for the loss of five wickets.
Overseas amateur Sam Cuconits hit a splendid 60 for the hosts.
“It’s a good win, getting us back on track after a shaky start to the season,” said Huntly captain Jack Mitchell, who kept his own run of good form going with a solid 33.
Gordonians returned to form away to Kinloch, running out five wicket winners after bowling the home side our for 141 with Prashant Wig doing the damage with six for 28.
The batting reply was led by opener Aman Arora who scored 54 but given good support by his captain Mayank Bandari who weighed in with 33.
In the NE Grades joint leaders Crescent and Knight Riders continued their winning ways with convincing victories against Cults and Gordonians while champions Aberdeen Grammar’s slump continued at Inverurie where they were well beaten.
Bon Accord were also on the end of another defeat, this time at the hands of Master Blasters Aberdeen at Allan Park.
This weekend’s results…
EASTERN PREMIER LEAGUE
Grange 141 (25 points) (T Foulds 67, J Grant 5-44, G Wolmarans 2-7) Stoneywood Dyce 139 (8 points) (J King 27no, J Lambley 27, J Jarvis 3-27, G Goudie 3-41)
Falkland 207 (25 points) (C Cassell 48, G Watson 43, M Hurst 3-37, B Carnegie 3-48) Arbroath United 124 (0 points) (J Plomer 25, R Plomer 24, L Briggs 3-13, G Chambers 3-25)
RH Corstorphine 226 (25 points) (B James 60, L Naylor 39, B Allchin 4-42, J O’Neill 3-30) Forfarshire 186 (6 points) (R Johnston 62no, L James 29, J Dickinson 6-37, A Anil 2-36)
Stewarts Melville 98 (2 points) (A Appleton 30, R Martin 4-12, N Alexander 3-19) Heriots 100 for 2 (25 points) (P Ross 38, F Proud 22no)
Watsonian 148 (2 points) (A Brock 42, J Onyekwelu 42, S Khan 5-23, A Pillai 2-23)
Carlton 150 for 2 (25 points) (H Southwell 56no, T Simpson 48)
SPCU NORTH EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
2nd Stoneywood Dyce 148 (6 points) (M Reid 43, J Squire 3-13, B Newlands 2-12) Huntly 150 for 5 (25 points) (S Cuconits 60no, J Mitchell 33, D Kidd 3-28)
Kinloch 141 (6 points) (H Hussain 30, A Ahmed 26, P Wig 6-28) Gordonians 142 for 5 (25 points) (A Arora 54, M Bhandari 32no, J Shah 2-32)
Arbroath United 189 for 9 (25 points) (L Patterson 42, M Edwards 40) Freuchie 156 (9 points)
Dundee HSFP 133 (7 points) 2nd Forfarshire 134 for 7 (25 points)
Perth Doocot 171 for 6 (7 points) (U Saeed 94no, A Hussain 35, M Rasheed 2-33) Meigle 174 for 5 (25 points) (M Rasheed 52, A Neave 31, I Patterson 4-27)
Aberdeenshire 230 for 8 (25 points) (L Munro 92no, K Reid 56) Strathmore 216 for 9 (10 points) (T Brits 120, L Munro 4-51, L Bain 3-51)
NORTH EAST SCOTLAND CRICKET GRADES
GRADE 1
Gordonians 90 (8 points) (P Chellappan 22, V Vijapur 3-17, B Vijayaraj Jayakumari 3-23) Knight Riders 94 for 4 (30 points) (V Vijapur 30no)
Mannofield 220 for 9 (30 points) (R Chandu 87no, K Yahathugoda 38, P Mallireddy 2-35, B Selvaraj 2-37) 2nd Knight Riders 165 (18 points) (S Muhammad 39, P Malireddy 33, A Sharma 3-33, K Yahathugoda 2-17)
Master Blasters Aberdeen 97 (30 points) (J Gajjar 40, T Malik 5-23, S Raja 2-20) Culter Curry Bon Accord 88 (14 points) (S Ahmed 35, C Aggarwal 6-27, J Gajjar 2-15)
Infquick.com Cults 120 (8 points) (T Singh 30, S Ali 21, K Reddy 4-44, N Thangaraj 3-12) B-Secure Crescent 121 for 2 (30 points) (R Sujaya 61no, A Pewekar 28)
Inverurie Don Valley 278 for 4 (30 points) (F Lawrance 82, J Thom 81no, R Swiergon 3-39) AGSFPs 197 (14 points) (A Haidar 66, H Javaid 64, J Thom 5-24, F Lawrance 2-39)
GRADE 3
Crathie 128 for 7 (11 points) (M Baldry 39, J Schuneman 25, G Cordiner 4-27) Methlick 132 for 5 (30 points) (A Smith 67no, M Hordley 28, J Schuneman 2-37)
Stoneywood Dyce 61 (6 points) (S Sikandar 3-27, A Nisar 2-5) 2nd Siyapa 63 for 4 (30 points) (A Yousuf 30, S Palaninathan 2-24)
2nd Methlick 151 (22 points) (G Duncan 45, J Morgan 32, V Nair 3-27, M Patel 2-16) 3rd Gordonians 151 for 9 (23 points) (M Patel 53, C Davis 2-27, F Grant 2-40)
Stonehaven Thistle 109 (8 points) (B Snelling 23, N King 20, S Gollakota 2-15, M Patel 2-27) 2nd Gordonians 111 for 3 (30 points) (T Kirodian 69no, B Snelling 2-21)
Huntly 106 (30 points) (G Reid 32, J Cheriyan 4-26, S Derrett 2-15) Dunecht 73 (13 points) (M Witz 46, E Henderson 5-4, M Tandon 3-12)
BON ACCORD CUP
2nd Grampian 146 for 5 (30 points) (M Nadim 49no, M Tonmoy 31) Fraserburgh 135 for 7 (12 points) (S Flowerdew 36, C Gospel 30, M Nadim 2-23)
Grampian 122 for 5 (30 points) (J George 46, J Aluvathingal 38) Banchory 90 for 6 (9 points) (B Jacob 2-12)
Quilter Cheviot Ellon Gordon 112 for 7 (9 points) (A Addy 36, R Greenfield 23, B Horne 2-20, K Vijayakrishnan 2-21) Portcullis 113 for 4 (30 points) (S Mostofa 54no, K Vijayakrishnan 21, J Barrett 2-11)