Stoneywood-Dyce are the joint leaders of the Eastern Premier after an exciting six-run victory against Watsonians at Myreside.
The Edinburgh side were only nine runs from victory with three wickets in hand before the Aberdonians claimed a superb win to move level at the summit with Heriots.
The champagne moment came in Jamie King’s final over when the Stoneywood-Dyce captain who had up to that point not taken a wicket, lured Andrew Chalmers into a false shot when on 121, giving Jack Lambley the easiest of catches at square leg.
Even then the job was not done, as the Scotland batsman’s partner of 103 runs, Gregour Carr, was still at the wicket on 24.
Fortunately Nathan Elliott was up to the task, clean bowling him three runs later before the former Aberdeenshire player ran out last man Gareth Weatherall to complete a remarkable victory.
Earlier in the home innings, Du Pereez Stander had set the scene for the win with the splendid figures of four for 32.
But if the People’s Park side’s bowling and fielding was impressive, so was their batting led by 20-year-old Ewan Davidson who hit a magnificent, mature 65.
That paved the way for Lennard Bester to blast a quick-fire 82 from 40 balls, including eight fours and four sixes, making him the top scorer in the division with 223 runs.
Lambley weighed in with a tidy 38 and Andrew McLaren 23.
Captain King was thrilled with the outcome and said: “This makes up for the pain of last week’s two run defeat at home to Grange.
“When we dropped Chalmers late in his innings, I thought it was all over, but we battled on and got our reward.
“Next week we have a league and cup double header against Stewart’s Melville and Forfarshire and as they are at home, I will be looking for wins. We are starting to fulfil our potential.”
On a day of tight finishes, Heriots lost their unbeaten record, losing out by 10 runs to RH Corstorphine, while Grange and Stewart’s Melville were both two run winners at the expense of Falkland and Carlton.
On this form Stoneywood-Dyce need fear no one but there is long way to go with only eight points covering the five at the top of the league.
Elsewhere, Aberdeenshire are cruising at the head of affairs in the North East Championship, making it five out of five in a comprehensive win at People’s Park where they dismissed 2nd Stoneywood-Dyce for 85 before rattling off the required runs for the loss of three wickets.
Shire captain Kenny Reid said: “I was delighted with the manner of the win.
“We were most professional in the way in which we went about our business, keeping us on track for promotion.
“It was a very convincing performance but we have still to play Meigle who are also unbeaten.”
Huntly slipped from out the top four after being well beaten away to Kinloch who hunted down the 170 all out posted by the Castle Park side, passing the total for the loss of seven wickets in the 35th over.
Gordonians picked up their third win of the season after posting a target of 234 in their home match against Strathmore. The Forfar side fell 17 runs short in reply.
In the Grades, there was no change at the top of Grade 1 where Crescent and Knight Riders continued their winning ways against 2nd Knight Riders and Master Blasters Aberdeen, although both leaders were made to battle for the points.
At Groats Road, Knight Riders set a challenging total of 165 based on a half century opening partnership with Sivag Palaniappan top scoring with 45. Masters Blasters Aberdeen were bowled out for 148, despite a magnificent 71 from Harivshal Ganestan.
Crescent were made to work hard as the chased the 244 set by 2nd Knight Riders, winning by only three wickets.
Bon Accord returned to winning ways at Rubislaw where Aberdeen Grammar fell 112 runs short of 238 set by the visitors of which Fazal Awan scored 51.
This weekend’s results…
EASTERN PREMIER LEAGUE
Stoneywood Dyce 254 for 6 (25 points) (L Bester 82, E Davidson 65, L Hillis 3-56) Watsonian 248 (8 points) (A Chalmers 128, M Carson 42, D Stander 4-32, J Grant 2-31)
Forfarshire 289 for 6 (25 points) (C Robertson 123no, G Carnegie 37no, C Ross 3-34, G Fraser 3-45) Arbroath United 138 (0 points) (C Cameron 27, G Fraser 26, J Hogarth 4-19, S Cameron 3-33)
Grange 233 (25 points) (R Flannigan 67, T Foulds 52, C Cassell 5-52, G Chambers 4-51) Falkland 231 (8 points) (C Cassell 64, J Henderson 55, C Cook 4-25, T Foulds 2-52)
RH Corstorphine 244 for 8 (25 points) (B James 78, R Thompson 51, E Ruthven 2-18, N Alexander 2-54) Heriots 234 (8 points) (H van der Berg 54, R Brown 37, B James 3-34, S Fischer-Keogh 2-28)
Carlton 148 (8 points) (S Gupta 35, H Aslam 33, N Tandel 3-26, S Pillay 2-24) Stewarts Melville 150 for 9 (25 points) (M Miller 50no, S Parker 35, A Evans 4-20, U Mohammad 3-34)
SPCU NORTH EAST CHAMPIONSHIP
2nd Stoneywood Dyce 85 (3 points) (L Munro 3-20, F Anderson 2-12) Aberdeenshire 86 for 3 (25 points) (D Forrester 23no, J Horne 22)
Gordonians 234 for 6 (25 points) (A Mehta 94no, A Ahmed 39, L Sweeney 2-39, S Ejaz 2-44) Strathmore 218 for 9 (9 points) (T Brits 102, H Kiyani 20, H Saraswat 2-17, A Ahmed 2-33)
Huntly 170 (8 points) (S Cuconits 52, I Hussain 26, M Ali 3-24, A Shazad 2-25) Kinloch 173 for 7 (25 points) (J Shah 53no, S Raghuraman 38, I Hussain 3-32, B Newlands 2-38)
Perth Doocot 296 for 5 (25 points) Dundee HSFP 75 (4 points)
Freuchie 161 (6 points) (R Wright 42, D Cowan 28, R Gayashan 4-27, H Guest 2-21) Meigle 165 for 3 (25 points) (A Neave 46no, M Harvey 37no, M Hastie 2-30)
2nd Arbroath United 142 (5 points) 2nd Forfarshire 143 for 3 (25 points)
NORTH EAST SCOTLAND CRICKET GRADES
GRADE 1
Infquick.com Cults 170 (30 points) (A Shehman 38, R Mahajan 22, M Khosla 4-21, R Chouksey 2-26) Gordonians 143 (17 points) (C Perera 44, A Vitthala 30, A Ali 4-24, I Nawaz 2-29)
Inverurie Don Valley 273 for 3 (30 points) (C Watson 124no, T Norval 88, R Chandu 2-40) Mannofield 215 (13 points) (S Alawattage 45, I Bandara 37no, G Hadden 3-22, F Lawrance 2-25)
Knight Riders 165 (30 points) (S Palaniappan 45, M Mohan 29, H Chovatiya 3-30, C Aggarwal 2-27) Master Blasters Aberdeen 148 (18 points) (H Ganesan 71, S Peedikayil 3-22, V Vijapur, 2-19)
2nd Knight Riders 244 for 8 (17 points) (S Arumugam Vijandiran 80, S Kumarasamy 63) B-Secure Crescent 245 for 7 (30 points) (H Konda 49, V Khanna 45)
Culter Curry Bon Accord 238 (30 points) (F Awan 51, H Ahmed 45, R Knudson 5-28, R Swiergon 2-29) AGSFPs 126 (16 points) (M Nattrass 31, A Keith 22, U Khan 2-17, S Raja 2-22)
GRADE 3
2nd Gordonians 250 for 6 (30 points) (S Gollakota 103no, T Kirodian 38, J Humphrey 2-40) Crathie 111 (11 points) (J Thomas 44, R Humphrey 24, S Chouksey 5-13, P Gollakota 3-11)
2nd Methlick 57 (3 points) (J Slater 4-16, B Davidson 4-17) Stoneywood Dyce 58 for 1 (30 points) (A Madigan 23, S Reid 22no)
Dunecht 93 (8 points) (M Witz 55no, V Amirtharaj 4-7, R Kirodian 3-8) 3rd Gordonians 94 for 4 (30 points) (V Hegde 25no, N Kirodian 21, C George 2-34)
Huntly 89 (11 points) (M Clark 24, A Legatt 22, C Addison 3-8, T Duffy 3-14) Methlick 90 for 7 (30 points) (M Woodhouse 37no, M Hordley 21, M Tandon 3-23, E Henderson 2-12)
2nd Siyapa 200 for 8 (30 points) (S Jafri 47, S Bedaar 34, A Kossman 3-35) Stonehaven Thistle 153 for 9 (16 points) (N King 44, N Macaulay-Dicks 29, A Nisar 4-19, A Niamatullah 2-34)
BON ACCORD CUP
Fraserburgh 183 for 9 (30 points) (C Gospel 88, U Shirzad 34, M Shahid 2-36) Siyapa 104 for 8 (14 points) (K Taggar 27no, M Ghafoor 21, A Rennie 3-17, O Rohani 2-22)
Banchory 133 for 5 (30 points) (M Thapa 50, S Rotheram 39, R McKenzie 2-9) Portcullis 116 for 6 (11 points) (S Mostofa 42, L Hendrikson 2-18, D Abbott 2-23)
Grampian 137 for 9 (30 points) (J Varghese 25, J Varghese 24, M Sandham 3-31) Quilter Cheviot Ellon Gordon 129 for 8 (15 points) (J Barrett 71, S Davis 30, S Joseph 5-10)
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