The Grades team arrived in Banchory to find light but persistent rain preventing a prompt start. Following discussions between the captains, it was agreed to use the new Grades rule and play a 30 overs game and just keep going unless it got daft.
The captain won the toss and put Banchory in. The pitch was a bit unpredictable – the captain getting some surprising bounce – but Banchory started well until their opener was run out following an outstanding bit of fielding from Alan at slip.
Tariq was involved in the next 3 wickets, taking 2 catches and one stumping and Alan took another good catch at slip. We worked our way through them, with Farhad, Rory and Jack all picking up wickets but a last wicket stand of 18 saw Banchory creep over the 100 mark to finish on 102.
After another fine tea, we started off but both openers fell LBW and Mark was bowled by one that came back a bit. Adrian and Alan then put on the highest partnership of the match (34) before former SDCC player, Naz Hussain removed both Adrian and Farhad in the same over.
Jamie came in and played positively hitting a big six the ball after being dropped by the keeper and at 86-5, we were in command. However, Alan was well caught at point, Jamie got one that bounced a bit and was caught and, despite the captain scoring his first run of the season, he was the last wicket to fall, hitting the ball onto his stumps rather than over the boundary to see us falling 5 runs short.
An enjoyable game played in excellent spirits by both teams and a good advert for the new rule allowing for shortened games.
Banchory 102 (S Khan 23, J Ambrose 14; F Chowdhury 4-23, Rory Taylor 2-14, J Lambley 2-17)
3s 97 (J Rodger 24, A McLean 15; Z Crawley 4-32, N Hussain 3-19, T Wilkinson 2-9)
Banchory MoM: Z Crawley for his 4-32.
SDCC MoM: Jamie Rodger for top scoring in the game on a day when batting was not easy. Honourable mention to Alan McLean for his batting, catch and run out.
Highlight of the Match: A good highlight was Alan’s stop at slip, followed by the throw from on the ground to Tariq, who dropped the ball but collected it in time to run out the opener. The bad highlight was the last ball of the match – the captain should just have stopped it and then hit the next one for 6.