The 2025 cricket season is upon us and has started with a bang. Our preseason card of five matches against our friendly local rivals Carlton produced a ‘maroonwash’ of wins for each of our 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th XIs as well as our Women’s team, providing a great introduction for many new members of the club and an upbeat return for others, as evidenced by a great evening of merry mingling at Myreside afterwards.

The damp start and grey overhead conditions on Saturday 26th April happily did nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of our players or jeopardize play in the first weekend of ESCA league fixtures.

The 1st XI are relishing the challenge of the Championship, hoping to achieve a swift return to the EPL without underestimating the task involved. First up at Myreside was Edinburgh Accies who we faced in last year’s Masterton Trophy group stage (a 41-run win for us). Only two of our players from that occasion appeared in our 50-over team, and only three for Accies, so there was not much to go off in the form book. Accies kept it pretty tight with the ball, restricting us to 191/7, but not before globetrotter and former captain Mike Carson knocked off 54. Another returner, Andrew Brock, was unlucky to be forced to retire injured while on 38*. Cal Martin made a welcome cameo of 30 off 20 and WCC debutant Oscar Kirkwood a valuable 23. Batting out our overs and having the lower order add runs made the difference, a feat Accies couldn’t match. Donovan du Randt, our overseas amateur, set an excellent tone from the start, taking a wicket in the first over. The next five wickets fell to different bowlers and a run out, showing the strength of the attack. Thereafter Donnie helped to clean up the tail, finishing with excellent figures of 3/18 off 9 overs, and Tom Wylie, bronzed by the Australian summer, got the key threat, Behzad Shah, their other opener and top-scorer with 53 caught by G Carr. Accies finished all out on 105 after 34 overs giving us a win by 86 runs and the best possible start to our promotion campaign.

The 2nd XI enjoyed a high-scoring encounter at Kirkhill facing Penicuik in Division 1, having seen both matches against them last season cancelled due to the weather. Penicuik won the toss, opted to bat and made a very strong start courtesy of Matt Horton (94 off 92 balls) and Kaleb Daley (80 off 77), reaching 200/1 after just 27 overs. A trio of wickets from new member Rizwan Dharani (3/38), a brace for R High and one for Will Ellison helped stem the flow and saw Penicuik finish on 273/7. An excellent captain’s knock by Dan Kirk of 102, his first century for the club, made it a closer contest than it might have been and helped us to bat out our overs finishing just 42 runs short.

The 3rd XI hosted Linlithgow 2s at Craiglockhart in Division 5. A couple of our new members made an immediate impact with the ball, Abhinav Ramesh (3/13) and Ujjwal Upadhyay (1/1), in an excellent team bowling performance which saw every bowler take at least one wicket, Ethan Haire and Jonathan Potton contributing a pair each. Youngster Jamie Tucker made light work of the chase scoring more than half our runs and carrying his bat on 45*, Daniel Bryen and David Evans assisting us to a 9 wicket win in less than 19 overs.

The 4th XI are about nothing if not participation. In their Division 8 fixture at Arboretum against Old Contemptibles, no fewer than nine different bowlers contributed to our bowling innings. We bowled them out for 157 (Rupert Reddish making a notable 61), six bowlers taking wickets, Kevin Weavers edging the best figures with 2/11. What OC lacked in breadth of attack, using a mere six bowlers, they made up for with the incisiveness of Jack Slaney who took 5/18, shredding our scorecard and restricting us to 98 all out in reply. Matt Burgess top-scored for us with 22.

Next week we have even more to look forward to with our first Sunday Development League fixture against Kelso to add to the ESCA gamecard.