The 1st XI fielded their strongest team of the season so far as they hosted Carlton at Myreside to complete the first cycle of EPL matches. Oli Hairs played in only his second Saturday game of 2024, Gregour Carr likewise. A pre-match injury to Callum Martin caused some last-minute reshuffling of teams, made possible by all teams playing within two miles of Myreside this week. Harry Shivmangal got the call and thereby made his 50th appearance for our 1st XI.

All four of our captains were happy tossers this weekend, each getting the right side of the coin. Gareth chose to have us bat first, incredibly the first time we have done so in the EPL this year. Oli quickly validated that choice with a typically explosive start. He scored 19 runs in the first two overs and his lightning cameo, whilst concluded in the sixth over, provided 39 runs off just 21 balls including four 4s and three 6s, the score then on 49. Parker fell shortly afterwards for 11, bringing Bismillah to join Ben Jones at the crease. The pair put on 57 together, Ben caught behind for 18. Ruk was caught on 4. Kenny Rae and Bismillah formed an excellent partnership of 80 during which Bismillah scored his first half-century for the club, eventually being caught on 79, the highest individual score for any player at Watsonian so far this year, pipping Kevin Singh’s 78 not out for the 3s against Gala 2s. Our middle order showed character with Tom Wylie (29) pushing the score along until Kenny in turn reached his maiden half-century for the 1st XI (52). A well-paced innings finished on the penultimate ball of our allotted 50 overs with our score on 258, by some distance our highest total year-to-date (201 against RHC our next best).

Our fielding innings got off to the best possible start with Tom Pratt bowling Ruairidh Main first ball. The next wicket fell the same way (Ruari Macpherson for 16, 27/2). Tom Wylie’s good day got better when he claimed the third wicket, danger man Chris McBride, caught by Gregour for just 7 (the score on 45/3). Gregour then set about his business, taking the key wicket of Daniel Da Costa (33, bowled), had Ali Evans caught behind with the next ball and when third victim Angus Beattie was caught for 8, Carlton were on 104/6 in the twentieth over and wobbling. We maintained the pressure, Bismillah taking another into the gloves off TP’s bowling, Oli chipping in with two wickets and TP wrapping things up as he had started them, bowling Carlton captain Arun Pillai for a well-made 53 in a losing cause. Carlton were all out for 152, allowing us to record a much-needed win by 106 runs.

The 2nd XI played a mirror fixture, hosted at Grange Loan by Carlton 2s. Rory also chose to bat first. The pickings at Grange Loan were somewhat slimmer. The openers fell cheaply but every batter made a contribution. Carlton bowled with impressive control, shown, for example by our score of 107/5 in the 32nd over. The later batters upped the rate towards a run a ball, getting us to 180/8 after 45 overs. Dan Kirk and Will Ellison shared top-scoring honours on 32, Kevin Singh close behind on 29. Against a well-drilled Carlton side currently in a promotion spot for an immediate return to the Championship, our total looked light, Carlton having successfully chased five times already this season. Three quick wickets later that outcome was in significant doubt, batters two, three and four contributing only 18 runs with the score on 49/3. Ben Thurman, the other opener, batted well for 51 until stumped by stand-in keeper Dan Kirk, the score then 99/5. When the next wicket fell at 129/6, the game was in the balance. The Stronach brothers, James and Ben, however had other ideas. James made an impressive 54 not out and shared a 54-run partnership with Ben (22*) in just over five overs to seal the win by four wickets. Kudos to Dan for his glovesmanship and to Ollie and Xander for some tight and effective bowling, taking two wickets each with near identical economy.

The 3rd XI faced Murrayfield DAFS 3s on the artificial wicket at Roseburn in a high-scoring encounter. The wicket was underwater just a few weeks ago and bears the scars, with all overs having to be bowled from one undamaged end. JP fancied a bat too, for the team. There were good contributions across the card, from openers Adam Dickinson (25) and Toby Tucker (24) through to middle order powerhouses Magic Maclean (35*) and Jamie Stevenson (41) and beyond. We were happy to come off after 40 overs with 211/9 on the board, our highest score of the season so far by more than 30 runs. Our defence started well with Tom Mullin proving very effective, taking 2 wickets for 24 off 8 overs with Alex Turner also taking an early wicket, pegging MDAFS to 41/3 after eight overs. At this point, Ligin Matthew and Tarun Kumar collaborated for a 93-run partnership, scoring steadily rather than rapidly, moving the score to 134/4 after 23.4 overs, just a fraction ahead of the required rate, though about 30 runs ahead of our own total at the same point. Salaar took the catch off Ben Hogg’s bowling. Number six was a portentous position because it turned out Venkatesh Rajendran really did like sixes, hitting seven of them including three lost balls. He and Matthew teed off against our later bowlers, scoring the 78 required to win in less than eight overs, finishing on 63 from 29 balls and 73 from 79 balls respectively. They even put GWC’s newly crowned ‘good egg’, Ben, to the sword ruining good figures with one brutal over as they closed in on the win with six wickets in hand. We put down a few chances and were harried by the rapid pace of the game, with no changes of ends to provide a psychological break. A learning experience and an action-packed game won by some strong batting.

The 4th XI hosted Marchmont’s 4s at Craiglockhart, opting to field first, a tactic that had proven successful the previous week. Our bowlers once again showed their class, with openers Aryaman Apte and Aakash Chauhan taking seven wickets between them in little more than 13 overs. Youngster Ethan Haire continued his development as a senior player taking a wicket for the loss of only four runs in his three overs. Caylin and Alec kept things tight too with our bowling unit chalking up an impressive ten maiden overs. MDAFS rallied a little from 37/6 with contributions from Sheikh (31) and Sunil (22) but we completed our first task tidily, bowling MDAFS out for 119 in 37.1 overs. In our chase, a slightly shaky start was quickly steadied first by another impressive youngster Jamie Tucker (18, falling at 38/3) and then by an excellent 77-run partnership between David Evans and Rob Newton. Rob fell for 28 and Dave to the finger of Alec Fair, lbw on 49. By this point the job was nearly done, the final six runs knocked off by Jon Turner and Ethan bringing up another 4th XI win (five from our last six games) by 5 wickets with more than 12 overs to spare.