Fettes College was the venue for the 1st XI’s return game with Grange 2nd XI on a pleasant, windy afternoon. Grange elected to bat on winning the toss, with Gregour Carr and Donovan Du Randt opening the attack. Progress was slow and with both our opening bowlers taking a wicket after ten overs was only 27 for 2. After 15 overs the score had advanced to 49 when Jonathan Brock was dismissed for an attractive 36 (with seven fours). From 67 for 5, skipper Gareth Weatherall and Tom Wylie ran through the remaining batsmen for the addition of 21. The skipper finished with 5 for 17, his second five-wicket haul of the season - both against Grange, in 8.2 overs and Tom 3 for 24, his best return for the side to date, in 9 overs. Bruce Weatherhead, in his last game of the season before heading to New Zealand on a gap year at Palmerston North Boys School near Wellington where he will be coaching cricket and playing rugby, had three catches behind the stumps - one an excellent one-handed diving effort. In contrast, he missed two chances. One of those was a difficult low one-handed attempt, while the other will live long in the memory of those who witnessed it! A top edge looped up into the air, Bruce ambled over to a leg slip position and waited for the ball to drop gently into his gloves. It did just that and then, amazingly, through Bruce’s gloves and on to the ground.

Mike Carson and Oscar Kirkwood opened the innings and made light work of the chase. Boundaries came at regular intervals on a fast outfield, the 50 arriving in only 6.4 overs. Mike fell with the total on 64 for a run-a-ball 33 before Oscar - with his best score to date (41 not out in only 34 balls) - and Bruce were at the wicket as the first ball of the 13th over disappeared for four byes and a ninth successive league victory was secured. There was an interesting occurrence in the course of the 11th over. Oscar played at a ball from the opposition skipper, was given out caught behind and claimed he hadn’t hit the ball. As featured in the Frogbox Highlight of the Week, the bowler then magnanimously withdrew the appeal, leaving Oscar to proceed to hit him for the second massive six of his innings and take the total to within 4 runs of victory!

While fine weather prevailed on the north side of the city, the matches at Myreside and Craiglockhart were interrupted by rain. The 2nd XI took on a RH Corstorphine 2nd XI side sitting six places higher in the league at Myreside and batted first. Other than a contribution of 28 from Daniel Bryen who opened the batting, wickets fell at regular intervals, with Kevin Singh the only other higher order batsman getting into double figures before an important sixth wicket partnership between Matthew Brian and Sukhrajveer Singh. Matthew was unbeaten with 57 not out, his second successive half-century for the side, while Sukhrajveer was dismissed for a valuable 36 at the end of the innings which closed on 185 for 6.

The response from RH Corstorphine was, initially, led by their opening bat, Finlay King, who contributed 61 with support from his early order colleagues, before a good partnership saw the visitors home comfortably for the loss of only four wickets with more than nine overs to spare. Ben Jones had two wickets for 45 in his allotted nine overs, while Sukhrajveer and Pranjan Patel each had one wicket – for 28 and 30 runs respectively.

Meanwhile, at Craiglockhart, league leaders Tranent & Preston Village 5th XI provided the opposition for the 4th XI and, on winning the toss, the visitors decided to bat. The score progressed at around five runs per over, the first falling to Eddie Jones before the family Tucker took a hand. Firstly, Hamish struck in the thirteenth over with the first of his two wickets (for 29) and the score at 57, before Jamie had a catch taken behind for the first of his three wickets (for 37) with the total on 97. At 111 Toby - Tucker senior! - got in on the act with the first of his three wickets (for 28). Four wickets then fell for seven runs before a ninth wicket partnership of 40 took the total to 178 and the tenth wicket added another 22 to take the total to 200. A challenging target indeed, but one which the side had recorded in the only two league successes achieved earlier in the season.

The loss of an early wicket was followed by an excellent partnership between Matt Burgess (48) and Toby Tucker (52). Lochlan Morris produced another encouraging innings of 28 and, with the assistance of a noteworthy 46 extras, the target was achieved for the eventual loss of six wickets with three overs to spare.

On Sunday the 3rd XI headed out of town to challenge Tranent & Preston Village’s 3rd XI - also league leaders - at Prestonpans. Due to the weather conditions, the match was reduced to 25 overs a side. The home side batted first and made steady progress against an attack of seven bowlers. While the third wicket fell with the total at 86, with the score at 120 the seventh wicket was taken before a partnership of 30 enabled the final total to reach 160 for 9. Fraser Kinloch and Kyle Waddell both took a couple of wickets, with four of the other bowlers each taking a single wicket.

An encouraging opening partnership of 55 between Vishal Chawan and Fraser Kinloch gave hope of chasing down the target. However, after both were dismissed as the total reached 69 - for 16 and 42 respectively - only Siddharth Rawat (28 not out) and Sean Ridge (18) reached double figures as the innings closed 26 runs short of victory.

With the Women’s Premier League having concluded last weekend, the Women’s Scottish T20 Cup was scheduled to commence on Sunday. However, our Women’s XI's match in the competition, away at East Kilbride, was postponed due to rain.