This Bank Holiday weekend saw the conclusion of the season for most of our senior teams, barring the 1st XI, whose season was shifted back a week due to the very wet spring we experienced, and the Over 50s, both of whom will be visiting Grange Loan in the week ahead to wrap things up.

The stars of the weekend didn’t even get to complete their match. On Sunday, our combined Watsonian/Dumfries WPL team, sitting second in the WPL, faced third-placed Stewart’s Melville at Arboretum Place. We agreed to a shortened 20 over game and were invited to bat. Niamh and Molly put on a brilliant 111 run partnership (40 and 61* respectively) in inclement conditions (blustery and raining lightly throughout). The umpires made clear from the outset that they didn’t want to be there and weren’t expecting a game to get completed. After 17 overs, with the score on 117/2, they decided conditions were too slippery, despite no-one slipping or complaining. We hung about for a bit for no obvious reason as conditions were not looking like improving before the umpires decided to abandon the game. As a result, we ended the season runners-up in the top flight, behind only Carlton, and with only a loss to Carlton blemishing our otherwise undefeated league record, in another year of excellent progress for our women’s section.

The 1st XI visited Arbroath knowing that relegation looms whatever the result would be. Gareth won the toss and opted to bowl. As has been a recurring pattern this season, our bowlers made a good start, taking the first five wickets for 126 runs at around the halfway point in the innings, not allowing any of the Abroath top order to get too comfortable. As has also happened repeatedly, we failed to build pressure on the middle and lower order. Marc Petrie (68 from 58 at number six) and Bryce Carnegie (33 from 28 at seven) pushed the score on, with the lower order ending just as productive as the top, adding a further 129 runs to make 255/9 after their 50 overs. Tom Pratt and Adeel Raza took three wickets apiece. Bismillah Khan, our professional this season, kept well once more, taking two catches in his final match for the club to make 19 dismissals in all, second only (so far) to Vian Maritz of Heriots among EPL wicketkeepers (25).

Our reply never looked convincing, being behind the Arbroath ‘worm’ from the seventh over. Ben Jones (41) and Tom Wylie (43) made a useful 79 run partnership but at a rate that saw the task ahead continue to grow. When both were removed in quick succession, leaving the score at 148/5 with less than 15 overs remaining, the required rate was nearly 7.5 per over, which proved too big a hill to climb. Kenny Rae carried his bat on 24 but the tail was lopped off with our total at 207 in the 48th over, still 48 runs adrift.

The 2nd XI played for pride and fun facing bottom-of-the-table Clackmannan County at Myreside, hopeful of a repeat of our comfortable win at the Arns in June. Clacks won the toss and chose to bat first. Our bowlers were both economical and incisive with no Clacks batter passing 20 runs and only two in double figures. We restricted our opponents to just 91 runs from 34 overs with five bowlers taking wickets, Rory’s figures of 3/13 from seven overs leading the way among stiff competition. Our openers did the heavy lifting, Evan Howe and Dan Kirk making a 57-run partnership. Evan top-scored with 37, falling at 73/3. Kevin Singh, Rory and Ollie Robertson added the few remaining runs required, getting us to 92/4 in 23.2 overs – a win by six wickets with more than twenty overs to spare. A fifth placed finish in Division 1, with seven wins and as many losses, didn’t scale last year’s heights of achievement but was a very creditable outcome considering the context of our season as a club.

The 3rd XI went one better in terms of league standings, finishing a very good fourth in Division 5, but suffered the disappointment of cancelling their only non-completed match of the season in the final week, when Saturday’s conditions were fine. Heavy rain earlier in the week had left Craiglockhart too wet to play the scheduled fixture against Melrose.

The 4th XI stretched the season out for an extra day, playing Leith FAB 4 at Leith Links on Sunday. We won the toss and put Leith into bat in a game shortened to 25 overs for fear of the rain. Alex Turner returned beautiful bowling figures of 5/13 from just five overs, each of them bowled, taking care of the top order. Leith’s lower order turned the tables, though, with seven, eight and nine adding 106 runs between them, securing 193/9. Alex starred with the bat too, top-scoring for us with 33 before being run out. A trio of teens scores from the top order gave hope but the Leith batters who had troubled us, Jatin Soni and Himanshu Verma in particular, undid us with the ball too, taking 5/10 from 2.4 overs between them to put paid to our resistance. We finished all out for 106 inside 18 overs. Notwithstanding a disappointing finish to the season (losing five of our last six completed fixtures), this was a much more competitive 4s team, finishing ninth of fourteen in Division 8 with seven wins to our credit (and nine losses). This year’s crop of young players added greatly to the spirits and energy of the team – credit to Ethan, Alex, Lewis, James, John, Jonah, Patrick, Siddharth, Hamish, Ludvig, Jamie, Charley, Louis, Oli, Aden, Archie and Kyle who each featured during the season and who we look forward to seeing continue to progress next year.