The final weekend of the league season is a bittersweet moment for players. It’s the end of a long campaign and the end of an entertaining summer’s sport. Though not for the 1st XI, who still have a play-off match to come on Saturday 6th September to decide whether they will play in the EPL again next season. They will go into the play-off high on confidence after winning every match of their league campaign – 15 wins from 15 completed fixtures. This matches the longest-ever streak of consecutive league wins by our 1st XI, previously achieved over the 2004 and 2005 seasons.

Our final league opponents were Heriots 2s, who hosted us at Goldenacre. They won the toss and elected to bat first. After losing their first wicket in the first over without scoring, to the bowling of Gregour Carr, Scott Rarity, Heriot’s top scorer in the Championship, came to the crease and anchored their innings, eventually scoring 59, before also succumbing to Gregour. Seeing Callum Martin (Watsonian) take the wicket of Callum Martin (Heriot’s) was an unexpected highlight, aided by Rob Loomes’ on point glove-work, being one of three catches he held. Their Callum had the highest strike rate of any of their batters, so cut from a similar cloth to ours? Anthony Edington chipped in with an unbeaten 30 but with each of our bowlers taking wickets (Gregour 3, Tom Wylie, Callum and Gareth 2 each and Oli one), Heriot’s were all out for 163 in 37.2 overs.

Oli’s opening cameo of 2, 2, 6, W maintained his incredible Championship strike rate which ended at 180.25. Whilst there are (much) higher strike rates on display in the Championship stats table, these are almost entirely due to balls faced not being recorded. Considering that rate was maintained across nine innings and 566 runs, that is some high-quality batting [insert bicep flex emoji here]. Mike Carson continued his imperious form, producing 57 not out to finish 141 runs clear at the top of the Championship run-scorers table with 728 in 14 innings at an average of 56. Tom Wylie made a brisk 33 and Donovan Du Randt an unbeaten 37 to see us home in less than half our available overs with seven wickets in hand – a clinical chase. It’s only fair to reflect that five of our batters (those already mentioned plus Kenneth Rae, who wasn’t required to bat at Heriot’s) feature in the top 15 Championship run-scorers (including three of the top four) with a mind-blowing 2,616 runs between them at a collective average of 49.4 – kudos! Captain Gareth Weatherall led with the ball, in top spot with 31 wickets in 16 innings. Here too, our top five all ranked high in the table, with Tom, Oli, Gregour and Donovan all in the top 22 wicket-takers and taking at least one wicket per innings on average. And to round it out, Mike Carson also finished with the most catches (11). Complete performances explaining our unbeaten run.

The 2nd XI hosted third-placed Marchmont at Myreside, needing a win and a one-sided match between Livingston and Musselburgh to try and squeak into eighth place in the Division 1 table. Winning the toss, captain Dan Kirk elected to bowl first following the previous week’s strong bowling performance against league leaders Edinburgh CC. Marchmont batted well but the run-rate was well contained by opening bowlers Ben Jones and Rizwan Dharani, who bowled their 9 overs each up top. Paddy Bruell hit two boundaries off Ben’s first two balls, after which Ben conceded only 12 more runs in his next 8.4 overs, finishing 9-3-20-0. When Paddy hit Rizwan for two boundaries in the tenth over, he was bowled next ball for 25. Rizwan recorded similarly economical figures of 9-2-24-1. The other opening bat, Sam Brynes, the division’s leading run-scorer, played a stubborn innings of 76 off 131 deliveries, equalling his season’s best but perhaps preventing Marchmont from making a bigger total. He made partnerships of 73 with Tyler Spagnuolo (31, c G Baltzer b W Ellison) and 53 with Jacob Hartley (18, c M Brian b Baltzer). Two balls later, at the close of the 40th over, his fourth partner involved him in a run out. From there another run out and two more wickets from George (finishing 3/21 off 4 overs) saw Marchmont finish on 185/7.

George and Ben opened the batting and made the highest partnership of the season for the 2s of 122 runs, setting an excellent platform for those who followed. Ben finished on 39. Dan put on 3 of a 22-run partnership with George before first he and then George was caught, with the score on 144 in each case. George’s score of 91 is his highest for the club to date, his innings featuring 15 boundaries. The mood was high, and the middle order came out happy to swing to get us over the line. We lost a few wickets, but nobody minded, least of all Alex Turner, whose carefree aggression with the bat entertained the onlookers, including those of the 1st XI returned from their early finish at Goldenacre. We passed our target with four wickets in hand and nearly five overs to spare, putting in one of our best performances of the season. Livingston’s victory was not one-sided enough, however, so we finish the season two points behind Musselburgh and hoping that a playoff win for our 1st XI will leave a space in the ESCA leagues (because the one team relegated from the EPL, Meigle, will not be joining ESCA) which reduces the normal two relegations per league to just one, which might save our place in Division 1. Whatever the outcome, the victory was sweet and much enjoyed.

The 3rd XI travelled to Gala 2’s pretty Meigle Park ground hoping to finish the season on a positive, after a mystifying late season slump in form. Winning the toss, captain Jaideep Singh asked Gala to bat first. Vikash Gautam bowled one of Gala’s openers with the first ball of the match. From there, the other opener Ross Patterson anchored their innings, present in the middle for every run they scored, making a season’s best of 62 before eventually being the ninth wicket to fall. His partnership of 59 with Sebastien Loumeau off just 8 overs proved particularly impactful. Vikash was the one to take Patterson’s wicket and that of their number three too, finishing with 3/23 off 5 overs. Jamie Reid, Ethan Haire and Sukhrajveer Singh each took two wickets at economical rates and Aryaman Apte one such that Gala lasted only 30.4 overs reaching 154 all out. In reply, youngsters Siddharth Rawat (34) and Louis Ferguson (26) starred, making a 53-run partnership. Wickets fell fairly steadily though, from 65/3 when Louis departed to 100/7 when Sid was caught. Tom Mullin (17) and Jamie Reid (18) offered hope but unfortunately, we couldn’t make it over the line, falling 18 runs short on 138 after 36.2 overs. We look safe in eighth spot in Division 5 but had been on course for greater things mid-season – hopefully a glimpse at what 2026 might hold given the talent that has been developed over the course of this year.

The 4th XI hosted Westquarter & Redding 2s at Craiglockhart, hoping to do the double over them after prevailing at Bailliefields in the highest-scoring contest of our season, where our 226/2 proved 26 too many for our hosts on the day. Ewan won the toss and relished the chance for us to bat first again. His batters stepped up, with young John Boothman making his third half-century of the campaign (55 off 71 with 6 fours and a six) – the first time this has happened in a 4th XI season – and Duncan Robinson starring again with 75 not out. We put on 193/6 in our 40 overs, which was perhaps a touch light, considering we had passed the 200 mark five times previously. Our bowlers kept us on track though our extras tally mounted rather quickly, finishing at 36. From 60/2, the W&R partnerships were modest so that 161/9 felt like an ample cushion for our bowlers to work with. Sadly, our fielding let us down and W&R engineered an unlikely victory with a 34-run unbeaten final wicket stand. The 4th XI finishes a comfortable seventh in Division 8. How the divisions shake out next year will be fascinating to see, with a number of teams moving and a parallel Sunday Division 8 being mooted. Whatever may be, the inclusive and encouraging spirit of the 4s will continue to see our most experienced players bringing on the next generation.

Our player availability was so good in the final week of the season that Ewan kindly organised an ad hoc ‘5th XI’ fixture played on the main square at Fettes College against an Edinburgh South Development team. Captained by Pranjan Patel, we chose to bowl first. We restricted Edinburgh South to 129/9 in their 30 overs, with Kyle Waddell, Zach Baltzer and Mike Maclean each taking two wickets and Ollie Robinson and Pranjan one each, plus a run out. Our batters enjoyed the conditions and the opportunity with opener Patrick Crunden finishing on 58 not out alongside Mike with 35 not out as we reached our target in the twentieth over only three wickets down.