The weekend of 11th and 12th May provided a much fairer prospect, weather-wise, for our players and supporters, though Saturday brought little cheer on the pitch. A winning start for our Women in the WPL gave us a boost though.

The 1st XI travelled to Scroggie Park to face Falkland, who were fresh off a comfortable win against Stewarts Melville at Inverleith (we off a drubbing from Grange at Myreside). We won the toss and opted to field first, buoyed by the welcome return of Harry Shivmangal and Gregour Carr to the attack. Between them they took six of Falkland’s ten wickets (4 and 2 respectively, Gareth taking 3), our opponents finishing on 241ao after 49.1 sweltering overs. Kyle Jacobs (59) and Asifulla Khan (71) top scored again for Falkland, having scored nearly two hundred between them last week. Oli Hairs took a wicket but didn’t contribute to our run total, one of four unfortunate ducks on our scorecard. Dan Kirk persevered for 55 balls to register our top score of 25, closely followed by Gregour’s 24, but in our reply we could only muster 105.

We look forward to enjoying Oli’s swashbuckling batting on his foreign adventures in the forthcoming T20I Tri-series hosted by the Netherlands, also featuring Ireland, between 18th and 24th May, before he departs with the squad for the Caribbean for Scotland’s T20 World Cup campaign, which starts on Tuesday 4th June. Everyone at Watsonian wishes the Scotland team, and Oli especially, the very best of luck.

The 2nd XI endured another disappointing afternoon in Division 1, facing Edinburgh CC at Myreside. Our opening bowlers bowled well with no luck early on. Rory and Will made some inroads in the middle overs, taking the first three wickets. Matiullah contributed two brilliant direct hit run-outs. Ollie Robertson took two wickets in two balls towards the end, with ECC finishing on 228/8. ECC’s opening bowlers, Balram Yadav and Hazrat Bilal, bowled very well, taking out our top order, leaving us 35/4 inside ten overs. Will Ellison played a typically assured innings to top score (among the men in all teams this weekend) with 41, supported by our middle order, helping us to achieve some valuable bonus points, finishing 144ao.

The 3s tasted defeat for the first time this season, in a low-scoring but close game against Livingston 2s, hitherto also unbeaten. Despite a solid 40 from Kevin Singh, our team total of 90ao at Craiglockhart was well below par. Our bowlers however almost proved the adage that you can’t judge a pitch until both teams have batted, making Livingston sweat for their win. Opposition wickets fell at regular intervals with none of the Livi batters finding it easy to score. Our total was passed in the 32nd over with only two Livi wickets in hand. The wickets that fell were shared among our five bowlers with Ross Martin taking an excellent 3 wickets for 4 runs off his three overs.

The 4s also faced Edinburgh CC, their 3s on Meadows 2, surrounded by crowds of sun-seekers and perhaps a few cricket enthusiasts. The less said about the batting scorecard the better. Kudos to Chris Cox for (just about) making it into double figures. Our opponents found the going easier, losing only two wickets to make 84 inside 16 overs, giving our players the chance to return home to enjoy spectating from the Pavilion balcony.

The happiest team of the weekend by far were our combined Watsonian/Dumfries WPL team who travelled to East Kilbride for their first fixture of the season. EK put on a very good 171/7 in their 30 overs with contributions of 44 from Rebecca McCrossan and 41 from Scotland internationalist Nayma Sheikh. The seven wickets to fall were spread among six of our nine bowlers. In reply, our opening partnership of Niamh Muir and Molly Paton got us off to a great start of 52/1. Iona Lowry and Anne Sturgess both contributed useful innings but Orla Montgomery’s 60 not out off just 36 balls was the standout performance, including nine boundaries. We passed EK’s total in the 26th over, finishing on 174/6. Congratulations to the Women on an excellent start to their WPL campaign.