While Saturday’s EPL match away to Forfarshire brought no change in our fortunes nor great cheer, the 1st XI recorded their first win of the season in the Masterton on Tuesday against Edinburgh Accies.

Forfs won the toss, batted first and batted well. Ryan Watson, former Scotland captain, made 102, and Charles Cassell 52 in their 262/8 first innings. Tom Pratt and Gareth Weatherall took 3 wickets each at 3 and 4 runs per over respectively. A few of our batters got starts but not more, Kenny Rae making 31 on his welcome return to the EPL. We were all out for 148 in 41.3 overs.

Parker’s 61 in the Masterton game at Myreside was the highest score for our 1st XI since Matt Brian made 71 opening against Grange in our first EPL game of the season and only our third half century in the 1st XI so far this season (Callum Martin making a dashing 58 against RHC at Myreside two weeks ago). It featured five 4s and three 6s and anchored our innings with numerous other batters adding a handful of runs quickly, getting us to 144/8 in our 20 overs. Tom Pratt again took 3 wickets, scything through Accies’ top order, with our opponents quickly reduced to 31/6. Zafar Ali and Sidhiq Ajmal made the score respectable, but Accies finished well short on 103/8. Much to celebrate and hopefully build on.

The 2s hosted Drummond Trinity at Myreside on Saturday, losing the toss and being asked to field on a hot afternoon. Despite four of our bowlers taking wickets, DT batted very sensibly, ran well between the wickets and put on good partnerships. Although no DT batter made a 50 (Phanidhar Prattipati top scored with 48), lots of contributions added up to a good 230/7 off their 45 overs. In reply, we lost our openers cheaply. Megan McColl and George Baltzer put on our best partnership of 46, ending on the last ball before drinks. Thereafter, notwithstanding a spirited 27 off 29 from Xander Abbey, we lost wickets regularly as we succumbed to consistent, quality left arm spin from DT’s bowlers. We finished on 117 all out, losing by 113 runs.

The 3rd XI were also hosting Drummond Trinity, this time their 4th XI at Craiglockhart. It speaks to the strength of DT as a club that they have four XIs playing between Division 1 and Division 5. We won the toss and batted first. Our top order made a decent start until Kevin Singh got out on 20, leaving us on 68/5. We suffered a middle order collapse to 78/8 but our tail wagged hard, with Finlay Blackstock making 25 and Johns Dew (19*) and Potton (12*) seeing us to a total of 145/9. John Dew kicked things off with the ball, taking a good opening wicket. Some extravagant ball movement caused us to concede a lot of extras from the seamers, only halted by the introduction of spinners ‘Magic’ Mike Maclean and JP. Jamie Reid took two important wickets that nipped incipient partnerships in the bud. Eddie Teall took over from injured Adam Dickinson with the gloves, taking a good catch. Jamie Stevenson took two good catches at slip. Star of the show though was Magic, taking 5/23 in his 7 overs and cleaning up the tail, limiting DT to 116 and giving us a valuable 29 run win.

The 4th XI travelled to the Cairns, former home of the now-defunct Broomhall CC, to face Dunfermline & Carnegie’s 3rd XI. As with the 3s, we won the toss and batted first. Ewan may have regretted that as he made a run-less exit in the first over but his replacement at the crease, Matt Lancashire, relished the opportunity, making an excellent 46 off 74. Jamie Tucker with 28 and Kevin Weavers with 25 added valuable runs getting our team total to 151 all out in the 35th over. Despite the staying power of Ralph Laing, D&C’s opener who finished on 44 not out, there was little other resistance to a good bowling performance from our men. Aakash Chauhan impressed again with 3/12. Alec Fair and Alan Borthwick took 2 wickets each, both for 27 runs. D&C fell 46 runs short giving the 4s their third win of the season, elevating them to an unfamiliar mid-table league position.

The pattern is becoming clear – this week was a bat-first week. Every team that won the toss chose to bat and won the match. Our combined Dumfries/Watsonian WPL team were ‘at home’ in Dumfries on Sunday hosting West of Scotland and made the right call. Several of our players capitalised with Niamh making 34, Orla 24, Molly top scoring with 67 off just 41 balls including a six and Anne Sturgess adding a very handy 32* at the end, getting us to an excellent 212/7 off 30 overs. West started strongly with India Harrison and Jenna Stanton putting on 80 runs for the first wicket which fell just before the halfway mark of the innings, taken by young Macey Corbett-Byers. Thereafter runs dried up and wickets started to fall. Erin Leslie had a field day, taking 4/16 off her 5 overs. West finished on 151/9, well short of the required total, maintaining the 100% record for our Women so far this season!