The week in review gave plenty of cause for celebration, seeing the 1st XI maintain their unbeaten run to become champions-elect of the Championship, the Women’s 1st XI reach the finals of the Beyond Boundaries Women’s T20 Scottish Cup and the concluding matches of an inclusive and entertaining cricket week celebrating the Club’s 150th anniversary.

The 1st XI hosted league laggards Linlithgow, hoping to repeat the batting display put on at Boghall in the first meeting between the sides this year, when weather robbed us of a result despite us closing our innings on a mighty, and club record, 501/3. To Linlithgow’s evident dismay, Gareth won the toss and elected to bat first. Oli Hairs set the tone from the first ball with a full toss dispatched for six, the first of a dozen in his innings of 174 from 92 balls. The opening partnership lasted just under 18 overs and produced 158 runs, with 54 from Mike Carson. Our middle order kept up a consistent scoring pace with contributions from Tom Wylie (29), Kenneth Rae (35), Rob Loomes (35*) and a powerful 68 off 33 balls from Callum Martin (6 fours and 5 sixes), setting a second personal best of the season with the bat. Our 429/6 is the third highest score for the 1st XI and a new club record at Myreside – by 80 runs! Oli’s century was his third of the season and tenth for the club, bringing up 4,000 runs for the 1st XI.

The chase always looked like an unclimbable mountain for Linlithgow, especially after Farhan Khan took the first two wickets in the fourth over with the score on only 3 runs, the first caught by a steepling, swirling effort by Kenneth Rae. Linlithgow dug in, with a 34 over long third wicket partnership of 115 runs between Michael Kearns and captain Joe Robinson frustrating our bowling attack. This was broken by another excellent catch, this time a sharp, very low, left-hander at slip by Mike Carson. Even as the runs dried up, the Linlithgow tail eked out over after over, eventually succumbing to Oli and Gareth’s bowling, each finishing with four wickets and Linlithgow with 142 all out in the final over.

Our winning margin of 287 runs was second only to our famous victory against Falkland in the 2017 Eastern Premiership when a 378-run partnership between Mike Carson (167) and George Munsey (220) helped us to a 316-run win. The win was our thirteenth in a so far unbeaten Championship campaign providing us a now unassailable lead in the league standings. We will travel to Falkland’s ground on Saturday 6th September as ESCA champions to face either Freuchie or Huntly who are in a tight contest for the SPCU title.

Having beaten East Kilbride in the first round of the Beyond Boundaries Women’s T20 Scottish Cup and won by a walkover against Prestwick in the quarterfinals, our WPL-winning WCC/Dumfries CC 1st XI were optimistic for the Finals Day at Stirling’s New Williamfield ground on Saturday 9th August. In the semi-final, captain Emily Tucker won the toss and asked West of Scotland to bat first. Conditions were difficult with ‘hurricane winds’ helping extras to top score with 35. West’s batters struggled against Abby Blackstock in particular (3/18) but an unbeaten 53-run partnership between Robyn Marment (29) and Beth Haley (16) saw them to a respectable 134/6. Two partnerships defined our reply. Charlotte Nevard (26) and Niamh Muir (22) put on 52 for the first wicket before an unbeaten 75-run stand between Emily (34*) and Molly Paton (39*) took us to 138/2 in the 19th over to seal the win and a place in the final.

The final proved an altogether more bruising encounter with local rivals Stewart’s Melville. Winning the toss, we opted to bat, but were quickly undone by three wickets apiece for Mariam Akram and Faatima Gardee and no fewer than four run-outs, falling to 66 all out in the sixteenth over. SM’s opening pair of Lucy Pillinger (29*) and Emma Walsingham (34*) knocked off the required runs in ten and a half overs, securing a well-deserved win and defending the Cup.

The 2nd XI made their longest journey of the season to the pretty town of Kelso where they too faced bottom-of-the-league opposition. Kelso have had a tough season, winning only one of their thirteen previous matches (against Musselburgh) but gave us a scare at Myreside in a shortened 30-over match which we won by just one wicket on the final ball of the match. In much drier but very windy conditions, Dan Kirk won the toss and asked Kelso to bat first. Kelso’s batters struggled to find rhythm with wickets falling at regular intervals, the highest partnership being for 32 runs. Once the top four had been dispatched by Cal Macleod, Will Ellison, George Baltzer and Ross Tait just past the 20 over mark for 67 runs, the runs dried up. Ross Tait took the fifth wicket, his second on return from injury, before George and Rory High cleaned up the tail, both finishing with three-wicket hauls for 18 and zero runs respectively. Kelso finished on 84 all out after 31.4 overs. In reply, we lost just two wickets and needed only 24 overs to complete the chase with good knocks from Ben Jones (39*), George (16) and Rizwan Dharani (26*) securing a valuable win which sees us climb into eighth position in Division 1, offering a chink of light in our battle to avoid relegation.

The 3rd XI faced Carlton 4s at Peffermill. Batting first, there were good scores from Vishal Chawan (26), Laurie Cox (50 – his first of the season after getting to 49 against Dunbar), Siddharth Rawat (24) and Caylin Pickett (21*). In total we made 161/6 off our 40 overs. Our bowlers worked hard with productive 8-over spells for Abid Shinwari (1/31) and Vikash Gautam (2/27) but Caylin was only able to bowl two overs and all told we weren’t able to keep the run rate low enough. Carlton’s opener Anish Amin put on 51 and propelled the team to 102/2 in the 21st over, leaving his teammates to chip away at the target, eventually chasing it in the 34th over with three wickets in hand. We are currently seventh in the Division 5 table but with only a small points percentage gap over numbers eight (Penicuik 2) and nine (Gala 2), our opponents in our final two league games.

The 4th XI hosted Dunfermline & Carnegie 3s at Craiglockhart. Winning the toss, Ewan asked D&C to bat first. Ethan Haire (1/37) and Finlay Blackstock (3/48) bowled excellent opening spells to reduce D&C to 27/3 after ten overs. From there, Ali Hassan (62) and Sazz Khan (46) put on a 90-run partnership and the middle order picked up the rate to see D&C to a good 224/6 from their 40 overs. In reply, we lost wickets early, falling to 35/5 at the start of the seventh over. A middle-order rally from Ewan (31), Finlay (15), Hamish Tucker (27) and an excellent 47* from Ethan Haire were sadly not enough to get us home. Ethan cruelly ran out of partners as we finished on 174 all out after 38 overs. We are currently in eighth spot in Division 8 with a decent points percentage margin to next week’s opponents, ninth-placed RHC 4s.