(Pictured above – Hawick Captain Euan Hair is presented with the Ronnie Simpson trophy by Selkirk CC Chair Roger Arnold)
This game will be short in the memory of the large group of spectators gathered at Philiphaugh on Saturday.
Both teams had kicked off the season with 2 wins but Hawick almost had last week off having bowled their opponents out for 12 while Selkirk had succumbed in Edinburgh after a poor performance with the bat.
Unfortunately for the hosts, this week saw another tepid performance with the bat, Selkirk crawling to an unsatisfactory 63 from 32 overs. Hawick bowling was solid, very little off line and always looking likely to take wickets. Stand out performer, S.Hair (3-13) added a great two handed catch above his head to remove D.Heard who probably thought his drive to mid on was for the boundary and not the last shot of the innings.
With 13 maidens from the 34 overs the first four bowlers will have been happy with their performance and not a little put out that M.Tait (3-6), making up the numbers, managed to take 3 tailenders to finish with the best stats. Only G.Fenton (25) and B.Wilkinson (16) managed double figures for Selkirk with others failing for the second time in 7 days.
The souters total was never going to be enough to defend and Hawick did what needed to be done with the loss of 5 wickets, using up 23 overs to saunter over the line. Not much batting to talk about from either side but G.Alexander (20) did what was required at the top of the order holding off the Fenton brothers, scoring most of his runs with well placed cut shots. Huisamen (16) can thank I.Gardiner for surviving long enough to get Hawick past 50 as the Selkirk man did all he could to make catching a looping cricket ball look difficult, flustering and fumbling the ball to the turf. Both D.Heard and R.Banks picked up a couple of wickets but will have liked another 20 or 30 runs to bowl at.
E.Alexander knocked his second four over the fielder at mid wicket to maintain the 100% league record for the visitors and carry the Ronnie Simpson trophy back to Buccleuch Park where they will welcome Tranent next Saturday.
Selkirk travel to Edinburgh again next weekend to play Holy Cross.