Haddington were defeated at home by Selkirk on Saturday by three wickets. The visitors won the toss and elected to field and Haddington openers looked happy enough with their decision. At 20 overs they had only lost one wicket and seen off form bowler M.Fenton who almost returned his first wicketless performance for some time. The hosts would have been less happy with the run rate just above 2 an over and when the wickets started falling it looked unlikely that they would complete their allotted 40 overs. In the space of 6 overs Haddington fell from 55 for 1 to 76 for 7. Banks, G.Fenton, Paterson and Wilkinson all took wickets in the spell with the latter topping bowling figures for the day. With the bat Cardwell Moore top scored for Haddington with 33 but an unbeaten 22 from Pearce at the end ensured that they would push the total into three figures, finishing on 110 for the loss of 9 wickets.
Selkirk conspired to make it difficult for themselves with the loss of early wickets. Murphy was elevated to opener only to lose his wicket without scoring and followed his captain, G.Fenton, who was still taking his pads off having been removed in the previous over. The East Lothian side will have fancied their chances as Selkirk slipped to 45 for 5, which included the important wicket of M.Fenton for just 3 runs. However, Banks outplayed all on the day with a dashing 51 to add to the removal of both openers with the ball. The game wasn’t won when Banks fell and Paterson may find himself up the order again next week after an ultimately match winning knock of 17, ably assisted by first Henderson and then late fill in Gillie, who didn’t even have the time to secure whites for the occasion. Paterson knocked a drive through the covers for 2 to take Selkirk past the target and leap frog their hosts into third position in Division 3.
Its a busy week at Philiphaugh this week with 20/20 games Tuesday and Thursday night (against Gala and Kelso respectively) followed by the visit of Murrayfield DAFS II on Saturday, where Selkirk will be looking for further revenge for another early season loss.
