The Hawick middle and lower order almost pulled a victory out of the bag for the visitors at Philiphaugh last night but they were left to rue a top order capitulation as Selkirk retained their winning form in this friendly fixture, arranged to contest the Ronnie Simpson Memorial trophy.
Selkirk had promised to post a big total as, batting first, Greg Fenton (50) carried on where he left off from the weekend with another half century. However the pace of scoring was significantly reduced when the home captain was caught on the boundary by Pierce Solley. Hawick were to take all of their catches as they restrained the scoring. Zac Stewart was the pick of the bowlers taking 4 wickets , including the top three batsmen.
The target of 120 reflected a ‘could have been better’ assessment of the Selkirk innings, however they were to be grateful for the 14 runs Bob Wilkinson and John Henderson nerdled from the last three overs.
There was little doubt about the bowling performance of the evening with Michael Fenton (3-6) carrying on his current form. The only runs being scored from his four overs being an edge through the slips by Ryan Johnstone first ball and a top edged four from Evan Alexander. At the end of the third over Hawick were 2 runs for 4 wickets down, Daniel Heard helping himself to the wicket of Robbie Pringle with his first ball.
Having had such a poor start Hawick were dragged up by Johnstone (47) and David Montomery (21) who ensured the game would go to the wire, with the help of a couple of sixes for each, Johnstone’s thump over the fence and on to the football field being the pick of them. Kieran Toor appeared to settle the nerves by taking the wickets of Johnstone and Montgomery in the 14th over but 37 runs from the last six overs was doable.
Bruce McTaggart (15*) and Charlie Welsh (16*) dominated Toor in his next over, the bowler conceding 13 runs. At the end Hawick required 12 runs from the final over to steal the game but Toor opened up with 3 dot balls. McTaggart then opened up a glimmer of a chance with a one bounce four to the short mid-wicket boundary. The game was in the balance but swung in Selkirk’s favour as Toor tied up McTaggart with the penultimate ball of the innings. McTaggart smashed the final ball, this time straight over the mid-wicket boundary for a meaty consolation six, Hawick finishing one run short of the Selkirk total and two shy of what would have been a unlikely comeback victory.
Selkirk are on the road on Saturday for an away fixture in Division to at Royal High Corstorphine CC.