Selkirk Cricket Club

Following the death of our loyal member Roy Owen last year we have been in contact with his family to identify the best way to commemorate his love for the club and his ever presence at our home games. Roy would have loved this to be debuted at the first home game of the season and there was definitely someone missing from the crowd on Saturday.

A complimentary drink for the man of the match was agreed as the most appropriate way to remember Roy at our home games. Those who attended Roy’s service will remember the brilliant story of him being introduced to cricket and the reason why this will be called the “Keep it up” Man of the Match award.

There was of course only one winner this week and a perfect first winner for Roy’s award as Greg is a player Roy saw come through from the juniors at Selkirk. If you don’t know the “keep it up Roy!” Story his son Alastair has kindly outlined it below. Congratulations to Greg and thanks to Roy’s family for agreeing to put this commemoration in place.

“The “Keep it up Roy” Story.

It was Roys first ever exposure to playing cricket and was the result of his neighbour, who was the captain of the village team, asking Roy if he wanted to play as they were short. A conversation that probably took place in the village pub as that’s where most selection decisions occurred. In his white golf shoes and borrowed cricket whites, Royturned out in the traditional rainy April fixture. It was whilst fielding on a wet pitch he wanted to make it easy for the bowler so, when returning the ball to him, Roy was certain to make sure that it bounced a bit before rolling up to the bowlers feet. This was met with cries all round of “keep it up Roy” which Roy took to be positive feedback. 

The cries became a bit more forceful as the balls went on, which Roy took to be the whole team supporting and encouraging him as the new guy. It was at the end of the third over that a furious bowler strode over to Roy to explain that keep it up was an instruction to keep it off the wet grass not congratulations on his skill in getting the ball soaking wet, only he didn’t quite use words that can be spoken in polite company.

That was Dads first game.

Alastair Owen”

Selkirk bounced back from a narrow defeat last week with a welcome win at home against Haddington. The visitors travelled with a strong team looking to complete a double over border teams having defeated Hawick the previous week. The captain Michael Fenton won his first toss of the year and elected to bowl.

Haddington openers Alan Cruickshank and Scott Logan started well and scored comfortably off of the opening bowlers. The souters had to wait until the 10^th over to break through but with the score at 51 at the end of the over the souters were looking down the barrel of a 200 run target. James Cardwell-Moore (32) looked composed but the scoring rate slowed as first change bowlers Michael Fenton and Blaine Gillie applied the brakes with only 18 runs coming from the next ten overs.

Cruickshank eventually succumbed to Daniel Heard having spent an hour and a half at the wicket for a very hard earned 32 runs, the slow outfield probably denying him a bigger score. Cardwell-Moore matched the opener’s score before he was caught by Gardiner for his first catch of the season as designated wicket keeper, racing back for a looping top edge. This was the first of a couple of wickets for Rory Banks who finished top bowler with 2 for 21 runs. The visitors added 26 runs in the final 7 overs to set Selkirk a modest Philiphaugh target of 142 for victory.

The Selkirk openers looked to take their time at the start. Nikhil Kadyan dropped a difficult catch diving forward at square leg before Greg Fenton had really got going. This was the only real chance and the visitors were going to rue this. Blaine Gillie (12) embraced his new role as opening batsman with a dogged determination and watched on as Fenton passed 50 as he tucked Kadyan round the corner to fine leg for 2 runs. Gillie’s was the first wicket to fall, with the score at 79, when Dave Aburthnott came on as the fifth bowler and looked dangerous from the start. His second wicket came shortly thereafter when he also clean bowled the captain Michael Fenton.

With three wickets down Rory Banks joined Greg Fenton in the middle and they both steered the innings in the direction of a seemingly comfortable win. Arbuthnott (2-25) ended up with top figures for the visitors on the day but losing 18 runs from his last 2 overs will have been frustrating. With 4 runs required for the victory and 7 overs remaining Selkirk managed to create some tension.

Banks was stumped over stepping a delivery from Rob McDonald and three balls later Iain Gardiner was L.B.W. without scoring. Fenton (95), looking for a big single shot finish, was clean bowled by Kadyan. Two balls later, having added one run,  Gregor Borthwick and Daniel Heard never reached a solid agreement on a second, leaving Heard marooned and returning to the pavilion, also without scoring. Enter Shyam Karna a completely unknown quantity as a new recruit in recent weeks and 2 runs required for victory. Borthwick defended the last three balls from Kadyan and Shyam faced McDonald, a bowler with his tail up and the whole of the Haddington team sniffing a chance. McDonald brought the field in and tossed it up, Shyam confidently punched the ball over mid-off and ran two.  

As the light faded at Philiphaugh last evening, Selkirk notched up their first win of the season with 38 run win over Manderston CC.

Manderston won the toss and asked Selkirk to bat. The top order batsman all got a start but to the fore was the Captain, Michael Fenton, with a rumbustious 39 off 24 balls. The visiting bowlers proved tricky at times and their standout on the evening was Martyn Lawrenson who took his fourth wicket of the evening when Fenton lobbed the ball to Aristotle Davenport at deep mid-wicket. Bob Wilkinson added another 29 runs to the total, including two flicked sixes over the legside boundary, and was unbeaten at the end alongside Daniel Heard (10).

Set 137 to win, the visitors made slow but steady progress and would have fancied their chances at 10 overs with only 2 wickets down and 56 runs on the board. Terry Burgess (25) had looked dangerous but fell to Gregor Borthwick claiming his first wicket of the season. The bowling tightened and scoring slowed despite the direct approach of Hector Martin (28) who pushed the score along with a big six over square leg.

When Greg Fenton (2-3) removed Martin for the first of his 2 wickets this proved decisive and the Manderston score slowed further and their innings petered out under 100. Fourteen year old Shaun Wilkinson bowled the last over for Selkirk and can feel a wee bit aggrieved that he was denied his first senior wicket as S.Connington was dropped twice.