Selkirk Cricket Club

In another close finish, Selkirk scraped a hard-fought win at Haddington on Saturday to end the season in fourth position in Division 3 of the ESCA leagues.

The Neilson Park ground is generous to the batter, with the outfield cut short and running downhill away from the square. So when Selkirk were all out for 134 runs, there was a feeling this total might not be enough for the visitors.

However, thanks to early breakthroughs for skipper Daniel Heard (2-30), and Ian Gardiner’s spell of the season, the hosts were unable to get past the visitors’ total. Ian conceded just 12 runs from his eight overs, and despite not getting a wicket put the brakes on the home scoring and gave the visitors a chance.

Earlier the Haddington bowlers had shown the way with slower bowlers providing the stiffest challenge on an unpredictable wicket. Big individual scores looked unlikely from the off, with Greg Fenton hitting two fours off his first two balls and then missing the bounce on the third delivery and skying the ball for the Haddington wicket keeper to get under and take an easy catch.

Todd Dekker, playing his last game for the club, also took two fours off his first two deliveries, but had to show some caution to build an innings. He’s had some outstanding knocks for Selkirk over the last couple of years, and will be sorely missed both on and off the field. He signed off by top-scoring for the visitors with 45, including a sumptuous six over the long on boundary.

The most successful bowler on the day was Callum Sholto-Douglas (3-20), who eventually clean-bowled Dekker for the first of three wickets. Arguably, though, the bowler presenting the most challenge to the Selkirk batters was Ash Kumar (2-10), who claimed two wickets in a spell bowling 25 deliveries without conceding a run.

Kumar also claimed the wicket of Alex Massie (23), who had helped the Souters recover from a mini-collapse (three wickets going down without a run being scored), leaving Selkirk on 68-4 in the 14th over. Massie was caught at long on, where Ben Parks took a solid catch running in from the boundary.

Heard played a captain’s part when he came to the wicket with his side hirpling past 100, adding 23 invaluable runs before he ran out of partners with six overs unused.

The general feeling at the break was that if Haddington were to use all 40 overs they were likely to get there. However, the East Lothian side also had to recover from early losses, and when they would have hoped to make progress were stymied by Gardiner and others in their run chase.

Not for the first time this season Bob Wilkinson was asked to bowl at the death, with Callum Sholto-Douglas (52) and Rob Macdonald (16) having successfully scored off most balls. With two overs remaining they required 20 runs for victory. They took eight off the penultimate over, and scrambling for twos they set up a last ball challenge after they could only take a single of the fifth ball.

Haddington needed a boundary off the final ball of the contest – four for the tie, or a six for the win. Neither was achieved – Wilkinson proving up to the challenge by bowling a delivery which the batter missed and which swished in to Dekker’s gloves.

The victory meant Selkirk had won the last four league games of the season and finished with a winning record in a campaign where this seemed unlikely at times.

Match report by Neil Gentleman, with photos by John Smail.

Selkirk followed up Friday night’s Border T20 Cup final triumph with an equally emphatic 125-run victory over Murrayfield DAFS 2 at Philiphaugh on Saturday – their final Edinburgh League Division 3 home match of the season.

This was the Souters’ fourth consecutive win, and lifts them to fourth place in the league table, with just one fixture to go – against Haddington away on Saturday.

In a quite brilliant individual display, which must rank alongside some of the greatest ever witnessed at Philiphaugh, Greg Fenton dominated the contest with both bat and ball. Unbeaten on 117 runs at the end of the home innings, Selkirk’s 32-year-old all-rounder followed up his dazzling century by notching Selkirk’s first ‘fifer’ of the season – his five wickets coming at a cost of just 23 runs.

It was a day he, his team-mates, and all the home supporters basking in the warm Philiphaugh sunshine will remember for a long, long time.

Put into bat by Murrayfield DAFS, the writing was on the wall for the visitors when Greg and Todd Dekker (60) combined seamlessly to put together a 117 partnership.

Some spilled catches and frequent instances of below par fielding didn’t help the city side’s cause, with Selkirk’s batters taking full advantage.

In the final overs Bob Wilkinson (22*) kept up the home side’s momentum, and at the end of Selkirk’s innings the total stood at 221-3 – the highest score of the season.

Nadeem Anjum (2/36) ended as Murrayfield’s top bowler, with the other Selkirk wicket going to Rajesh Roogi (1/55).

In reply, the visitors got off to a calamitous start when opening bowlers Daniel Heard (2/24) and Michael Fenton (1/27) both took wickets in their very first overs.

It was left to Kiran Bhaskar (39) and R. Prakash (15) to try and steady the ship, but the introduction of Greg Fenton (5/23) into the home attack signalled the end of any slim hope Murrayfield might have harboured of getting near the Selkirk total.

The hosts’ fourth bowler, Bob Wilkinson (2/21), is becoming something of an expert at wrapping up opponents’ innings, and the visitors’ final wicket fell in the 26th over, leaving Murrayfield DAFS all out on 96.

Match report and photos by John Smail.