Selkirk Cricket Club

In a very competitive game which managed to beat the weather, Daniel Heard’s Captain’s XI celebrated a six-wicket victory over the President’s XI on Saturday.

Greg Fenton, skipper of the president’s team, won the toss and chose to bat, scoring 21 in a solid opening partnership with Lewis McCulloch (31*). The latter hit one of biggest shots of the day when he thumped a maximum over the boundary, which rolled down to the spectators outside the pavilion.

With rules to keep the contest close, McCulloch was retired as he passed 30, with the President’s XI then losing a couple of big wickets. Junior Michael Gillie (3/4) bowled Bob Wilkinson, before Rory Banks (1/8) had Gregor Borthwick caught behind.

However, Ian Gardiner (34*) relishes this kind of contest and couldn’t stop scoring, retiring for the second year running with the President’s XI total standing at 98. There was little added by the tail, but Ali Miller managed to roll back the years with a few stylish shots, before the innings came to an end when Captain’s XI skipper Heard clean-bowled Ryan Pritchard with the final ball.

Set a modest 121 for the win, the task was made a wee bit harder for the Captain’s XI following the dismissals of openers Harry Murphy (7) and Tim Cove (4) . Rory Banks also fell quickly to the combination of Selkirk’s top colts Shaun Wilkinson (1/8) and Gregor Borthwick, the latter taking a solid catch at mid-wicket as Banks mistimed and skied a delivery from Wilkinson.

With tested openers John Graham (30*) and Kenny Paterson (33*) batting down the order, cool heads entered the fray and both would be retired with victory within reach. Captain Heard probably had ambitions to win the game for his team, but was outfoxed by junior Archie Pritchard (1/14).

Having had a somewhat mixed year with the bat, Blaine Gillie played cautiously for a while, so the game went to the last over with four runs still required. Ian Gardiner was given the death bowling duties, and a single off his second put Gillie on strike with three runs required. He took the approach of McCulloch earlier in the match, and smashed another six down towards the club to bring the contest to a close.

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

Note: Given the weather forecast, the match will now start at 13.00

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.