Selkirk Cricket Club

Overcoming late call offs and a couple of lost drivers, Selkirk got back to winning ways on Saturday with a comfortable victory at Holy Cross in Edinburgh. (Scorebook below)

Having won the toss and asking the hosts to bat, captain G.Fenton (1-18) teamed up with elder brother Michael (4-16) to remove the top four within 10 overs. The pace of the bowling was a little too brisk for the openers and both were out edging to the slips, G.Fenton taking the pick of these catches two handed above his head at second slip for the first of M.Fenton’s four wickets.

K.Paterson rolled back the years with a spell which bamboozled the opposition and culminated in taking the final wicket and allowing Graham, taking the keeper’s gloves as a late replacement behind the stumps, to add his second catch. This was added to an earlier neat take standing up to the bowling of Henderson (3-26) to remove Holy Cross top scorer Quinn (25). Bowling 6 maidens from his 8 overs, R.Banks will be frustrated that he only took one wicket for Selkirk but he was to play a fuller part with the bat.

The Holy Cross bowlers were similarly miserly early on but having only moved to 21 off the first 10 overs the souters were at least still intact with regards to wickets, with K.Paterson providing a solid patient defence perhaps missing from previous games. Paterson was given LBW to Reiss, the only bowler to take wickets for the hosts, but while he had only added 7 runs, Paterson had allowed G.Fenton (41) to pick up pace. A decision to push the field out made it likely that the captain was going to take easy 1s and 2s and carry his bat. However, he was undone by a rising ball which had him half way through his shot and looping the ball to short mid wicket, allowing Reiss to follow through and take an easy catch off his own bowling.

By this time, R.Banks (21*) was already looking comfortable with the bowling and field settings, and needing 15 to win when joined by M.Fenton at the crease, he scored 14 of them, finishing off with a clip down to the fine leg boundary for the winning runs.

With home games providing an advantage to most teams in the division, largely due to player availability for away trips, this was a good fixture to win and Selkirk will need to repeat the feat next week with trips to St Boswells on Thursday evening for a 20/20 fixture and a return to Edinburgh to play Marchmont in the league on Saturday.

(Pictured above – Hawick Captain Euan Hair is presented with the Ronnie Simpson trophy by Selkirk CC Chair Roger Arnold)

This game will be short in the memory of the large group of spectators gathered at Philiphaugh on Saturday.

Both teams had kicked off the season with 2 wins but Hawick almost had last week off having bowled their opponents out for 12 while Selkirk had succumbed in Edinburgh after a poor performance with the bat.

Unfortunately for the hosts, this week saw another tepid performance with the bat, Selkirk crawling to an unsatisfactory 63 from 32 overs. Hawick bowling was solid, very little off line and always looking likely to take wickets. Stand out performer, S.Hair (3-13) added a great two handed catch above his head to remove D.Heard who probably thought his drive to mid on was for the boundary and not the last shot of the innings.

With 13 maidens from the 34 overs the first four bowlers will have been happy with their performance and not a little put out that M.Tait (3-6), making up the numbers, managed to take 3 tailenders to finish with the best stats. Only G.Fenton (25) and B.Wilkinson (16) managed double figures for Selkirk with others failing for the second time in 7 days.

The souters total was never going to be enough to defend and Hawick did what needed to be done with the loss of 5 wickets, using up 23 overs to saunter over the line. Not much batting to talk about from either side but G.Alexander (20) did what was required at the top of the order holding off the Fenton brothers, scoring most of his runs with well placed cut shots. Huisamen (16) can thank I.Gardiner for surviving long enough to get Hawick past 50 as the Selkirk man did all he could to make catching a looping cricket ball look difficult, flustering and fumbling the ball to the turf. Both D.Heard and R.Banks picked up a couple of wickets but will have liked another 20 or 30 runs to bowl at.

E.Alexander knocked his second four over the fielder at mid wicket to maintain the 100% league record for the visitors and carry the Ronnie Simpson trophy back to Buccleuch Park where they will welcome Tranent next Saturday.

Selkirk travel to Edinburgh again next weekend to play Holy Cross.

The pitch at Roseburn had not benefitted from the recent fine weather and turned out to be a leveller, making a significant contribution to a low scoring close finish. The uneven bounce was a match for openers on both sides reducing the game to a grind for both batting sides. When the first low bounce shot underneath the bat of MDAFs Raman (6) to dislodge the bails, bowlers would be excused for looking to bowl from the far end, running away from the imposing North Stand at Murrayfield. The reliable MDAFs opener, Cardwell Moore (14) was also surprised by the bounce to scoop the ball to mid on where Singhtoor took his first catch in senior cricket. The hosts, struggling at 45 for 6, made better progress when Tyugi (27) came in at number 7 and he would have carried the bat had he not attempted an unnecessary second on the final ball of the innings.

Having reduced Murrayfield to 45 for 6 at 23 overs the visitors will have been disappointed to let MDAFs get to 92. Selkirk knew that getting the runs would be a challenge and two early wickets gave the hosts hope, especially as this included the departure (LBW) of in form G.Fenton (8) who was undone, as others, by a low shooter bowled from the far end. Despite this, Selkirk had trundled to 69 for 3 at 20 overs and looked well on the way to grinding out the runs required but Gardiner (24) was bowled in the next over. A calamitous collapse, including the obligatory farcical run out, saw the game ended with Selkirk dismissed for 84, 8 short of a third straight victory. Scorebook

‘Extras’ (42) was the easy top scorer on a day where the most impatient player on each team top scored respectively; Gardiner for Selkirk and Tyugi for MDAFs. Both were guilty of outrageous swings and misses but managed to give either side some momentum when they came in to bat.

With only 4 batsmen in double figures, 7 LBW decisions and all 20 wickets down it was easy to see that this was a day for the bowlers. For MDAFs Tyugi was the most dangerous bowler taking 2 wickets at key times, allowing only 13 runs off of his 8 overs. Dow can claim top figures of 3 for 12, bowling at the tailenders, taking a great catch above his head off of his own bowling to remove Henderson. For Selkirk Banks removed four of the first five batsmen to finish with 4 for 14. While Gardiner completed a decent all round performance, with miserly figures of 2 for 6 from his 6 overs, he will probably regret that he didn’t see it through with the bat as he watched the tail flounder.

Selkirk have two all border home fixtures this week, Kelso visiting on Thursday (20/20) and Hawick travelling to Philiphaugh on Saturday (Division 3).

Selkirk backed up their Division 3, week 1 victory over Melrose with a largely convincing win over Haddington at Philiphaugh on Saturday.

An opening partnership of 135 from 26 overs was the perfect start for the souters. Greg Fenton led the way with a brisk 80, the highlight of which was a straight six over the fence and on to the football ground.  The captain ultimately fell to a solid catch by Pearce on the mid wicket boundary from the bowling of McDonald (1 for 45).

Fenton was partnered by Rory Banks for the duration who was constantly finding fielders with his best shots.  Banks raised a disappointed groan from teammates when, on 49, he skied a delivery from Syme (2 for 19), the bowler strolling underneath to take the catch himself at short cover.

The size of the boundary and the slow conditions, overcome by the openers, was more of a challenge for incoming batsmen and runs slowed from then on. Selkirk were 40 or 50 short of what they may have expected, but still posted a decent Philiphaugh total of 178 for the visitors to chase.

Haddington struggled to get going with Banks and Greg Fenton opening the bowling and returning miserly figures of 1 for 18 and 0 for 16 respectively. Where Selkirk had been able to scamper for twos and threes the visitors were under much greater pressure from the hosts in the field.

Wickets were always going to be hard to come by on a slow pitch but first change Daniel Heard managed to knock over the openers so at 20 overs down Haddington were struggling at 43 for 2. Heard was the pick of all bowlers on the day and finished with 4 for 23, with a niggling feeling that an LBW decision should also have gone his way.

In the field Selkirk were sharp and didn’t let many chances go by them with Gardiner’s catch at mid on off of Heard’s bowling to remove Cruikshank (17) being the catch of the day. Spectators would have been excused to think that Gardiner wasn’t going to make it but retreating and turning, all legs and arms, he managed to get himself under the ball and took the catch.

Haddington hirpled to 113 for 7 from their 40 overs with Gillie taking the other two wickets to fall, removing the need for an umpire’s decision by clean bowling both Blades (18) and Doutwood (2). Logan top scored for the visitors with 28 not out, and he and Borrowman (25) were striking the ball well and will probably feel that they left a few runs out in the mossy outfield.

Selkirk will hope to take this form to Edinburgh on Sunday coming where they take on Murrayfield DAFS. 

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