Stonehaven 218 for 6
Mannofield 179 all out

Stonehaven 2nd XI travelled to Countesswells to meet Mannofield, knowing that they only needed 8 points out of a possible 30 to secure the ACA Grade 4 league title.

Skipper Dave Long won the toss and decided to bat first. The openers Bruce Findlay and Steve Crozier made slow progress but set a platform for the innings. When Crozier was stumped on 38 in the 24h over the partnership had been worth 80 runs.

Enter David Crozier who after a patient start soon punished the Aberdeenshire attack
and the run rate picked up. When he was caught eight overs later the score had leap to 142; David scoring 41 off 38 balls, including 2 sixes.

The Championship milestone of eight points which translated into 145 runs was reached when the Captain clipped a ball to leg to take his score to 1; the ripple of applause on the boundary, normally reserved for higher totals,
left some of the opposition with puzzled expressions.

When the skipper was stumped for 5 trying to push the total forward Findlay followed three balls later in a carbon copy dismissal; Bruce having made 39.
James Crozier took over and in the remaining 11 overs would help the total onto 218 off 45 overs. He finished 27 not out, helped by a cameo first appearance for Thistle by South African Jason Gouws 11, and a quick fire 10 from Paul Hay.

By contrast, after the dismissal of Proud for 1 in the first over Mannofield’s start to the innings was explosive as P. Ballal and new partner D. Hoogerbrugge put the Thistle bowling to the sword. Chances were few and far between and in an effort to stop the free scoring the slow bowlers were brought on with little early success.

At 92 for 1 in the 17th over things were looking ominous for the new top dogs, but showing why they are the champions the team dug deep and when Hoogerbrugge was caught by Paul Hay who made up a lot of ground to reach the ball off the bowling
of James Crozier Stonehaven slowly began to whittle down the batsmen, though the prize of the dangerous Ballal remained elusive.

At 143 for 5 after 29 overs the game was finely balanced. Ballal ventured between spells of introspection and displays of hard hitting as he powerlessly watched wickets fall at the other end. Shortly after reaching his century he was finally bowled by Steve
Crozier’s fifth ball of the day; Steve left wondered what all the fuss had been about.

Calum Findlay wrapped up the innings finishing on 2 for 31 off 6.3 overs; David Crozier 3 for 44 off 6 overs, Bryan Snelling 1 for 39 off 12 overs and Danny Colvin 2 for 26 off 6 overs.

After the game the team celebrated at The Station Hotel, match ball sponsor and Main Club Sponsor. With one more league game to play against St Ronald’s at Kings College rumours of reversed batting orders are rife.