Stonehaven Thistle 2nd XI 85 all out
Portcullis 83 all out

Stonehaven’s 2nd XI played at home against Portcullis, and just won after a very close and exciting game, to remain top of Grade 4.

Captain Dave Long Sr. won the toss, and decided to bat first. He opened with Bruce Findlay, but the fast and accurate bowling from Portcullis kept them pinned down. In the 9th over Bruce was caught and bowled for 5, and batsman number 3, James Crozier, was out in exactly the same way the next ball. In the next over captain Dave Long was caught for 3, and in over 11 the 4th batsman Barry Milne was also out for a duck after hitting a shot high in the air and getting caught. This disastrous spell for Stonehaven left them on 4 wickets for 10 runs, off 11 overs.

The new batsmen 5 and 6, Matthew Colvin and Dave Long Jr., now had a hard task to try and steady the team after this loss of wickets. They did this well, also helping to bring up the run rate, until Matthew had to retire hurt after a hit on the knee. This brought Brian Snelling to the crease and the run without wickets continued. They brought the score up to 39 before Brian was bowled between bat and pad for 4. 8th batsman Paul Hay was next in and punished Rahul’s bowling before being caught on 10. This brought Nigel King to the crease, who substantially increased the run rate with some impressive shots.

Dave was out next, when a ball he had left cut back in to give him out LBW, and despite being a key figure he only had 12 runs out of it. Daniel Colvin replaced him, but despite not being able to make any runs he stayed in and gave Nigel the chance to keep scoring runs. When Daniel was bowled Calum Findlay came in, but was only able to make 2 runs before Nigel was bowled on 22 to end the innings. Stonehaven had only made 85, their lowest score of the season, and things were not looking good for the match.

Dave Long Jr. and Brian Snelling opened the bowling with some accurate deliveries from both ends. There were many missed chances throughout the game, including around 6 dropped catches and some dubious umpiring especially off Brian’s bowling, which meant Stonehaven did not apply as much pressure as they should have. Dave was the first with a breakthrough bowling Cox after putting him under pressure.
Nigel came on to replace Dave and in his 2nd over got the other opener out LBW, and then the 3rd batsman out the same way in his 4th over. Nigel then got number 4 with a well taken catch from Daniel Colvin. Calum Findlay was brought on to replace Brian and in his 1st over got a wicket maiden, getting their dangerous 5th batsman Dodds out LBW. However by this time they were already on 63 and looked like they would win.

Nigel and Calum bowled tightly from both ends, and started to put some pressure on their batsmen. Nigel had another LBW, on 7th batsmen Rahul, putting them on 68 for 6. Next over a quick accurate throw from Paul Hay ran out their 6th batsman and Portcullis started to look in danger. Their next batsman brought the score to 77 before Paul then caught out their 8th batsman off Nigel’s bowling. On 81, when they needed 5 to win with 2 wickets remaining, Nigel bowled out number 10, then on his next and final over he bowled the last wicket against a statuesque player, so that they were all out on 83. Nigel ended with 7 wickets for 22 runs, off 11.5 overs. The match ball was sponsored by the Marine Hotel.

After that close win Stonehaven are at the top of the league by some way, and next week face Gordonians.