Holders Grange are safely through to the second round of the Citylets Scottish Cup after a convincing seven wicket win over Greenock at Portgower Place.
These sides have enjoyed some classic cup battles over the years but the Edinburgh team, who romped to a unique treble last season, had too much strength on this occasion for a Glenpark outfit not yet ready to recapture past glories. Having opted to bat first, visiting captain Neil Flack led the way with a battling 41- his side’s top score – but after John Blain made the breakthrough home captain Preston Mommsen was able to make regular successful bowling changes, four of his attack claiming two wickets as Greenock were dismissed for 130.
The visitors may briefly have sensed an upset when Saurabh Bandekar picked up three early wickets but youngsters Tom Mackintosh and James Dickinson compiled an unbroken 90-run stand to see their side home, the former stroking a fluent 70no.
Grange will meet capital rivals Carlton in round two after the Grange Loan men skittled Forfarshire for just 48 at Forthill. The Broughty Ferry team, without a clutch of key performers, may have thought they were in contention after restricting Carlton to 159. However, Adeel Raza returned remarkable figures of 5-4 and Shiv Gupta 3-7 as the ‘Shire batsmen collapsed.
The eagerly anticipated capital derby between Watsonians and Heriot’s at Myreside went decisively in favour of the visitors for whom Chris Ashforth and Keith Morton had three wickets each to restrict ‘Sonians to 117 before the Goldenacre team’s top three all reached 30 in a nine-wicket win.
Another all-Eastern Premier affair went firmly in favour of RH Corstorphine who, having recovered from 12-3 to reach 142, turned on the style to send Stewarts Melville tumbling to 40 all out at Inverleith.
Clydesdale produced arguably the performance of the round by beating Uddingston at Bothwell Castle Policies.
On the face of it, victory for either of these Western Premier rivals would hardly represent a shock, but given that Dale were without no fewer than eight regulars and were bowled out for just 90, the turnaround in this match was truly remarkable.
There was still little hint of the drama about to unfold as the home openers made a steady start but when the first wicket fell with the total on 25, Uddingston proceeded to collapse to 52 all out. All ten wickets fell to spin and eight of them to teenagers, 17 year-old Junaid Rauf leading the way with 5-15 while Danny Cairns, also 17, claimed 3-2.
Cairns had earlier battled through for a crucial 35 runs, the game’s highest score.
The other all-Western Premier ties went with the form book, West of Scotland carving out a five-wicket win in another low-scoring contest at Drumpellier while Prestwick had too much firepower for East Kilbride at Henry Thow Oval where Sachin Chaudhary claimed four wickets as EK made 180 before Ross Kennedy hit 66, propelling the home side to a 9-wicket win.
One of the day’s more intriguing east v west ties went in favour of Arbroath who were given a run for their money by Poloc before prevailing by 28 runs Lochlands.
Home skipper Marc Petrie topscored with 39 of his team’s 157 runs while notable bowling performances were produced by Lewis James who claimed 3-21 and Kess Sajjad who conceded only ten runs from seven overs.
Lesiba Ngoepe was the only Poloc batsman to score significant runs but his 51 was in vain, Euan Small the pick of the Arbroath attack with 3-30.
Ferguslie enjoyed a 131-run win over Edinburgh CC at Campbell Park while Weirs got the better of Edinburgh Accies by seven wickets at Albert Park and there was more west success when Renfrew beat Falkland by five wickets at King George V Playing Fields.
Shaun Coetzer’s 36no led Stoneywood-Dyce’s successful victory charge against Meigle at People’s Park – the only action in the Granite City after Dunnikier conceded their scheduled Mannofield clash with Aberdeenshire.
