This Sunday sees the Men’s Scottish Cup semi-finals taking place, and there are two hotly-anticipated matches in store.
All four clubs left have proud records in the competition; Gen!ius Grange have lifted the silverware nine times, Clydesdale seven, Forfarshire four and Tunnock’s Uddingston three.
And they are all now just one step away from making it to the final at Clydesdale’s Titwood ground on August 20.
Reigning champions Forfarshire host Clydesdale in one of the last four ties.
Forfarshire go into the contest having won the SPCU T20 Cup last Sunday while they are sitting second in the Eastern Premier League table.
In the Cup so far this summer they have beaten Renfrew, Watsonians and Heriot’s, and their skipper Scott Cameron said: “We are really looking forward to Sunday, Scottish Cup semis at home don’t come around very often.
“It should be a good game between two good teams going at it, but I will just be looking for my boys to play our way and really enjoy it.”
Clydesdale travel to Broughty Ferry eighth in Western Premiership One and, after a bye in round one of the Cup, they have defeated Meigle and Arbroath United to get this far.
“We’re looking forward to the game at Forthill on Sunday,” captain Craig Young said.
“We’ll definitely go into the game as underdogs given that Forfarshire are defending champions, however, our Scottish Cup form this year has been good and there’s no pressure on us.
“We know that we can beat anyone on our day, so we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
The other semi-final is at Bothwell Castle Policies when Uddingston play Grange.
Uddingston lost a Rowan Cup semi-final to Prestwick in midweek, but they defeated SM Cricket Stirling County in Western Premiership One action last Saturday.
They are sixth in their league and they started this Cup run with a cracking win over LOC Hire Stenhousemuir as 266-6 played 264-8.
Since then they have beaten Stewart’s Melville and Ferguslie and their skipper Bryan Clarke said: “We’re looking forward to this game.
“It’s been a few years since we’ve had a Cup run, we won the league in 2019 and have been there or there abouts most years in the West so this has been an interesting run given we probably haven’t been at our best in the league.
“We’ve possibly played our best cricket in the Cup so far this year and the run has possibly helped us to get back on track in the last few weeks, so we’re feeling pretty good going into the game.”
Grange are top of the Eastern Premier League and won convincingly at Stoneywood Dyce in their last league outing.
They have seen off Perth Doo’cot, Aberdeenshire and Edinburgh rivals Carlton to get this far in the Cup.
Their captain Tom Foulds said: “Uddingston have built up some momentum in the competition, so we won’t be taking this challenge lightly at all.
“We went to Ayr last year at this stage and we lost out, so we know that we will have to put in a good performance if we want to progress because Uddingston are a good side.
“We will approach the game as we have done every game this season, we want to enjoy the day and play cricket with smiles on our faces.”
The match between Gen!us Grange and Carlton in the quarter-finals is pictured by Alec Davies
