WITH the previous weekend being a complete wash-out it was a great relief to have some fine weather when Ellon Gordon Cricket Club travelled to Allan Park, Cults for their Aberdeenshire Grade 1 match.
Cults won the toss and invited Ellon to bat f
irst. Stewart Davies and Scott White began their innings cautiously taking the score to 24 before Scott was caught off the bowling of Saxena.
Jon Barrett entered the scene hitting his first ball to the boundary but four balls later was clean bowled by Naru. The loss of the two early wickets did not upset Ellon and they knuckled down to bat very sensibly. Harry Wolrige Gordon and Stewart Davies put on a third wicket partnership of 50 aided by some excellent running between the wickets. However one risky run turned out to be Harry's downfall having scored 21.
Stewart was joined by Craig White who has been batting well this season. With shots all round Allan Park they amassed a stand of 98 before Stewart was bowled by Naru with his score on 80. Chris Watson joined the fray with a hasty 25 Not Out while Craig went on to make his well deserved half century. Ellon declared on 228 for 7 wickets off 45 overs.
After tea, Cults set about their reply but lost wickets early and regularly. Scott White opened the bowling with a maiden. Ross Wade had a four and six hit off his first four balls but got his revenge two balls later having Sneadish caught behind with the score on ten.
Five runs later Scott clean bowled Morrison and the rot set in. Bedi was caught by Chris Watson off the bowling of Scott, having not troubled the scorers, and then Swapnil was trapped Lbw by the same bowler with the score only 27. Harry Wolrige Gordon and Richard Greenfield took over the bowling and wickets continued to fall with Harry trapping the dangerous Vignesh lbw for 29 and Richard doing the same to Ravi.
Between them they cleaned up the Cults tail with Harry getting the last two wickets – one caught by Matt Loud and the other caught by Charles Wolrige Gordon. This left Cults desperately short of the required target being all out for 128.
Ellon 228 for 7. S Davies 80; C White 53; C Watson 25 not out. Saxena 2 for 27.
Cults 128 all out. Vignesh 29; Naru 26. S White 3 for 18.
Ellon won by 100 runs and gained 30 points in Grade 1.
