ON a sunny day at Gordon Park, Ellon Gordon Cricket Club entertained Mannofield in the second round of the Aberdeenshire Cup.
Ellon won the toss and decided to bat first. What followed was probably the finest batting display ever seen at Gordon P
ark with Stewart Davies and Jonathan Barrett displaying their true talents.
They took the Mannofield bowling apart with shots all round the ground peppering the boundary with fours and sixes. Their second wicket partnership of 232 is a club record and Ellon completed their 40 overs with a massive total of 284 runs for 3 wickets, Stewart finishing with 140 not out and Jonathan falling to a catch near the end having made 105.
Both sides had a break with tea kindly provided by the Station Hotel after which Ellon took the field to defend their score. Mannofield's openers got off to a steady start and had put 44 runs on the scoreboard in the seventh over before Turnbull was bowled by Ross Wade. The next wicket fell cheaply when Richard Greenfield had Savra stumped by Stewart Davies.
When Harry Wolrige Gordon had the free-scoring Lawson trapped lbw with the score on 81 it looked as though Ellon would wrap the game up quickly but the latter order batsmen had other ideas.
Niven and Van Oorshot, in particular, caused the Ellon bowlers lots of problems pushing the score up towards 200 before a brilliant piece of fielding by Harry Wolrige Gordon had the dangerous Van Oorshot run out just short of his half century. Niven went on to make 56 before being clean bowled by Chris Watson.
There was still stubborn resistance from the tail until the 39th over when Watson wrapped up the Mannofield innings getting Proud stumped by Steward Davies with the score on 239. This was a valiant attempt by Mannofield to chase such a big total. With 523 runs scored on the day, it prived great entertainment for the few spectators watching.
Ellon 284 for 3. S Davies 140 not out; J Barrett 105; F Proud 1 for 49.
Mannofield 239 all out. J Niven 56; R Van Oorshot 46; D Lawson 45; H Wolrige Gordon 2 for 48; R Wade 2 for 54; J Barrett 2 for 56.
Ellon won by 45 runs and move into the next round of the Aberdeenshire Cup
Over the weekend Ellon scored 523 runs for the loss of 10 wickets – a very creditable performance with Stewart Davies' personal weekend total 220.
Next weekend the 1st XI are away to Gordonians while the 2nd XI entertain 2nd Gordonians at Gordon Park. Supporters and new players always welcome. Training is on Thursday evenings at Gordon Park starting at 6.30pm.
