Heavy Defeat For 1sts

Falkland (0) : 127 all out in 49 overs.
(M. Surry 62 no, A.Neill 3 for 29)

Aberdeenshire (10) : 128 for 1 in 31.5 overs.
(C. Venske 76. C. Howard 35 no)

Aberdeenshire beat Falkland by 9 wkts

On a fine Saturday afternoon with many of the club sponsors enjoying legendary Falkland Cricket Club hospitality (and an old friend of the Falkland crowd Harsha Cooray in the opposing side), the home team won the toss and elected to bat.

Falkland made a slow start and lost 2 wickets with just 13 runs on the board. The run rate peaked at 2 runs per over but when Mathew Surry came to the crease with 4 wickets down this started to increase although wickets kept falling and the best partnerships with Surry were 22 (Captain Brock Ditchmen) and 23 (Stuart Campbell) before Alan Hamilton joined Mathew Surry with 86 runs on the board and 39 overs gone. These two put on 41 with Surry hitting an unbeaten 62 from 87 balls bringing Falklands total to 127 all out from 49 overs. The Aberdeenshire bowlers all returned good figures with the best being Adrian Neill with 3 for 29 off 10 overs.

The Aberdeen openers, Christopher Venske and Calum Howard set off at a brisk pace scoring 54 off the first 10 overs. Venske reached his 50 off just 49 balls and was on 76 when he was trapped LBW by Safyaan Sharif. However, the damage had been done and Howard and Hayes Van Der Berg saw the visitors home at 128 for 1 off just 31.5 overs.

Keith Meakin