Falkland Continue Winning Ways

Falkland 301 for 5
(St Meikle 74, E Sloan 68)

Aberdeenshire 115 all out
(L Munro 35, L Robertson 4 for 17, R Hepburn 3 for 9)

Falkland won by 186 runs

Falkland's run of victories over northern opposition continued on Saturday, but this game was an away fixture at the famous Mannofield ground of Aberdeenshire. The conditions were excellent, the wicket was first rate and there was a sizeable attendance, but it was disappointing to see a club with the prestige and tradition of Aberdeenshire struggling so much. It is a salutary lesson of just what can happen to a club who fail to keep developing their youngsters. Hopefully, there will be a revival soon.

Adam Ferguson won the toss and had no hesitation in batting. The team reached 301, thanks mainly to 68 from Euan Sloan and 74 from Steven Meikle. Aberdeenshire's bowling was disappointing as indeed was their fielding, but Falkland rode their luck of dropped catches and piled on the runs. Professional Harsha Cooray scored 34 - a comparative failure from the prolific Sri Lankan! - and had he got going, the score could even have reached 400. But 301 was quite clearly good enough.

Aberdeenshire never really looked getting anything like that score and subsided meekly for 115, with most of their resistance coming from lower down the order in particular from a 14 year old debutant called Manu Saraswat who showed that the future of Aberdeenshire need not be quite so depressing as their current situation. The pick of the Falkland bowlers were Ryan Hepburn and Lyle Robertson, but there were some aspects of the bowling and fielding that caused concern. 9 wides were conceded and 5 no balls, and although there have been higher proportions of the opposition total, that is still way too much for a team that is aspiring to winning the League. In general the game should have been put to bed a lot sooner than it was.

Nevertheless the drive home on a lovely evening was a happy one, and even at this half way stage of the season, it is beginning to appear that the game against Freuchie on August 28 will be a vital one. Gordonians are the visitors to Falkland on Saturday.

David Potter