Falkland Reach Scottish Village Cup Final

Falkland made it through to their first Scottish Davidstow Village Cup final for a number of years with a 55 run victory over local rivals Freuchie.

Falkland skipper Ryan Hepburn won the the toss and had no hesitation in batting in this 40 over match. Jack Henderson and Adam Ferguson opened the batting and provided a solid platform playing cautiously on what turned out to be a tricky pitch. The score had moved to 47 in the 17th over when Adam got a ball which stopped on him and was well caught. Falkland then lost wickets at regular intervals and although there were useful contributions from a number of batsmen no-one really ever really got going. The Freuchie bowlers kept the run rate in check and Falkland finished on 149 for 9 with Jack top scoring with 32. The Freuchie attack was well led by the excellent ever green Scott Gourlay 0 for 15 from 9 and he was well supported by K Mohammed 3 for 28 , Greg Birrell 2 for 40 and A Hussain 2 for 30.

Freuchie began their innings in a similar fashion to Falkland with openers Alan Wallace and K Khail being watchful whilst punishing the odd bad ball. The score had progressed to 21 in the 6th over when Jack got the breakthrough having Wallace brilliantly caught by Adam behind the stumps. The introduction of Avin Yadav into the attack swung the game in Falkand's favour. With only his 3rd ball Avin got one to turn and clean bowled the experienced Robbie Birrell and then in his next over he trapped Khalil LBW. Freuchie were now 51 for 3 from 14 overs. However, with plenty of overs in hand and Scott Gourlay at the crease they still had a chance. Another quick wicket with Ryan Hepburn running out Krishna at the non strikers end meant it was 53 for 4. Avin then took what was undoubtedly the key wicket having Scott Gourlay LBW 73 for 5. Thereafter the remaining Freuchie batsmen could only muster 21 runs and the innings expired in the 34th over on 94. The Falkland bowling and fielding was of a very high standard with Avin Yadav 3 for 16, Ryan Hepburn 3 for 13, Brock Ditchmen 2 for 12 all returning superb figures.

A fine all round team performance which means that the Scottish Final on Sunday 14th June will be against either Meigle or Crathie whose game was cancelled yesterday due to the weather. The match will be played at Falkland with a 1pm start.