The semi-final draw for the Greenwood Trophy is as follows:

Dean Park v Albert Park
Partick v Victoria

Ties are to be played on Thursday 18th July.

Well done to Albert Park, Dean Park, Victoria and Partick for reaching the Greenwood Trophy semi-finals.

The draw will be posted early next week.  All clubs should remind their players about the requirement to play fairly and in the ‘spirit of the game.’  There has been an upsurge in disciplinary issues recently and its important that this trend is halted.

Could I once again remind all clubs to fully complete their short and long scorecards and Captain’s reports, including umpiring assessments for your opposition teams umpiring where there are no umpires. Please also remember to complete your fair play assessments too as your mark will influence the league tables. Competition at both ends of these tables is heating up.

On that note the CMC this week decided that all 5-point sanctions for incorrectly submitted Captain’s reports will be lifted. Sanctions will still apply where a scorecard has not been submitted on time or a Captain’s report not submitted at all. These were the regulations used in 2018.

Our first cup final will be held next week with the Murgitroyd Rowan Cup being contested between Clydesdale CC and Poloc CC at Shawholm on the 11th of July start time 6pm.  Please encourage your members to attend where possible.

Finally good luck to Ferguslie, Stirling County and McCrea FS West of Scotland in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup and to Helensburgh and LOC Hire Stenhousemuir in the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup. All ties are this Sunday.

Iain Kennedy
WDCU Administrator

The quarter-final draw for the Greenwood Trophy is:

Kirkstyle v Dean Park
Albert Park v GHK
Partick v Whitehaugh
Ardencaple v Victoria

Ties to be played on 4th July with a reserve date being the 11th of July.

With the season at the mid-way point I have now attached an updated fair play review table. I am delighted that the scores given by teams on their opponent’s behaviour and playing in the spirit of the game are in the main very good. There are a very large number of 5’s (top marks) given which is excellent.

Top of the shop for all the leagues with the highest average score of 4.86 from seven games is Meikleriggs. At the other end of the leagues with the lowest average score of 2.63 is Victoria.

Please see the link to the table below for more details.  You will see in the table only 4.2 % (15/367) of the scores fall in the lowest score zone, and 44.1% (162/367) score top marks of 5. Hopefully the second half of the season will move both these percentages in the right direction!

WDCU Fair play Updates – up to week 9

Congratulations to Poloc and  Clydesdale on reaching the Murgitroyd Rowan Rup Final for 2019. The big Glasgow showdown will take place at Shawholm on Thursday 11th July. Good luck to both teams!

Congratulations to GHK, Partick, Titwood and Whitehaugh who have all progressed to the Western Cup semi-finals. The draw for the semi-finals is:

GHK v Titwood
Whitehaugh v Partick

The ties are to be played on Tuesday 9th July.

Well done  to Ayr, Ferguslie, Tunnock’s Uddingston and McCrea FS West of Scotland who won through to the semi-finals of the McCulloch Cup last night. The draw for the semi-finals is:

Ferguslie v McCrea FS West of Scotland
Tunnock’s Uddingston v Ayr

Ties to be played on Wednesday 10th July.

Sorry there was no club update last week. Time just got ahead of me!! Here is this week’s:

As we approach the half way stage of the season the leagues and cup placings are beginning to take shape. GHK, GHK Strathclyde, Kirkstyle and Motherwell are the only unbeaten teams in the Saturday league so well done to them. Can they stay that way at the half way stage?

There was a dip in clubs fully submitting their scorecards, Captain’s reports and fair play scores last week and this is a reminder that they are compulsory. Please remember that if you have no umpires in your games you must score the opposition team for their umpiring performance.

Other reminders are to ensure that clubs have DLS information available and to make sure that you have clear team lines for the opposition and umpires.

A new one for you all this week is to make sure you have enough used balls of different quality so that all balls being lost can be replaced with one of an equivalent standard. Performances like Eoin Morgan’s this week are entirely possible!!

As we are at the half way stage next week their will be an update on the fair play scores. Who will be at the top and bottom in each league?

Finally and once again good luck to all WDCU sides playing in national competitions this weekend.

Iain Kennedy, WDCU Administrator

Congratulations to the following teams for reaching the quarter-finals of the Western Cup:

The draw is:

GHK v St. Ninian’s
Titwood v Deanpark
Whitehaugh v EBC Langloan
Albert Park v Partick

Ties to be played on the 25th of June.

Iain Kennedy, WDCU Administrator

The WDCU XI was hit by three late call offs on game day morning which resulted in three replacements being called in at short notice. Nkosana Mpofu, Moneeb Iqbal and Fazal Jawad all missed out due to injuries sustained in Scottish cup ties. Haroon Tahir (Ferguslie), Fergus Clarke (Uddingston) and Muhaymen Majeed (Renfrew) all came into the team at very short notice to face the strong touring Emus side from Australia for their first game. The touring team consisted of players aged up to 24 with a number having played Grade cricket and were accompanied by Pete Clifford the former Greenock professional and a group of enthusiastic supporters.

On a glorious sunny, warm summers day in June, yes we are talking about Scotland, at Meikleriggs WDCU XI captain Aamir Gul won the toss and elected to bowl on a green wicket in a 50 over a side game with ODI rules and pink balls.

The opening bowlers for the WDCU team, Umair Khan and Gavin Smith, utilised the conditions well and made early in-roads with the Emus rocking at 33 for 4 after 9 overs, with Khan and Smith taking two wickets apiece including a caught and bowled for both. As is the Australian way the Emus fought back with James Psarakis and Alec Baldwin taking the total to 102 before a sharp piece of fielding by Haroon Tahir resulted in Psarakis being run out. This brought Ben McMahon to the crease who shared a stand of 42 with Baldwin before he was caught by Lucas Farndale at slip of the bowling of skipper Gul. The Emu’s total had reached 144 for six with overs in hand and there was still a chance to add substantially to the total as the dangerous Baldwin was still at the crease. Unfortunately for the Emus this did not materialise as they only added a further 18 runs after the reintroduction of Khan into the attack finishing on 162 all out in 37 over. Baldwin was stranded on 52 not out of 86 ball including seven boundaries. Umair Khan was leading wicket taker for the WDCU XI with figures of seven overs, three maidens, 4 for 16 , closely followed by Aamir Gul whose figures were, six overs, 3 for 20, and Gavin Smith was the only other bowler to pick up wickets ending with five overs, one maiden, 2 for 23. The WDCU team fielded well restricting the singles but took the foot of the gas in the middle of the innings where the Emus batters took advantage of some loose bowling.

WDCU openers Imran Mughal and Muhaymen Majeed were given the task of getting their team of to a decent start, Mughal was hitting his shots well but perished LBW to Dan Cranitch who was bowling at a pace not often experienced by WDCU batters. Mughal departed for a run-a-ball 27. The WDCU batters were struggling in the face of some tight bowling from the Emus’ bowlers, and there was a lack of intent in taking singles and the strike rotation was just not there with the batters getting bogged down. The WDCU team limped along losing wickets until the arrival to the crease of Lucas Farndale and Chris Brockwell brought a bit of urgency to the game and increase in the run rate. Just when it looked like the WDCU team was back in with a shout Brockwell holed out with the score on 102 but at 6 down and 18.5 overs still remaining there was still hope. Unfortunately that did not last long, when Tom Lord, the seventh wicket, fell on 110, only 1 further run was added for the last three wickets. The WDCU XI team all out 111 in 34.4 overs, top scorer was Mughal on 27 closely followed by Farndale who scored 24.

A disappointing batting performance.

Spinner Scott Brennan was the pick of the Emus’ bowlers with figures of six overs, two maidens, 4 for 14, with seamers Dan Cranitch, Angus MacNeil and Ben McMahon all picking up two wickets apiece.

Man of the match went to Alec Baldwin for his 52 not out and Umair Khan was man of the match for the WDCU XI team for his bowling efforts of 4 for 16 and he was presented with an Emus tie from the Emus management team. Pete Clifford also presented Ferguslie Vice President Iain Glassford with a plaque to thank Ferguslie for hosting the game and their excellent hospitality. Finally a big thanks to the players of both teams and the individuals who played a part in the organisation of the game.

Sai Majeed, WDCU

Pictures courtesy of Bill Wilson