TO ALL CLUB SECRETARIES & OTHER NOMINATED CONTACTS

This is a “placemarker” to advise that the WDCU AGM will be held on Wednesday, 5 December.  The full notice and papers will be issued nearer the time.

In the meantime, a reminder that any nominations for vacant positions on committees, or any position up for re-election, should be made in writing (email sufficient) to Mark Colman and copied to the WDCU Administrator no later than 14 November.  There are likely to be two vacant positions, plus two others up for re-election (the incumbents are standing for re-election) on the CMC.

Mark Colman
WDCU Secretary

Clydesdale CC intimate that former club captain Scott Weir passed away last week. His funeral will be held at Linn Crematorium on Thursday, 18 October at 9.30am. Scott was an iconic player and an inspirational leader. A tenacious top order batsman he represented Scotland 26 times with a hundred at Lord’s being his career highlight. He played in three successful Scottish Cup finals and captained the club to Western Union league success in 1995. Scott was a highly decorated RAF helicopter pilot and will be remembered and missed by many.

The WDCU end of season forum was held at Shawholm last Sunday with 24 people representing sixteen clubs and organisations in attendance.  The forum was designed to allow attendees to reflect on the season past and identify what went well or poorly.  It also provided the opportunity to highlight areas for improvement and the chance for attendees to identify for the WDCU potential changes to bring about those areas of improvement.

The forum was interactive and gave everyone the chance to contribute in a safe and open environment.  All outputs gathered from the forum will be included in a summary document and shared with all clubs and organisations in the very near future.

Last weekend the family of the popular Clydesdale CC and Scotland all-rounder Con de Lange launched a campaign to raise money for The Brain Tumour Charity after news of Con’s condition was made public.  Con was diagnosed with a brain tumour ten months ago and it has been a tough journey for the well liked Clydesdale player/coach and Scotland vice-captain.

Since launching the Just Giving Page the family has raised over £8,900 with the community coming together to support the cause.

Sarah Lindsell, The Brain Tumour Charity’s chief executive, said: “Our warmest wishes and support are with Con de Lange after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

“We are so grateful that he and his wife Claire are fundraising for us to help us in our mission to defeat this brutal disease.

“Like Con, 31 people a day will be diagnosed with a primary brain tumour – that’s over 11,400 a year – and our five-year research strategy A Cure Can’t Wait aims to double survival within ten years and halve the harm brain tumours have on quality of life.”

There is still time to donate to this worthy cause and that can be done by following the link below.

Click here to donate

Livingston CC are on the lookout for an enthusiastic and energetic development officer to deliver their club development plans in 2019 and beyond.  Please have a look at the role attached below and If you feel you fit the bill please contact Paul Burgess the Livingston CC secretary.

Livingston Cricket Club, Development Officer Role

Continuing our offering of league reports. here is the First Division report from CMC member Sai Majeed.

2018 was one of the best summers for a long time, surprisingly there was still a number of games rained off, with most clubs completing thirteen or fourteen games out of a possible eighteen other than GHK CC who completed fifteen.

Drumpellier CC wrapped up the First Division title with a week to spare when their game with Renfrew CC was washed out. The strength of the Drumpellier team was their bowling and fielding as they managed to bowl their opponents out in every game completed, losing only their first game of the season, a low-scoring game lost by 2 runs to Stenhousemuir CC chasing 72. Left-arm medium pacer Darren Pryde topped the bowling in the division with a staggering 38 wickets, off just 107.1 overs at an average of 8.53, with his team-mate, off-spinner Mohsin Khan picking up an impressive 30 wickets in taking their team to the title.  Darren Pryde also had the distinction of having the best figures in an innings with a “6 for” off seven overs for just 12 runs.  There were five other players picking up “6 for’s”.

Early pacesetters, and favourites, Kelburne CC fell away dramatically in the second half of the season, impacted by their Professional being called up for international duty, and losing to the three bottom teams eventually to compound a disappointing end to the season for them.

East Kilbride CC, another favourite for promotion, were always there-or-thereabouts and clinched second spot even though they lost their final game of the season to third-placed Stenhousemuir who mounted a late challenge for one of the two top spots. East Kilbride’s strength was their batting, racking up some impressive totals – two over 300 – with a highest of 354 when they defeated Glasgow Accies CC by 240 runs. 2018 was a superb first season for opening batsman Imran Mughal who finished with 638 runs from fourteen innings, at an average of 49.08, with a highest score of 164.  He was closely followed by his skipper Moneeb Iqbal who managed 576 runs from thirteen innings, at an average of 52.46, with the highest score in the division of 180.

There was a three-way battle for the bottom two spots with Glasgow Accies and GHK CC eventually occupying these places on the final Saturday.  Glasgow Accies actually defeated GHK in the last game, both teams going in to the game requiring a win and a Helensburgh CC loss to escape the bottom two places.  Helensburgh did lose their final game after skittling out Weirs CC for just 49, only to be shot out for 47 themselves, but managed to pick up 9 points to escape the bottom two positions.

All in all, a competitive division with high-scoring and low-scoring games throughout the season, and a number of impressive performances with the overseas players all making major contributions for their teams, Rushdie Jappie of Stenhousemuir, in particular, topped the run-scoring charts with an impressive 707 runs from fifteen innings, at an average of 64.27, with a top score of 127. Rushdie Jappie also racked up 36 wickets with his wily off spin to, clearly, be the top batter and all-rounder in the division.  Ahmed Said of Renfrew, having led the run-scoring table for a while, was unable to add to his total in the final two weeks as he had to leave early, and finished on 637 runs – with the top average of 91 – and was the only player to score two centuries during the course of the league season in Division 1 (out of a total eleven centuries in the division).

Mohammed Umair Khan of East Kilbride, having led the wickets table most of the season, eventually took third place in this list with a well deserved 34 wickets, with his pace bowling.  Drumplellier’s overseas amateur Ryno Marais capped a fine season with 21 catches and six stumpings, with the gloves.

Stenhousemuir Cricket Club is on the lookout for a player/coach to take the club forward into 2019.  If you think you are the right person to help Stenhousemuir achieve its playing, development and coaching goals then please email Iain McDonlad at the email address in the attached job advert.

Stenhousemuir CC Player Coach Advert 2019 Season

This is a reminder that the first out of season forum will be held this Sunday at Poloc CC.  Clubs are reminded that they can send two representatives to participate in the forum. The session will allow club representatives to reflect on the season past, identify what went well or not so well and identify what they think are areas of improvement for cricket in the west going forward.

Please see below a poster for Ammar Ashraf promoting the forthcoming Tapeball League. Looks like great fun, so pull your team together, get in touch with Ammar and get involved!

More league reports from the CMC. This time Jim Murphy from Inverclyde CC files his Fourth Division report.

In a comparatively dry season (only thirteen matches lost to the rain), congratulations go to the division winners Vale of Leven CC. They lost only one match, an early season reverse at the hand of Bees, who finished a creditable second.

With the bat centurions were Sandeep Dhaliwal (Kirkstyle, twice), William Goan (Bute County CC, twice), Cameron Gunn (Inverclyde CC), Ilan Selby (Bees), Shakir Hussain (Glasgow South), and Tim Hart (Bees), whilst Ivan Lawrence of Vale of Leven CC had the top aggregate runs with 656.

With the ball Nikhil Koteeswaran (Bees), 5 for 25  Chris’ Holdstock (Hughenden) 5 for 9, Arron Richardson (Galloway CC) 5 for 13, Ali Khan (Hughenden), 5 for 31, Blair Dearie (Kirkstyle) 5 for 9, and Cameron Gunn (Inverclyde CC) 6 for 44 had best figures, while top in terms of aggregate wickets (21) was Ivan Lawrence of Vale of Leven CC.  It is fairly clear who the top all-rounder was in the division!  With the new points system in place for  this division and the return of the draw (eleven matches were drawn) the division was relatively competitive this season with the only slight disappointment being that  six matches were conceded.