Now Jim Hill from Kilmarnock CC provides a report from the Second Division.

Like all other divisions, clubs in the Second Division enjoyed some excellent weather during the course of the season. St. Michael’s CC won the league with a couple of matches to spare.  Key for them, were the performances with both bat and ball of overseas amateurs Joshua Niemand (536 runs and 35 wickets) and Juan Martins (525 runs and nineteen wickets). They were ably supported by Christopher Brockwell, who had an outstanding season finishing with 410 runs and 30 wickets and also Thomas Holmes who finished with twenty wickets. The tussle for the second promotion place, between Kilmarnock CC and Hillhead CC, went to the final game of the season, where Kilmarnock secured second sport with a victory over Williamfield. Both clubs had key performers over the season. For Kilmarnock both Munir Ahmed (342 runs and fourteen wickets) and Niamat Ali (310 runs and thirteen wickets) enjoyed substantial all round seasons, whilst Tom McFadzean, Alexander Gibson and Waleeb Iqbal all took twenty-plus wickets. For Hillhead Shehroz Mehmood was in excellent form scoring 522 runs and taking 23 wickets. He was well backed up by Hasan Azhar and Paul Bartlett who both scored 300-plus runs. On the bowling front both John Ferguson and Jonny Howard took twenty-plus wickets. On what was otherwise a glorious summer, it was galling that both matches between Hillhead and Kilmarnock were lost to the weather.

Langloan finished fourth in the league and set a brilliant example of 2nd XIs competing toe-to-toe with 1st XIs. Top of the tree was the batting of Allison who scored the most league runs with 562. Stephen Allison also took sixteen wickets for good measure. He was well supported by Alan Stevenson who scored 300-plus runs. Drumpellier CC must have a pretty good 1st XI if these two can’t get in!!!  Victoria CC finished fifth, with Mohammad Chaudhry scoring 400-plus runs and Ahmed Haleme taking eighteen wickets and scoring 300-plus runs respectively.

Galloway CC originally finished sixth, but were deducted 75 points for a breach of league rules and subsequently came eighth. Patrick Druce turned back the clock showing the way with bat and ball with 500 runs and nineteen wickets; followed closely by Matthew Williams and Tommy McGrath who both scored 300-plus runs. Tommy McGrath also weighed in with the ball, taking 33 wickets.

Nunholm moved up to sixth with Andrew Reed and veteran David Davidson scoring 400-plus and 300-plus runs respectively. Albert Park finished seventh, Williamfield ninth and Anniesland tenth. Mention must go to Anniesland who undoubtedly found season 2018 a difficult one. However, they played with a positive spirit at all times and hopefully good times are around the corner.

There were sixteen centuries scored over the season with Akash Rawal from Wiliamfield topping the charts with 187. The other centurions were Gordon Shaw, Shehroz Mehmood, Andrew Reed, William Leslie, Niamat Ali, David Davidson (two), Stephen Carr, Waleeb Iqbal, Mohammad Chaudhry, Jamsh Iqbal, Joshua Neimand, Stephen Allison, Robert Huxtable and Graeme McLaren. On the bowling front there were fifteen hauls of five wickets or more, with Thomas Holmes producing the best figures of 6 for 14. The others with five or more wickets were Nathan Allison, Tommy McGrath (two), Russell Murray, Shehroz Mehmood, Trevor Newport, Christopher Brockwell, Raja Safder, Jonny Howard, lamb, Atif Ahmed, Alexander Gibson and Joshua Neimand (two).

Continuing our series of league reports from Cricket Management Committee members. Today’s offering is from Duncan Paterson of Ferguslie CC.

This year the Premier Reserve League was won comprehensively by Partick (West of Scotland CC’s 2nd XI) who went the whole season unbeaten winning all fifteen of their completed fixtures. This was an excellent achievement in a very competitive league and broke the recent dominance of Titwood (Clydesdale CC’s 2nd XI) in this division who had been unbeaten in the previous two seasons. Partick’s success was built on a really strong group of players who all contributed during the season with several of the team’s players finishing at the top end of the individual run scoring and wicket taking charts. It shows the depth of talent at the club that their victories were not reliant on one or two star players but a real team ethic. Titwood pushed hard and ended in second position and confirming that Clydesdale continue to produce fine young cricketers while Meikleriggs (Ferguslie CC’s 2nd XI) came third after narrowly avoiding relegation in 2017 – an excellent turnaround for the Paisley team.

Torrance House (East Kilbride CC’s 2nd XI) toiled hard with little luck this year and found themselves in the bottom two along with Deanpark. (Renfrew CC’s 2nd XI).

Shawholm (Poloc CC’s 2nd XI) and Whitehaugh (Kelburne CC’s 2nd XI) both finished comfortably in mid-table positions and with nine and seven wins respectively and will feel they had solid seasons with plenty to build on going into next year.

David Sturgeon of Meikleriggs topped the run-scoring charts with an extremely consistent season of 563 runs which included two centuries and a 99. Jamie Cook, also of Meikleriggs, topped the wicket-takers list with 34 wickets at just over 9-a-piece with his leg-breaks, and included a magnificent seven wickets for 10 runs against Whitehaugh.  Imran Mughal from Torrance House hit an epic 215 in their game against Whitehaugh which was the top individual score of the season. David Sturgess and Paddy Barbour of Titwood, and Russell Lauder of Whitehaugh, all scored in excess of 150 in a single innings this year, amongst 22 centuries scored in the division.

Well done to all the teams and players in the Premier Reserve League this year.

The Cricket Management Committee members are compiling league reports for the season. Here is the first of them from Greenock CC’s Peter Hempsey.

Congratulations to Ferguslie CC, Premier Division Champions 2018.  In what was one of the very best summers for cricket in the west of Scotland for decades, Ferguslie CC were deserved winners. Thirteen wins from fourteen matches completed and an 94.29% total gave the Paisley side a massive 20% winning margin from runners-up Clydesdale CC who gained ten wins from fifteen matches played. Ferguslie’s only loss was against Greenock CC at Meikleriggs in early June.

At the opposite end of the table, there was a tremendous battle fought out by Greenock CC, Ayr CC and Dumfries CC which went right to the last week of the competition and resulted in Ayr and Dumfries occupying the bottom two league positions.

During the season there were numerous very fine individual performances. Champions Ferguslie had the Premier Division’s top run scorer in Michael English who racked up a massive 718 runs, which included two centuries, with team-mates Elliot Moses (544) and Gregor Preston-Jones (477) also in the league’s top ten run scorers. For the second year running, Richie Berrington (Clydesdale) was the second highest run-scorer with 625 runs.

Poloc CC’s South African pro’ Jurie Snyman had the highest two innings of the season with a remarkable 209 against Greenock and 148 not out against Stirling County CC. And in a season where there were twenty individual scores of 100 or more, Richie Berrington (Clydesdale), Jimmy Sholto-Douglas (Overseas Amateur, Uddingston CC), Anwar Hafeez (Ayr) and Coenraad Nel (Overseas Amateur, Poloc) each recorded two centuries in the Premier Division.

Champions Ferguslie had three of their bowlers in the top ten wicket-takers for the season with Hamza Tahir (25), Haroon Tahir (23) and Jamie Carruthers (22). But the top wicket-taker in the Premier Division for season 2018 was Neil Flack (Greenock) with 32 wickets. Runner-up was Ross Lyons (Uddingston) with 28 wickets, while last year’s top wicket-taker Sachin Chaudhary (Prestwick CC) was third with 26 wickets.

On the very last day of the season Alan Davidson (Dumfries CC) returned the most outstanding bowling figures of the 2018 season with eight wickets for just 19 runs from eight overs against Ayr at Nunholm. Ross Lyons (Uddingston) and Rukman Hewage (Stirling County) each returned the excellent figures of 6 for 21 during the season, while Riyaad Henry (Ferguslie), Sachin Chaudhary (Prestwick) and Neil Flack (Greenock) each gained a five-wicket haul in a match.

Finally and definitely worth mentioning was the rare feat achieved by Stirling and Dumfries as they tied both matches in 2018!!

The Cricket Society of Scotland has published their winter programme for 2018/19. All members and new members welcome. Subscriptions remain the same as last year, i.e. £35 for a single membership and £50 for a family membership. Cost of attendance at a single meeting is £10 which is deductible from the cost of any subsequent annual membership.  Please see the link below for more details.

CSS Programme 2018/19

Hillhead CC are holding the Craik Cup dinner in November this year.  There are two great speakers lined up to entertain you.  Click on the link below for more details.  Please contact Richard Bond for tickets.

2018 Dinner

The first forum of the close season will take place on Sunday 7th of October at Shawholm. This will provide clubs with an opportunity to reflect on things that have gone well or not so well in the season.  It will also give us all a chance to consider how we can make our cricket better for the season ahead.

The Disciplinary and appeals page of the website has now been expanded to contain information on club appeals against CMC decisions. New to the page today is information on appeals made this season by Dumfries CC, Glasgow Accies CC and Galloway CC.

Ferguslie CC, the 2018 Western District Champions failed in their bid to be crowned Scottish champions in the final against Grange CC at Lochlands, home of Arbroath CC. Despite restricting Grange to a total of 184 for 8  in their 50 overs, the Ferguslie innings never got going and they slumped to 58 all out. Chief destroyer for the Edinburgh club was former Scottish internationalist John Blain with fine figures of 5 for 20 from his allotted ten overs.  Congratulations to Grange……well done!!

Congratulations to all the teams that came out on top of their leagues this year. The list is below, and also a picture of the First Division champions Drumpellier receiving their trophy.

Last evening another entertaining nights cricket in gloomy overhead conditions resulted in Ferguslie winning the PlayerReg McCulloch Cup.  The game, against a competitive Ayr side, was played at Glenpark and the Greenock club did a great job getting the game on.

Congratulations on yet another success for the Ferguslie club this season.