The 1st XI hosted Falkland at Myreside but damp conditions (albeit not rain) caused a frustrating delay to the start of the match, until 3.38pm. Falkland won the toss and opted to bat. Bowling first has not ended well for our 1s this season so far but here we made a much more promising start. Tom Wylie took the wicket of Falkland captain Jack Henderson for a duck and our own captain Gareth Weatherall took two quick wickets to have Falkland 46/3 and in a spot of bother. Sadly, after just 12 overs of play, there was to be no further bother besides another hour of waiting to see whether the rain that arrived would clear in time for a match to be resumed. It wasn’t to be, so our promising start could not be built upon and the match was abandoned. For the record, Will Ellison made his 1st XI and EPL debut.

Will’s erstwhile teammates in the 2nd XI at least had less hanging around to do – their fixture against Edinburgh CC at Campbell Park was called off early on Saturday morning thanks to a wet pitch.

The 3rd XI visited Dresselrigg to face high-flying Livingston 2s. Having lost the toss, we were invited to bat first in a game shortened to 30 overs in anticipation of the likelihood of rain. We lost early wickets to some good bowling, falling quickly to 13/3. Scoring conditions were difficult and while subsequent batters each made a start, wickets were lost at regular intervals, Watsonian finishing on 93/8. Sean Ridge took a wicket in the first over of Livingston’s reply and got their other opener to peg them to 31/2. Asif Rai, however, was the only batter to make light of tricky conditions, scoring 40 not out off 40 balls, helping Livi to the target for the loss of three wickets in 15.4 overs. Aakash Chauhan took the third wicket, his first for our 3s and his 11th in four matches so far, with a bowling average below 6 – keep up the good work!

The 4th XI hosted Edinburgh CC 3s at Craiglockhart and didn’t let a bit of dampness get in the way of a full 40 over game (had that been necessary). We lost the toss and were asked to bat. Matt Burgess was the unlucky victim of a major ‘TFC’, being run out without facing a ball and not getting a chance to bowl – next time Matt! His was not the only duck on the scoresheet as the table-toppers (ejected from Division 5 last year for forfeiting too many matches, re-entering the league in the lowest division) bowled well, each of Hafiz Zeeshan and Muhammad Hassan taking three wickets. Only Matt Lancashire seemed impervious to the peril, scoring 45 from 62 balls with seven boundaries, building his lead as the 4s leading run-scorer this season so far. With the help of 22 extras, we made it to 98 all out after 26.2 overs. With Edinburgh CC having two of the division’s higher run-scorers in their top order, things did not look promising. Our bowlers had other ideas, though. Aryaman Apte took a double-wicket maiden in the third over with the score 3/2. Debutant Jonah Till took the third wicket and Aryaman again the fourth, Toby catching, with ECC struggling for momentum at 40/4. The middle order held their composure and once Toby and Aryaman swapped roles for the fifth wicket, with the score on 67, a quite unexpected blizzard of runs was unleashed. Zia Khan scored an impressive 31 not out from 8 balls to wrap up the game for ECC in less than 20 overs.

So far, so dispiriting. Happily, Sunday brought both sunshine and the visit of touring team the Honourable Artillery Company CC. The HAC is a regiment of Army reserves, incorporated by Henry VIII nearly 500 years ago and with a home in the City of London, including the only cricket pitch in the City, close to the Barbican Centre. Cricket has been played at Artillery Garden since at least 150 years before the founding of Watsonian CC! We were delighted to host them at Myreside, Gregour Carr captaining a mixed Watsonian team. Winning the toss, he elected to bowl first in a 40 over match started early, at 11am, to make sure all could be fresh and in post for the final of the Euros. Daniel Bryen got an early breakthrough thanks to a catch behind by Bismillah. Thereafter, HAC batted well with A Cockburn making 38 (bowled G Carr), D Sherlock 22 (bowled Ollie Robertson), L Casey 50 (caught Robertson off Carr) and especially L Bax, who upped the scoring rate notably in his 65 (caught Bryen off John Dew). A very respectable total of 210/5 to be chased.

Our mixed team of batters seemed to bring the best out of lower-team representatives, perhaps eager to impress? An eventful Watsonian innings was well paced. Laurie Cox made 39, including a 49-run partnership with Kevin Singh who made 37. Daniel Bryen, man of the match once more against a touring team, following his performance against Settle last year, starred with 55 not out, ably assisted by a vigorous lower order, including Matiullah Yar making 24 of the last 26 runs to get us over the line with eight balls to spare, finishing 213/8.