Before reviewing the weekend gone, a quick look ahead. The 1st XI now has a narrow path to avoiding relegation which will likely require us to win all three of our remaining fixtures (at home to Meigle, away at Arbroath and away at Carlton) and hope that other results go our way. Should the 1st XI be playing in the ESCA Championship next year, there is a chance that there will be three relegations per ESCA division this year, to make room in the ESCA leagues. This will be the case if this year’s ESCA Championship winner is not successful in securing an EPL berth in the end-of-season play-off against the North East Championship winner. That ups the ante for our other teams this year, as securing their existing league status for next year may require finishing seventh or better. The prospects of that look fair for the 2s and 3s subject to decent results from the last two weeks of league action. The 4s are already in the lowest division, though if additional teams join the league in 2025 then Division 8 may be split and this year’s lower-placed teams will end up in a new Division 9. Lots for all our teams to play for in the coming weeks!

The 1st XI travelled to Goldenacre to face top-of-the-table Heriots on their home turf. We were pleased to bowl Heriots out, especially after their good start. Gregour bowled Matt Cross for 30 with the score at 82/1 in the twelfth over and Bismillah caught Lloyd Brown just shy of his century (96) off Gareth’s bowling in the twenty seventh over with the score at 152/2. Thereafter wickets fell regularly with no other significant partnerships. Gareth led from the front, taking 4/22 off 7.1 overs, and Ruk a very solid 3/30 off his 10 overs. G Carr added a second wicket (our old friend Dougie Voas) and Bruce Weatherhead fielded smartly to have Ryan Brown run out. Heriots finished on 220 all out after 46.1 overs, which felt a makeable target on an excellent deck. Sadly, our batting performance failed to spark with only Oli (30), Tom Wylie (41) and Salaar (17) making it into double figures. We were bowled out for 125, falling 95 runs short.

The 2nd XI hosted Marchmont at Myreside. Marchmont are in the danger zone, a place below us in the league, and were expected to be tricky opponents. Winning the toss, we batted first, and cobbled together 149 runs thanks to Xander (40) and Ollie Robertson (36) who rescued an otherwise disappointing batting display. This total would normally be enough to beat Marchmont, whose previous highest total this season was their 122 in reply to our 168 in the first meeting of our teams at Cavalry Park. Their innings started true to form with the first six wickets falling for just 75 runs, with Vikash’s 2/9 off his six overs being especially creditable. However recent recruit Jayesh Salgaonkar came in at eight and single-handedly carried Marchmont over the line, hitting 62 not out from 69 balls (9 fours and 2 sixes) including a 63 run partnership with the patient Karan Nagpal (6* off 23 balls). Marchmont reached their target with three wickets in hand and more than four overs to spare.

The 3rd XI had an especially frustrating visit to Penicuik’s Kirkhill ground, facing their 2nd XI, as a tight match should have been tighter still if the scoring had been more robust. Minor mistakes were made by both teams’ scorers which each counted against us and in the context of a close game left our captain later wondering what might have been. We opted to bat first and each of our top order chipped in with useful runs, though Penicuik’s Peter Kingsbury bowled well taking 4/29 off his eight overs. Our last partnership between Ben Hogg and Jonny Ramsay was especially productive, the two top-scoring with 25* and 27* respectively. We finished on 146/7. Penicuik relied on Michael Wylie (father of Tom, 26) and Grant Davidson (45) to do the heavy lifting and squeaked past our total in the final over with two wickets in hand and just five balls to spare. Caylin Pickett produced our best figures of 3/29 off his eight overs with five other bowlers each taking wickets

The 4th XI travelled to Meadowmill to play Tranent & Preston Village’s 5th XI. We were asked to bat first and put up a respectable 128/9 including 28 from Alan Borthwick, 24 from Chris Cox and 19 from Rob Newton. T&PV’s chase was greatly helped by an extravagant 33 extras, of which 28 wides, comfortably out-pacing their top scorer on 21. Best bowling figures of the day were claimed by youngster Ethan Haire, 2/23 off eight also being his best of the season.