Stewart Oliver, you are missed. He deserves a break but our eager readers have missed his comprehensive and informative match reviews while he's away on holiday. Below, a whistle-stop review of weeks 8 and 9 of league action and a stock-take at the halfway mark of league campaigns.

Our 1st XI have struggled against strong opposition in the EPL the last two weeks, losing by 174 runs away to Grange and by 75 runs at Myreside to Forfarshire. Grange's internationalists Chris Greaves (125) and Dylan Budge (109) put our bowlers to the sword as we conceded 368/8 at Portgower Place, the third highest total scored against the club in its history, the two higher totals occurring in the 1880s! Oli Hairs' 77 and contributions from Mike Carson (33), Ben Jones (26) and Andrew Brock (23) weren't enough to get close. Another Scotland international, Michael Leask, led the scoring for Forfarshire, making 78 off 75, assisted by Jack O'Neill with 65 and contributions throughout the order to get Forfs to 302/9 off their 50 overs in week 9. Oli continued his good form, making 63 off just 33 balls, but Dougie Voas top-scored with 74. Gregour Carr (26) and Zach Place (18) were the only other batsmen to make it into double figures as we ended short on 227ao after 45 overs. Leask took four of the wickets and O'Neill two. At the halfway mark, Watsonian are eighth in the 10-team EPL, in a pack of five clubs adrift of the top but clear of laggards Falkland and Arbroath. Oli leads the EPL in runs scored with Andrew Brock currently in sixth place. Oli also leads our wicket-taking.

Our 2nd XI have also suffered two defeats in weeks 8 and 9, dropping them from the top of Division 1 to third place at the halfway mark. These results have come against the current top and second-placed teams, Edinburgh South and Dunnikier, showing that we’re very much in the hunt for promotion but will face stiff competition for a coveted top-two spot. Against Dunnikier at Myreside, our top 3 made a solid start with Rory High top-scoring with 51 but from 102/3 only the Jake Amis and Fraser Kinloch partnership contributed significantly (32 runs) towards our eventual total of 152. Dunnikier chased the target down inside 28 overs with Julian De Jager carrying this bat on 64. At Inch Park the following week, we were pleased to restrict Edinburgh South to 207ao, a total significantly aided by former Scotland batter and Clydesdale captain Qasim Sheikh’s knock of 69. That was ended by Ollie Robertson, the pick of our bowlers with 4/27 off 9 overs including 3 maidens. Abdul Bukhari continued his good form taking 3 wickets. Our reply started well with Jake Amis partnering Rory High (33) for 44. From that point on, and particularly when reputed Pakistan first class bowler Mir Hassan joined the attack, things went downhill. Hassan’s pace and accuracy undid our middle order, explaining why he is the league’s top wicket-taker. He finished with 5/15 off 8 overs including 5 maidens with only Ollie Robertson, our player of the match, managing to get him away. Ollie top-scored with 42 and took us from 70/9 to a more respectable 117ao. Rory High is our leading run-scorer with 286 from 8 matches at an average of 36, Dougie Voas only 7 runs behind despite having only played three times for the 2nd XI! Captain Alan Sievewright is our top wicket-taker with 16 so far, in fifth place in the division.

The 3rd XI’s mixed fortunes have continued with the last two weeks seeing a defeat at Peffermill to Edinburgh Uni Staff and a welcome home win against Holy Cross. Angus Cousin’s return since week 6 has been a welcome strengthening of our batting line-up, scoring 40 against Edinburgh Uni Staff and an excellent 92 against Holy Cross to follow up his 50 from week 7. He’s obviously showing our youngsters the ropes with schoolboy Finlay Blackstock joining in the 6-hitting in week 8, clearing the ropes twice. Despite these efforts we fell 24 runs short in our chase at Peffermill. However our bowlers stepped up at Craiglockhart to defend our 152ao with Jonathan Potton taking 5/35 off his 7 overs and Jonny Ramsay 3/12 off 8 including 3 maidens helping limit Holy Cross to 144/9 in their 40 overs. We sit a rather uncomfortable eighth in Division 4 and will hope to push on over the summer. Despite only having played four matches, Cousin is in second place in league runs scored (207). Potton’s 15 wickets so far put him at number three in the league.

The 4th XI also won one, lost one this fortnight, beating Bass Rock 2s by 19 runs and losing to MDAFS 4s by 92 runs, the home team winning on each occasion. Adam Dickinson (37) and Ally Morton (24) made their top scores of the season so far against Bass Rock as did Louis Ferguson and Duncan Bell, though the latter two topped their own bests against MDAFS the following week making 29 and 24 respectively. Louis took 4/27 off 8 including a maiden against Bass Rock with fellow schoolboy Alex Turner taking 3/45 off 8 in the MDAFS game. Senior players Alan Borthwick (32 – runs, not years) and Toby Tucker (36) were among seven double-digit scorers in the MDAFS game though their total of 275 proved a little too much for us to chase. Geoff Mawdsley with 221 is our current leading run-scorer, fifth in the division, aided by his excellent 134 against Marchmont 3s. Alec Fair tops our bowling stats with 13 wickets to date including two 4-fers, placing him third in the division. We are currently battling to avoid the wooden spoon in Division 7 but are assured of our place for next season.

One piece of excellent news for all our players so far has been that all teams have played all nine scheduled fixtures this season to date – long may the weather gods be with us!

Look out for a cup update soon (hint – going great so far!) and a review of the Women’s Premier League campaign once that wraps up after tomorrow’s home fixture against Dumfries/Galloway.