Portcullis win over an impressive Stonehaven 2nds.

Match Five of Portcullis’s Grade Four season saw them once again draw swords against a useful Stonehaven 2nds side. The previous week saw Portcullis squeeze past the Stonehaven side in their Johnston Rosebowl Quarter Final match at Mineralwall Park. This week, although Portcullis’s home fixture, was played at Sheddocksley One as Duthie Park is out of action for the month of June.

Portcullis Skipper Dave Mitchell continued his good form with the coin as his counterpart, Dave Long Snr called incorrectly and, as a result was asked to bat.

Stonehaven started the match with nine players. At one point it should have been eleven. Portcullis had 12 and were going to loan Stonehaven a player (a rule exclusive to Grade Four in order to reduce the scratching of fixtures) whilst Stonehaven had ten originally. Both teams had a player call off late so it meant that Stonehaven 2nds would start with nine.

Even with nine they would still make things tough.

With Farooq absent, Mitchell chose the impressive Mundin to open the bowling with him. For Stonehaven their batting would be opened by the impressive pairing of Louw and Subramanian.

It was Portcullis who struck first early doors. Mitchell bowling Louw whilst Mundin was to do for Subramanian by the same form of dismissal.

The Portcullis pair continued probing for openings but the new pairing of D. Willesdon and D. Long Snr proved to be more resilient than the previous pair.

The pair soon took the score past 50 before Portcullis struck again. Mitchell rested himself and Mundin by introducing the pairing of Shovon Mostofa and Jesse Walmsley.

The pair, like Mitchell and Mundin before them, found the taking of a crucial third wicket extremely difficult as the pairing of Willesdon and Long Snr continued to impress.

It took something special to capture the third Stonehaven wicket and it came in the, some would say, unlikely looking figure of newbie Andy Philip.

Andy, a new player to this club, is one of those cricketers who can be the most dangerous. Wearing a khaki green hat folded up at the front looking more suited to a fishing trip and on occasions looking uncomfortable in the field, he can be discarded by some wrongly as a weak link.

Far from it!

The pairing of Long Snr and Willesdon were given due warning when a streaky single against Philip resulted in a narrow run won for the Stonehaveners.

They should have taken note!

They did not!

Another dodgy single saw the pair take on Andy Philip once too often and a lightening pick up and release combined with a direct hit saw the unfortunate Willesdon run out for a well-made 19.

Stonehaven 2nds 73-3.

Skipper Dave Long Snr was joined at the crease by Andy Wilson. The new batsman continued in the flow of Willesdon previously and the pair continued to bat impressively.

In the meantime Portcullis found that the usual dependable off-spin of Jesse Walmsley had gone awry. There was a cold gusty wind going across the Sheddocksley wicket and it seemed to have a negative effect on the reliable New Zealander’s bowling. The pairing of Long Snr and Wilson were having no trouble picking up runs from the Green Caps Kiwi.

This was to cause problems for the City Centre Green Caps. Although Mundin had bowled well from that end, he had only had four overs left and those were to be kept back till the end.

It was moments like these is where Mitchell is inspired with his Captaincy. He threw the ball to Falconer to see if he could contain the pairing of Long Snr and Wilson.

As negative an effect the wind had on Walmsley’s bowling had a positive effect on Falconer’s. From when Falconer’s first ball started around off stump and finished as an off side wide, Falconer was comfortable with the conditions. Falconer found he was getting so much drift and swing he was aiming at the heels of the batsman’s boots! With the aid of the strong gusting wind Falconer was soon found difficult to score against. With this Mitchell had regained control at that problematic end.

Wilson and Long Snr took their score into three figures. Falconer continued to bowl tightly against the attacking pairing and producing a couple of chances as well. In the meantime Mitchell had bowled himself, Mostofa and Walmsley at the other end.

Falconer’s troubling bowling soon produced a deserved wicket for the ginger maestro when he got Long Snr to mistime one drive too many and he was well caught by Walmsley at mid-off for an excellent 49. Long Snr was a tad unlucky as his performance merited a fifty.

Falconer struck again soon after when an ill-judged charge down the wicket saw Wilson stumped. Wicketkeeper Simon Winstanley completing an excellent stumping from a Falconer banana ball. Wilson departing to the sidelines with an impressive 38.

The wind was a terrific aid to Falconer. Bowling it correctly saw him swing/drift it at an alarming rate. However his inconsistency aided him as he could not do this on every ball. It made him naturally mix up his deliveries and difficult to ‘pick’.

Mostofa, bowling at the other end, managed to pick up the wicket of Law whilst Falconer got his third wicket bowling Hill with another ball that swung back from outside leg to hit the top off leg stump.

With a dogged 16 not out by Donnelly, Stonehaven finished their innings on 145-7. Skipper Dave Long Snr finished with 49 whilst Andy Wilson made an impressive 38. Phillip’s victim Willesdon scored 19 whilst Donnelly finished on 16 not out.

For Portcullis it was the unusual situation of Falconer leading the way with the bowling taking 3-41 from 11 straight overs. Not bad for a clinically obese ginger at 48! Normally his wickets are tinged with a smattering of jamminess but today was not one of those days.

If you serve up enough pies…

The other wickets were shared by Mundin (1-19), Mitchell (1-25), and Mostofa (1-28) whilst the most impressive of all was Andy Philips direct hit for the run-out.

After some welcome tea it was time for Portcullis to reply to the Stonehaven innings. Portcullis went for Falconer and Walmsley to open the batting. For Stonehaven the bowling attack would be shared by Willesdon and Subramanian.

First blood went to Stonehaven when Willesdon bowled Falconer with a corker of an inswinger from the last ball of the over.

Portcullis 1-1.

Skipper Mitchell joined Walmsley at the crease and soon imposed himself on the game. Leading from the front Mitchell soon stuck into the Stonehaven bowling.

He had the perfect partner in Walmsley. Seeing Mitchell being positive, Walmsley was quite content to play second fiddle. With Mitchell spraying the ball to all parts of the boundary, Walmsley saw fit to give as much of the bowling to his skipper as possible whilst he naturally stuck to his own playing style and played himself in.

During the partnership’s second wicket stand of 55, one of the Stonehaven fielders saw fit to jokingly say that Walmsley was ‘scared’ of the bowling and kept avoiding the strike.

In all honesty, the remark was always jocular rather than hostile. It really was not that type of match. Both teams play in good spirits and comments made were always banter rather than malicious. Often comments were made in good humour in which both teams appreciated the joke.

We were all in on it!

Mitchell soon went when he was caught form the bowling of Subramanian for a quick-fire 38.

Portcullis 56-2.

Andy Philip, fishing hat and all (I love individuality and eccentricity!) joined Walmsley at the crease. Philip soon proved he was no mug with the bat either as he helped Walmsley with a third wicket partnership of 86. Philip playing anchor-man whilst Walmsley, having seen the demise of Mitchell, started going through the gears. He pinged the ball to all parts of the ground including two splendid sixes over deep mid-on. The partnership took Portcullis to 142 before Philip went for a decent 11, trapped lbw.

Portcullis stalwart Dave Forbes joined Walmsley at the crease and hung around long enough to help Walmsley secure the victory for the Portcullis side.

In the end it will be recorded as a seven wicket victory for Portcullis. Figures can be misleading though. Stonehaven 2nds, nine players and all, put up an impressive battle. I hope they take pride from that performance. They have some excellent players combined with youngsters who are cutting their teeth in the grades. I am hopeful they continue to progress in this manner and continue to bring on those youngsters. Only fools will underestimate them. I have already been foolish enough at times in my life without having to unnecessarily to add to that!!

All in all, despite the weather a rather splendid game of cricket!

PORTCULLIS MAN OF THE MATCH.

It goes to JESSE WALMSLEY. His splendid 76 not out took the Green Caps home to an important victory.

PORTCULLIS MOMENT OF THE MATCH.

ANDY PHILIP with that brilliant run-out. It took some wind out of the Stonehaven 2nds sails. Without it Stonehaven could have went onto 200+ which would have been difficult to chase down.

STONEHAVEN MAN OF THE MATCH

Skipper DAVE LONG SNR takes the plaudits with his leading from the front 49. There were other impressive performances from Andy Wilson, R. Subramanian and D.Willesdon.

Tuesday, 16 June, 2015