The End of Month Lunch Club got into the spirit of fundraising for the Clubhouse defibrillator and raised an amazing £108 towards the cost last Friday!
The theme of the day was Royal Wedding, wear something red, white and blue and / or a hat… as you can see with our photograph, everyone made such an effort and thoroughly enjoyed the day.
Hammad Azam (RHC)
Cricket: RH Corstorphine 289 f0r 6; Stew Mel 86 all out
Altogether a comprehensive loss for the 1sts on Saturday when on a hard pitch and fast outfield RHC responded to captain Greg Ruthven’s invitation to bat by putting on a huge score at almost a run a ball. Pakistani professional Hammad Azam at no 4 top scored with 83 from only 62 balls but was well supported by Aussie Sam Flett (no 3) 77 from 93 balls and Elliot Foster (no 2) 68 from 83 balls. Altogether RHC hit 28 fours and 2 sixes. Stew Mel were never near the required rate and after reaching 49 for 1 in 11 overs only managed 86 all out in the 36th over. Next up in the league is Carlton on Saturday. Last Tuesday’s Masterton Trophy T20 match with Edinburgh CC at Campbell Park ended in an unlikely tie.
Golf: Grant Forrest had another good finish on the PGA’s Challenge Tour tieing for 7th place in the Czech Republic with rounds of 68,68,71,68 (13 under par) and finishing with six birdies in his last 10 holes.
Stew Mel 103 all out; Aberdeenshire 104-2.
Following a good performance at Ferguslie last Sunday and a T20 win over Edinburgh Accies on Thursday evening the 1st XI travelled to Aberdeen hopeful of a strong performance. Theses hopes were rather undone when Hayden Sweet was caught behind first ball of the match and another three wickets fell quickly. Michael Miller batting no 5 again did his best to rescue the situation with an innings of 38 lasting nearly two hours with four fours and a six but with Greg Ruthven the only other batsman to get into double figures a final total of 103 was not enough to trouble our hosts despite Shaylen Pillay also removing the opening bat first ball of the innings. The end came in the 22nd over with Aberdeen two wickets down.
This week’s games are v Edinburgh CC at Campbell Park, Colinton on Tuesday evening in the T20 and against Corstorphine on Saturday at Inverleith (1pm).
Former pupil Grant Forrest (24) came close to winning a first professional golf tournament on the European Challenge Tour this weekend in the Costa del Sol Matchplay 9 event in Malaga, Spain.
The first 36 holes of the tournament were played on a conventional strokeplay basis with the leading 64 players qualifying for matchplay with matches restricted to nine holes rather than the normal eighteen.
Grant qualified in third place for the matchplay rounds with strokeplay rounds of 70 and 65 and followed this with wins in the rounds of 64, 32, 16, 8 and a semi-final. In the final he played fellow Scot Liam Johnston losing the nine hole final by one hole despite birdieing four holes. A bogey 6 at the eighth hole left Johnston one up and the ninth was halved in par 3s.
Grant’s prizemoney of 22,000 Euros takes him to just outside the Challenge Tour’s top ten in the rankings. At the end of the season the top 15 win a playing card for the main European Golf Tour. We will continue to watch his progress with interest.
The annual golf match for the Peter Mann Trophy between pre merger former pupils of Daniel Stewart’s College and Melville College took place at Bruntsfield Links on Friday 18th May.
The match was played 12-a-side in Greensomes foursomes format with the “Mellies” retaining the cup by 4 1/2 matches to 1 1/2. Peter’s grandson Richard was on hand to present the cup to winning captain Bert Hutchinson while opposing captain Sam Malcolm won the prize for sartorial elegance on the links.
AUSTRALIA BRANCH ANNUAL REPORT : 2018
Our Annual Lunch was held on Tuesday 1st May 2018. The venue was Long Reef Golf Club, our usual location on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and the weather was, as always, perfect. The attendees were Ian Anderstrem, Nick Crombie, Ron Gardiner, Sandy Hinshelwood, and myself. We greatly appreciated Ron Gardiner travelling from Brisbane for our annual lunch.
Members and guests enjoyed excellent food and wine at the Kingsknowes Hotel in Galashiels last Friday for the SMCFP Borders Club Annual Dinner ably chaired by Douglas Stephen.
The toast to the Club coupled with the name of Principal David Gray was given by Liam Harvey, Headmaster of St Mary’s School in Melrose. There then followed an excellent account of their days at Stewart’s Melville from deputy head-boys Lochie Gunn and Jonnie Jackson before David Gray made his valedictory reply prior to his retirement in the summer.
David and his wife were presented with gifts in recognition of their long-standing support of the dinner and all that they have done for the School.
Thanks must go to secretary Finlay Marshall (incidentally no mean bagpiper!) whose tireless efforts ensure the continuation of this splendid little dinner.
The Cricket Club had a double header of a weekend. Saturday saw the visit on Premier League business of the highly rated Forfarshire side who included two of Scotland’s batsmen from the recent World Cup qualifying tournament. Batting first the 1st XI totalled 128 in 40 overs and despite removing one the aforesaid batsmen Craig Wallace for no score the other Michael Leask scored an unbeaten 47 not out to take Forfarshire to a comfortable win. On Sunday the club with two of the SMC school XI in the side travelled to Paisley to play this season’s leading West side Ferguslie in the Scottish Cup. In glorious weather and batting first Stew Mel scored 196 for 5 with outstanding innings from our overseas players Hayden Sweet (64) and Shaylen Pillay (54) helping us to our best score of the season. Unfortunately after a promising start for SM major contributions from the home side’s own overseas players enabled Ferguslie to pass our total with eight overs to go for the loss of six wickets – but a much better performance all round.
Past Cricket Club Presidents, Ross Wilkinson and Bert Barclay were the weekend’s match ball sponsors.
On Thursday evening at Inverleith (6pm) the 1st XI host Edinburgh Academicals in the T20 Masterton Trophy competition.
All Stars Cricket started again on Friday 4 May at Inverleith.
The Club now has 83 boys and girls registered and this is the highest for any Club in Scotland
Budding stars of the future?
Edinburgh South / Stewart’s Melville 191-5 (K Fraser 68no, K Whyte 55, I Lowry 14no, C Holland 13) Watsonians 51-8
On a glorious day at Inch Park the home side were a bit too strong for a plucky Watsonians X1.
Kathryn White and Catherine Holland put together a match winning opening stand of 68 and from then on it was really a question of how big a total could be obtained in the 30 overs. Katherine Fraser cashed in against the tiring bowlers with a sparkling 68 containing several boundaries and good contributions from Iona Lowry and Chloe Kiely helped us reach 191-5 in 30 overs.
In reply a nice catch by Emma Phipps off the bowling of Jessica Shaw dismissed Fettes girl Catherine Edwards and the remaining Watsonians batters found it tough against a very fine bowling attack. A 140 run victory was pleasing but sterner tasks lie ahead. That said I think it would have taken a good side to lower our colours on the day. It was really good to hear the thoughts on the match from our adult players and how impressed they were with our youngsters.
Catherine Holland had a fine all round game. Batting for almost an hour with Kathryn White was great experience for her and she showed no little skill in her fine innings. In addition Catherine bowled a couple of good overs and took a nice catch. As previously stated Jessica Shaw has a really bright future if she wishes. Her game awareness is good and she was the best bowler on show all day. Emma Phipps bowled 4 overs and bar 3 or 4 balls was excellent. Emma is a great member of the team and the older girls love her competitiveness.
It was a shame Emma’s mum Barbara didn’t bat as I think that will be her forte. Her enthusiasm in the field is also a great assett. Vailas Wrench also bowled 4 overs and gave very few runs away. Vaila has a really good action and will only improve. In her favour everyone loves a leftie in their bowling attack. It would be churlish to ignore the performances of Katherine Fraser and Chloe Kiely. Katherine is already a very fine all round cricketer at such a young age and Chloe is an automatic pick for our team.
Thanks to Kathryn, Hannah, Louise and Barbara for being so positive with the younger players and making our opening game in the Premier League so much fun.
