Weekend Sport – Cricket / Golf

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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.

Cricket Club – 1st XI at Aberdeenshire Sat 19th May

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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).

Golf – Near miss for Grant Forrest on Challenge Tour

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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.

Australia Branch Annual Lunch

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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.

SMCFP Borders Club Annual Dinner

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Finlay Marshall

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.

 

 

Weekend Sport – Sat/Sun 12th/13th May. Cricket

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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

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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?

Women v Watsonians at Inch Park

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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.

1st X1 v Heriots at Inverleith

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The 1st X1 took on last year’s League Champions Heriot’s on Saturday at Inverleith in the East Premier League.   Heriot’s won the toss and chose to bat.

After 33 overs the visitors were 93 for 5 having lost all their top order bats including star import Hayes van der Berg for 1 caught behind first ball of the second over bowled  by Tom Hilton.  Tom finished with 5 for 50 off 9 overs while Greg Ruthven in helpful conditions for his spin took 2 for 31 off ten overs and Hayden Sweet 1 for 33 off 9 overs. Pro Shaylen Pillay was our most economical bowler with 0 for 26 off 10 overs.  Remarkably Stew Mel in their reply had exactly the same score after 33 overs having recovered from the loss of four early wickets with Kris Steel (37) and Mikey Miller (46) plus extras (20) contributing the bulk of the runs. The strength of Heriot’s lower order told however achieving a final score of 214 for 9 while Stew Mel subsided to 118 all out in the 43rd over.

The positive was seeing Mikey Miller among the runs again. In Heriot’s innings Ryan Brown top scored at no 6 with  51 off 69 balls and was well supported by no 7, ex Edinburgh CC player, Qasim Ashraf with 18 off 31 balls and no 8 Sean Weeraratna with  22 off 14 balls.  Our former player Elliot Ruthven was listed no 11 for Heriot’s and didn’t get in.  There was no equivalent late order boost to the scoring from Stew Mel so no points from the first two matches against the two top teams of last year.

Ryden LLP were the sponsors for the day and the tea provided for the teams was great – probably the best feature of the day !

End of Month Lunch Royal Wedding Special

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This month, in honour of the Royal Wedding, we are asking our patrons to wear, red, blue and white and/or a hat!

We are also fundraising for a defibrillator for the Clubhouse at Inverleith, in the form of a raffle.  Some great prizes to be won!