Methlick 1st X1 vs Portcullis 18.05.2024
Finally, the first home game at Lairds for the 1st XI, and the quagmire of last month has been transformed into the lovely ground that we all love. A lot of dedicated work went into ground preparation this week and a lovely hard track promised a game full of runs as friends of MCC, Portcullis, visited.
Methlick 1XI
The visitors won the toss and put Methlick into bat, bowling accurately and finding some swing. Woodhouse got one that popped up and was caught at short mid-wicket for 3. Captain Smith, short of runs so far this season, finally got into his groove and played attacking shots to keep the scoreboard flowing, ably accompanied by Ross Moir. The score moved onto 68 when Smith was finally bowled for 34, and he was quickly followed by Moir for 9.
This brought last week’s top scorer to the crease and Mike Hordley continued in the form shown at the Links. Whilst he continued to play his shots Cordiner came unstuck for 4 and Haircut 100, Fraser Grant, dithered on taking an easy second run and was cruelly run out. With 6 overs to go Methlick were on 110 when Daniel Reeve joined Hordley, seeing him on to his 50 and both gave the ball a bit of a whack to finish the innings unbeaten, Hordley on 61 and Reeve on 12.
Portcullis faced an above par 164 for 5 as they started their innings. Accurate bowling from Grant and Butch Crutchfield pegged the batsmen back with Grant bowling Dawson with the first ball of his 2nd over. Further misery was heaped on the Portcullis batsman as Forbes was caught behind for 4 off Crutchfield and the halfway stage saw Portcullis languishing on 53 for 2; a long way behind.
And then the game started to heat up. The normally reliable first change bowlers of Moore and Hordley lacked their usual accuracy and Thorpe, Sharma and S. Horne, dealing almost entirely in singles, put Portcullis back in contention. Reeve had two very expensive overs for 24 and suddenly the visitors only required 5 an over.
Cordiner bowled some very accurate dolly’s and good fielding kept the dangerous Vijay away from the strike. One over to go and 9 runs needed. Cordiner kept up the pressure and the final ball needed 3 to tie. The ball was hit out to mid-wicket, a single was taken and a weak throw into Woodhouse behind the stumps from Crutchfield left the wicket-keeper sprawling but still managed to grasp the ball and demolish the stumps to run out Blackburn for Methlick to win by 2.
An exciting game played in excellent spirits gave Methlick their first win of the season and they hope to carry this into next week’s trip to Fraserburgh.
Saturday’s match ball sponsor was Corinne and Phil Cox in memory of Charlie Allan.
By Mark Woodhouse