Duck High/Low

Prize Giving

Adrian Saward Adrian won Two trophy's these included the Batsman of the year seen here and player of the year for the 1st XI. At the Aberdeenshire Cricket Association Dinner held recently, Adrian was awarded the Batsman of the Year cup, in the Aberdeenshire Grades Cricket League, Grade 2.

Colin Addison Colin won the Bowler of the year for the 1st XI, for the second year running.

Stuart Kennedy Stuart won Batsman of the year for the 2XI team, and as captain for the second team picked up the "Reid Cup", this cup was won in the final against the Knightriders.

Tim Duffy Tim won Bowler of the year for the 2XI team. Tim also picked up the trophy for the "Man of the Match", awarded for the match final game "Reid Cup" against the Knightriders.

Charlie Allan Charlie was awarded the "The Chemist Cup", for the 2XI Players player of the year. The cup is a new addition and was donated by Sarah & Neil Purdie.

Liz Shepherd Liz won the Club Person of the Year, this cup is given to the member, the club decides has achieved so much in the year, for the club.

Guest Speaker  - Doug Duthie

Auction Time

Raffle Draw

Finally

The Gala day held various events throughout the day, Cricket, Tug-of-War, Wellie Boot Throwing, Coconut shy, A large bouncy thing, a Bar, stall's where items of cricket clothing, tea shirts & hats and food could be purchased. Along with Lord and Lady Aberdeen who came along to visit us and one further event of the day the Duck race, the Photo gallery has had some photos added of the day’s events, so please have a look.
The cricket clubs who took part in the 7 aside tournament, included Caledonian, Ellon, Fraserburgh, Inverurie and Methlick who put in two teams for the event, the games started about 10.30AM in the morning and finished about Five with Ellon winning the Trophy.
Tug-of-War was another team event on the venue with all thc clubs taking part, with a few additional extras, Big "D", taking anchor point for the Ellon Side and for Methlick, Gary Coutts, who came in to make up the 7, and eventually the final was between Ellon and Methlick, Methlick won the first pull, but lost the second, however after winning the toss for the third and final pull, Methlick won the event. Unfortunately no photos were taken for the Methlick vs. Ellon Tug of war since the Photographer was in the Methlick team.

The Duck race drew most of the spectators to the Ythan to watch with great antisipation for the ducks to appear coming along with the flow of the Ythan river, and eventually spotted all these small orange/yellow things bobbing up and down as they approached nearer to the finishing line, where Phil Cox and team were on hand to try and stop the ducks from escaping down stream, not all were caught, but the first one to reach the line was No. 333, won by a member who won last year too, must be a fix! But all enjoyed the race especially the youngsters who also helped to pick up the ducks thrown onto the river bank by the team members and place them into bags.

The Allan Park wicket looked damp but the ball was coming nicely on to the bat as MCC opened with a strong batting line up. The score was moving along nicely when Woodhouse, pushing for a second run was run out.
Skipper Anderson, playing some attacking strokes, was then joined in the middle by Saward looking to keep his impressive scoring record going. The run rate continued to increase until Anderson miscued to a slow tempter from Dougie Anderson and was out for 31 with the score on 66. 
Murphy, Cox, Addison and Acton played supporting roles as Saward strode effortlessly past his 50. Whilst they all continued to struggle against the slow ball, the Aussie batsman demonstrated how to get to the pitch of the ball and tonk it back over the bowlers head. Any loose full- tosses were pulled for 6 way over the boundary.

Saward reached his century in short time and finally fell to Gillanders with the score on 170. The tail struggled to maintain the scoring rate and Anderson called a declaration with the score on 198 for 9 after 45 overs. After tea Murphy soon had Dougie Anderson in trouble. Surviving a difficult chance to young Grant Anderson,he was caught in the following over for 7. Dickie continued to play confidently an dominated the scoring until Milne was clean bowled by Murphy for 3.  A dangerous partnership then ensued between Dickie and Munro with all bowlers suffering, apart from a fine bowling spell from Acton who managed to find plenty of movement off the seam. All seemed well in control for Cults as the partnership moved towards one hundred. Brian Anderson then stepped up to bowl Munro with the score at 121.

With all the pressure resting upon Dickie’s shoulders he finally was given out LBW to Jack Chalmers first ball. Methlick’s bowlers then put the squeeze on the Cults batsmen with Anderson accounting for Harrish for 3 and Murphy clean bowling Fail. Addison came back on after a punishing first spell to dominate the tail. O’Brien and Gillanders both fought back with lusty sixes to take Cults within a whisker of victory, but Gillanders was bowled with victory in sight.

The last over came with Cults requiring just 5 to win with 3 wickets in hand. Addison had to keep his head and bowled O’Brien with the second ball. 3 runs were needed off the final ball and Golder only managed to squeeze the ball away and was run out to leave a thoroughly entertaining game drawn.

The fixture proved a fitting end to an unexpectedly competitive season.

This coming Saturday features Methlick Gala Day at Lairds with an entertaining 6-a-side tournament, stalls, barbecue and beer tent with the regular & popular duck race along the Ythan. This year also sees the proceedings continuing into the evening with a band playing in the Beaton Hall. Information and tickets are available from The Ythan View Hotel (01651 806235).

and 5 balls later J.R is out through early on a shot and popped it straight back at the bowler oh dear Captain Anderson now wishing he stuck to the field first rule and even more so 2 over’s later as he himself played a little flick of the legs and a hand appeared from nowhere  just like Inspector Gadget and an incredible catch and he too was a “Gonner”, MCC 2 down for 3 runs.

No 4 an old face who hasn’t been around for 7 years newly registered Nik Shellinberg none of the present players new much about him headed off to the crease and was soon playing a supporting role for Salward who was scoring with ease this went on for 26 over’s before Shellinberg finally fell to Bestwick for a superb 9 runs but can claim some comfort in the fact his partner was now on 78 runs.

Acton in next oh no sorry Acton out (  ) oh dear! another Methlick mid order crisis coming up and Super Salward wants some of it to as he pops one up and hes out for a brilliant 80 followed shortly by Chalmers, Anderson Jnr, Crighton Jnr, Anderson Jnr, yes there’s 3 of them with a total of 6 runs between them, by the way and finally Lewis all out for 120 a damp and very soft wicket takes its toll on the Methlick batsmen not a healthy score but maybe a little more like 150 on a decent wicket. Crathie helped by great bowling from Mick Bestwick 6 for 9.

Tea was had and as usual the pies were toasting hot and filled with everything from curry to veal and blueberry and a very portly MCC took to the field, 7 or 8 over’s gone and nothing doing Crathie were doing what we couldn’t do and scoring 3 off each over with ease before finally Salward got one to cut back and take an edge off McEwans bat and stand in wickie Captain Anderson or maybe more like captain fantastic cape and all flew to his right and caught with the finger and thumb of the glove brilliant catch maybe we have light at the end of the tunnel.

Bonus was QX/SD also managed a poor performing game against Cults Artisans so Methlick still hold 2^nd spot in grade two and could still manage a promotion in to Grade one , The question begs an answer after today’s performance is that the place to be . Hmmmmmm

Highlights
Crathie
Mick Bestwick 6 for 9
P Cunningham 57 not out
A Shore 46 not out

Methlick
Adrian Salward 80 Runs

Caledonian c/c at Duthie Park next week another tough encounter expected

Report by Brian Anderson 

Chalmers Junior lasted only 2 balls so new man to the 1stXI, Dylan George came in who had a few decent shots before being bowled for 10.  After informing Saward he only needed 3 for his maiden Methlick ton, Colin Addison came in and do what he does best- club some quick runs. After 46 over’s then a decent total of 221 for 4 with Saward carrying his bat for an excellent 108.

Maxfield struck early to take the first wicket & Murphy replied soon after with an LBW – the first St Ronald’s batsman to be given out that way for some time. A Grades appointed umpire makes all the difference! St Ronalds managed to accelerate away, well up with the required rate. Skipper Anderson rotated his bowlers searching for the wickets required to slow them down. B Anderson then bowled the dangerous Imran for 59. Addison, having been held back, took the bull by the horns , channelled his anger and took 3-19 to ensure St Ronalds fell short 210-9.

With Murphy settling in to his rhythm after his usual opening wide and Saward as economical as ever as slow start for the visitors with only 15 runs of the 1^st 10 overs.  After Murphy lost his line he was replaced at the top end with young Acton who couldn’t get his run up right coming down the hill and bowled 5 wides & a no ball! When switched to the river end however he settled down. At the halfway stage Inverurie were 67 without loss and would surely need to push on to set a good total? Chances were few and far between and Coutts in particular started opening up with some lusty blows. It took till the 39^th over before Murphy struck to remove Hadden for 54. He quickly followed that by taking another scalp, clean bowling Anchan.  Inverurie then took the extra over so Coutts could get his century, a nice touch by their skipper though it would cost them points. A fine inning by Coutts then left Methlick 215 to chase down.

With Woodhouse missing another game a chance to change the openers and “granddad” Addison opened for the 1^st time in a few years. Murphy departed for his 1^st league duck since early 2009. Obviously his earlier chuck up at the side of the pitch took its toll? Acton came to the crease and with Addsion gone –caught again- (he was also fined his match fee for clubbing the stumps on his way off) Saward entered the fray after taking all bar pain killing injections for a dodgy back. Once Morrison was taken off a succession of slow bowlers lobbing up balls allowed the 2 men to score freely albeit with the help of a few dropped catches. Both made half centuries with Saward outscoring Acton 63 to 58 and Methlick reaching a respectable 145 for 2 at stumps.

With Crathie taking full points in their game they have again leap-frogged us in to 2^nd place. Duthie Park is next week’s venue against Academy who are propping up the table.

Stuart Anderson

Saward, with his usual tight line, opened from the river end and got the danger man Saraswat out in the 3^rd over. With the 2XI's game rained off, Stuart Kennedy and Bryan Carr were drafted in and both bowled their full quota of overs. Stuart picked up a couple of wickets and Bryan “who could swing a potato” (Brian Anderson) took full advantage of the conditions and took 5 for 15. My thanks go to Jay for magnanimously standing down to allow Stuart to play and to Tom Acton for sleeping in so Bryan could play! A good all round effort in the field saw Caley struggle to 112 all out with a fine late knock from ex Brocher Liam Bowie of 49 not out.

With a few batsmen missing Stuart Anderson opened with Liam Maxfield and in a steady if not spectacular start before Anderson gloved 1 behind. Saward came to the crease and then left the same way as the skipper which brought Stuart Kennedy to the fore. 2 scoring shots before he holed out saw him go for 10. Addison, with his usual mixture of defensive plods and explosive swipes scored a brisk 21 before his defence let him down (again I hear you say!) Bryan Carr couldn’t repeat his luck with the bat and 3 wickets had fallen in quick succession. Methlick were now 75-6 with the tail exposed Caley sensed an improbable victory. Brian Anderson was on for the longest duck ever – 24 balls before scoring- played the most restrained innings he will ever have. Mike Bremaneson took a while to get going but a succession of good shots ensured that no further batsmen were required to pass the total. A very good knock by the veteran.

It was still not enough to lift us to 2^nd in the league but as no game next week things could still go our way and put us in the promotion slot.

Stuart Anderson

Woodhouse and Anderson kept the scoreboard ticking over until the former played at a late swinging ball from Singh and was caught at deep extra cover. This brought the swashbuckling Kennedy to the crease and despite an early LBW scare, the ball continued to disappear over the bowlers’ heads to the boundary. One swipe too many however saw him caught, again off Singh, with the score on 31 for 2.

Murphy then joined Anderson in the middle and started tucking into some loose bowling with Ashwin going for 14 off his first over. Bowling changes gave little success as a procession of the opposition attack were punished by both batsmen, and by the 30 over stage Methlick were going at almost five an over with no further loss and were beginning to disappear over the horizon.

However, Murphy, looking odds on for a 50, played an ugly shot to a ball keeping low and was controversially adjudged LBW ending a 77 run partnership. Hard-hitting Addison was next in and played an unusually circumspect innings, nudging singles here and there until Matthews had him caught for 12.

New signing, Maxfield, came in next and suffered his first duck for the club, again to Matthews who seemed to be alternating wides with wicket taking balls. He was quickly followed back to the hutch with another duck from Bremanesen, and when Duffy was run-out by his captain for nowt, a big collapse was developing. Anderson had barely reached his 50 when he finally succumbed, again to Matthews. Singh came back to mop up the tail with 182 on the board, when 220 seemed to have been on the cards.

After tea Murphy opened the bowling and the second ball to Derrett took an edge which was snapped up sharply by Addison in the gulley to give Methlick the best possible start. Singh played aggressively but the canny bowling of Duffy soon had his middle stump. Murphy then had Kanishk LBW with the score at 3 for 24 followed by another wicket from Duffy.

Murphy ended his spell of 7 overs with a third wicket and was replaced by Brian Anderson who took the 6^th wicket with his final ball of his first over with the score on only 35. From a perilous position for the visitors, a rearguard defence took the score on to 66 but Addison stepped in to deliver the coup de grace, polishing off the Academy rear-guard with a couple of wickets for not many giving MCC a win by an impressive 116 runs.

The toss lost, MCC were put in to bat. Straight away the bowlers were finding swing and bounce and it looked a bad day for batting. With the score on 4 skipper Anderson gloved a lifter to the keeper and was back in the hut. Woodhouse and Saward hung on grimly until eventually Saward started acclimatizing himself to the pitch and spanked a couple of cover drives to the boundary. With scoring becoming easier Woodhouse, over-confidently, drove at an over pitched ball and picked out mid-on, 2 down for 38. Murphy joined Saward to hint at an explosive partnership but S. Ali and Dheeraj, using the bowler friendly conditions to their advantage, kept the scoring to below 4 an over. Just as Saward seemed destined for another 50, he was dismissed by a sharp catch close in off S. Ali for 41. Addison, short of practice, only lasted 3 balls and suddenly a promising start had turned into 86 for 4.

Promoted in the batting order Brian Anderson, usually worth a few from a 10 ball thrash, was instructed to play like a proper batsman and did this to great effect helping Murphy along and easing the scoreboard past 100 from 30 over’s. Murphy was finally caught in the deep for 37 with the scoreboard on “Nelsons” (111). Maxfield was bowled after facing 12 balls, and Anderson finally went LBW to Bhatti for 25 from 46 circumspect balls. Bremenesen and Buchan saw the overs out and with the score on 143 for 7 after 46 over’s, Methlick were probably 25 shy of a good score. Given the conditions, however, this probably equated to 170.

After tea Murphy opened from the Beaton Hall end and struggled to control a wildly swinging ball and most of St. Ronald’s initial scoring came from wide’s. A reduction in pace then had the batsmen struggling to come to terms with the swing and bounce and movement off the seam. At the River End, Saward was bowling a fine line and length preventing the batsmen from scoring and it was a rising ball that took the glove of Hammad through to the keeper for the first wicket on 21. Three runs and 6 over’s later saw Saward’s second wicket, quickly followed by his 3^rd in the 16^th over with the score on 28. Only Imran seemed to be able to come to terms with the conditions.

Maxfield came on to replace Murphy and in his second over Ahmad top edged to the agile keeper for his first wicket for MCC. St. Ronalds were by now falling behind on the run-rate with only 40 on the board for the loss of 4 wickets. Saward bowled through his 12 overs with figures of 3 for only 13 runs, finally being replaced by James Buchan. A desperate defence saw St. Ronalds consolidate their position until after 30 overs, Addison replacing Maxfield, eventually removed Imran for 35. 3 overs later and the visitors appeared dead and buried as Buchan took the 6^th wicket with St. Ronalds still 63 runs behind. A seventh wicket went down as A. Roa was run out. S. Ali was starting to look dangerous as he began to find the boundary, but with 5 overs to go an apparently insurmountable 42 was still required.

Buchan then bowled A. Ali in the 42^nd leaving 24 required off the last 2 over’s. Addison was then spanked for 11 in the penultimate over leaving 13 to win off the last. The first 5 balls went for 8 but a maximum to win the game off the last ball was too much for St. Ronalds, and suicidal running saw the 9^th wicket go down to a run-out.

So the game ended up a draw, but a more exciting finish could not have been anticipated considering the earlier sluggish batting. Another tough encounter at Lairds next week sees Cults/Artisans as visitors and Methlick will be looking at maximum points to move towards the top of the table. Sunday also sees the first round of the Bon Accord Cup at Lairds against local rivals Inverurie.  - Mark Woodhouse

Murphy, with the wind at his back, bowled with good pace but struggled with the wildly swinging ball and anything loose was confidently dealt with by opener Dougie Anderson who pushed the scoring along at a brisk pace. At the river end, Acton, pace tempered by the wind, bowled a good line and kept the runs to a minimum. 

Cults opener, Thomson, finding life slightly more difficult than his expansive partner, was soon in trouble and a straight one from Murphy saw the umpires finger raised to bring up the first wicket for 20. However, back problems saw Murphy having to be replaced by Maxfield, who had shown big promise last week with confidence growing after taking his first wicket for the club.

It did not take long for Maxfield to get amongst the action and in his second over had Gourlay clean bowled. Three overs later the dangerous Gill was tucking his bat under his arm and trudging back to the hut after his stumps were sent tumbling by Maxfield. Three wickets down for 55 and now Acton and Maxfield started to turn the screw and made runs very difficult to come by.

With Saward coming on at the river end further pressure was put on the scoring rate, leading to Fail edging to Murphy at second slip. 4 for 74.  The next 8 overs passed by with only a further 3 runs being added, the only bright spot for Cults being Anderson’s half century. O’Brien finally succumbed to Saward with the score on 5 for 87 after 30 overs. Further circumspect batting from Munro couldn’t keep Saward out and was clean bowled. Anderson finally gave up the ghost and was caught by Brian Anderson, again off Saward, for an excellent 70. Some defiant batting from the tail was bought to an end with the return of Murphy taking 2 wickets in his final over.

Cults ended up with 141 all out thanks to a fine innings from Anderson, some quick runs from the tail and 26 wides, but without these their score would have seemed extremely paltry. A very good performance in the field from Methlick played a huge part in keeping the total down.

After tea Woodhouse and skipper, Stuart Anderson, came out and helped themselves to some easy runs from Goswami to get the scoreboard going. Everything was going swimmingly with a brisk, trouble-free scoring rate. Woodhouse, going for a second run, found his path blocked by the imposing figure of Gill behind the stumps and tried to run through him. The clash of the behemoths left Gill pole-axed on the floor and Woodhouse forced to walk, run-out for 18.

Saward came out to join Anderson and both tucked in to some friendly bowling and the scoring rate never fell below 4 an over. By the time Anderson was given out LBW on 39 most of the damage had already been done with a 90 run partnership for the second wicket having taken the score on to 120. Murphy came out to the middle to accompany Saward to his second successive half century and the coup de grace was delivered with Murphy dispatching the returning Goswami for 6 to win the game by 8 wickets in the 31^st over. 

Methlick’s second win of the season saw them leapfrogging over Cults Artisans into 3^rd place and Saturday’s trip to Inverurie see’s another table topping clash.

One of the openers was dropped twice in successive balls off Chalmers to gully  where Carr was fielding. Tim Duffy was bought on for the 9^th over to try and unsettle Knightriders with the score at 22 without loss. Opener Nishad (7) went on his 5^th ball clean bowled and then Rashid the very next ball for a golden duck leaving the over completed but Duffy on a hat trick. His next over up didn’t complete his hat trick but the 4^th ball saw the wicket of fellow opener Balaji (17) given LBW by the grades umpires. This left Duffy 3 or 2 after 2 overs. Captain Kennedy bought himself on to replace Chalmers but no wickets fell in his first 2 overs. Duffy didn’t take a wicket in his 3^rd over but Kennedy took 2 in 2 balls leaving himself on a hat trick which wasn’t completed but then the next over from Duffy he took 3 wickets having been on a hat trick again. This left Knightriders having lost 6 wickets for 1 run and the score on 43 for 9 after 17overs. Along way to go in a 40 over match. The rain delay for 15mins didn’t dampen the performance of Duffy leaving him figures of 12 for 8, Kennedy with 14 for 2 and Knightriders on 53 all out after 20 overs. There were no other significant scores other than extras on 7.

Tea was not taken looking at the sky and thunder in the distance in an effort to complete the game on the day. Captain Kennedy and vice-captain Carr took to the crease. Kennedy (9) was caught by Nishad off the bowling of Sabiel in the second expensive over leaving Methlick 10 for 1. The other opener Prashanth was economic with 7 overs for 7 runs, but no wickets. Knightriders changed the bowling frequently using 7 bowlers in all, Nishad being the most successful with 2 wickets but the first was in the 14^th over with the score already on 32. It was the second Methlick opener Carr for 9. Stuart Anderson took to the crease and scored 13 before being bowled. Murphy was left on 8 not out hitting the winning runs after French hit a six and was bowled next ball, leaving Mark ‘Glory hunter’ Woodhouse to face just 1 ball.  Mohan and Selva shared the other 2 wickets for Knightriders.

This left Methlick winners by 6 wickets to celebrate in the Inverurie pavilion. Man of the match Tim Duffy. Thanks to Robin from the grades, Inverurie for their hospitality and the grades umpires. Also to Knightriders for playing the game in great spirit. They have the prize of certain promotion to grade 2, well done to them on promotion 2 years running.’