Portcullis continue fine start to season

Stoneywood-Dyce won the toss and elected to field.

Portcullis got off to a poor start, as is their wont, losing their first 3 wickets for 20 runs. Mohammad Bari in his first match for Portcullis stopped the collapse and gave good support to David Bowie. When those 2 fell, Simon and Grant continued to build and a good score was looking a possibility. Unfortunately both fell in fairly quick succession when looking set for a big score. Sony Bimal, also in his first game, and Jon van Heerden added some useful runs at the end and Portcullis finished on an almost respectable total of 150 all out.

Grant opened the bowling but despite bowling well didn't manage to break through. It was not to matter as Ed was in superb form at the other end. 2 sharp catches by another new boy, Martin Cottrell, gave Ed the first 2 wickets to fall and Stoneywood Dyce were in a similar predicament to Portcullis at 15 for 2. Stoneywood Dyce opener C Moir scored 148 last week and looked to be in good form again. As long as he remained Stoneywood Dyce would probably win, but when he was bowled for 62 with the score on 84, the match was very much in the balance. C Innes and K Rae batted well and moved the score on to 117 before Ed took his third wicket, bowling Innes. The Stoneywood Dyce tail was now open, and the end came quite quickly. Ed took 2 more wickets to finish with a career best 5 for 35. Mohammad Bari bowled well and took his first wicket and Grant came back late on to finish things off.

A fine win for Portcullis against a strong Stoneywood Dyce team. The match was evenly balanced until the very end, with the advantage swinging back and forth several times.

Special mention must be made of David Elrick. He was shopping with his wife when he received a call to say we were a man short and travelled back to Banchory to get his kit before coming to Duthie Park. He arrived at the same time as Sony Bimal, who had come along to watch and very generously stood aside to allow Sony to take his place.

A final mention should be made to Portcullis' other debutant of the day, our new portable scoreboard. How do some teams manage to get by without one?

Monday, 07 May, 2007