1st XI v St Mary's

Eventually, after taking a bit of a scenic route, the Belhaven Hill 1^st IX arrived in Melrose to play St Mary’s – despite their being on half term – in an interesting, limited overs match.   O. Farr won the toss and asked St Mary’s to bat on a good wicket. After six balls this seemed to be the correct decision when G. Younger bowled his man. The initial euphoria wore off after a while as the St Mary’s boys dug in and ran well between the wickets. For a while it looked as if St Mary’s were in charge but eventually, a change in the bowling brought success when O. Farr took two, vital wickets in his second over and then Gordon Cumming took one in his first over. This was followed, four overs later, by two wickets in two balls – a run out and then a fine ball by Gordon Cumming to bowl his man.   With St Mary’s on 52 for 6, it looked as though their innings would soon be wrapped up. Not so. After the spell of good, accurate bowling, things began to slip and the tailenders managed to edge and slash their way towards a respectable total. This was helped by an inordinate number of wides and errant balls. Wickets did fall however – Wright took two and then there was a run out to finish things off. St Mary’s left the field with 91 runs on the board. I would have been pleased with this at before the match, but I did feel that we had let the game slip a bit and I just hoped that we would not regret it.   Click here for stats and averages   The Belhaven Hill innings got off to a poor start when O. Farr was out for a duck in the third over, prodding one back to the bowler. His brother was to go out the same way, five overs later – though not before he had smacked the ball around a bit for 17 runs. Harley, at number three, received a perfect, swinging Yorker which proved too good for him and all of a sudden Belhaven Hill were on 36 for 3.   At this point G. Younger came to the crease and he played some fine shots to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Brooks, one of the openers, continued to hold up his end and provide some stability to the innings. Some erratic bowling and missed balls that ran to the boundary, made the job easier for the batsmen and the score seemed to race to, and then past, the St Mary’s total. In the end, the winning runs were scored with 7 wickets in hand and with 11 overs remaining. A convincing win.   While at St Mary’s, I expressed my disappointment with some aspects of the team’s time in the field – perhaps I was a bit harsh, after all, to dismiss a capable side such as St Mary’s for 91 was a decent achievement. I was disappointed with some of the dismissals but I was pleased with Younger’s fine innings and delighted with the fantastic innings of Brooks who batted for 70 minutes for his 10 runs and held the side together.   Well done boys, this was another good victory – I would never have heard the end of it from Mr Harvey if we had lost.       Result   Match won by 7 wickets.   Man of the match: Hewie (Author: William Townshend)

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