Doo’cot defend the Two Counties trophy
For the fifth Saturday of the season the weather intervened and caused the cancellation of a Perth Doo’cot Premier Division fixture.
The Fair City squad were lined-up to face off against Dundee High School on home soil before plans were scuppered.
As a result, League Finals day - held at Doo’cot Park on Sunday - became the focus as semi-finals and final of the Three Counties Cup as well as the final of the Two Counties Cup took place.
The Three Counties Cup is the competition for Premier Division clubs and the final was contested between Mannofield and Forfarshire, who beat Strathmore and Dundee High School respectively in the last four.
In the end it was Forfarshire who won a tight final with youngster Will Hardie taking the man of the match award.
All the home focus , however, was on the Two Counties final where Doo’cot 2nd XI were defending the trophy they had won in 2016. Their opponents were Stoneywood Dyce 2nd XI.
Batting first, Perth started steadily with the experienced Kash Khalil taking the anchor role as his teammates adopted a more attacking approach.
The arrival of Fawad Ali to join Khalil when the score was 68 for three after 13 overs was the turning point with another 61 runs coming from the final seven overs. Fawad scored 32 from 19 balls and Kash carried his bat through the innings to finish on 51 not out.
A total of 128 for four from 20 overs was always going to be a challenging total and the Perth bowlers did not disappoint.
Frank McGaffney and Musakhar Rehman bowled a miserly spell of six overs for 18 runs with McGaffney taking an early wicket.
However, it was the introduction of Ali Blair and Khalil that proved to be the deciding factor as they conceded only 30 runs from their eight combined overs while taking no fewer than seven Stoneywood wickets.
Blair bowled four visiting batsmen and had another caught as he returned fantastic figures of 5-12 from four overs.
Khalil secured 2-16 in his four overs with Blair taking two excellent catches in what was turning into a dream individual performance - and one which deservedly won him the man of the match award.
Stoneywood were well beaten by that time and ended their innings on 76 for nine to leave Doo’cot as winners by 52 runs. Captain David Armstrong picked up the trophy to end a long but fruitful day.
There is no cricket at Doo’cot this weekend as all three sides are away from home. The 1st XI are in Aberdeen to take on Gordonians tomorrow as the 2nd XI travel to Freuchie.
On Sunday the 3rd XI travel to play Alloa XI in the Division 2 West. Selection of squads this week will be later than usual due to holidays and a couple of players carrying injuries.