Three in a row sees County up into third
Clydesdale latest victims
Stirling County made it three wins in a row to lift themselves up to third place in cricket’s Western Union Premier Division.
Promoted at the end of last season, the New Williamfield side were tipped to struggle in 2018 but they have confounded the critics by defeating last season’s champions Prestwick home and away - then on Saturday they took the scalp of secondplaced Clydesdale on their Titwood ground.
Batting first in glorious weather, County took advantage of the conditions to rattle up 303 all out. Graeme Taylor (49) and skipper Matthew Tweedie (68) shared a 78run opening partnership then 18 year-old South African amateur Brandon McMullen hit a quick-fire 69 - bringing up his 50 in only 28 balls.
Tom Jones, Tom Bradburn and last week’s 2nd XI centurions Ian Shaw and Akash Rawal all contributed towards the tally.
Ali Mubarak captured two early wickets and when McMullen and Bradburn grabbed another two to leave Clydesdale 54 for four, the home side were shattered.
Scobie and Ashraf added 59 but Jones captured them and from then on it was only a matter of time as County’s bowlers shared the wickets with Clydesdale all out for 198.
Jones took three for 31, Shaw two for 12 and Mubarak two for 22.
On Saturday, County welcome Uddingston to New Williamfield. Match begins at noon.
Match ball sponsor on Saturday was Iain Macdonald.
Tomorrow (Thursday), County meet Kelburne in the final of the 20 overs Murgitroyd Rowan Cup at neutral Shawholm, home of Poloc. Match starts at 6.15pm.
●Stirling 2nds made it two wins on the trot in defeating Albert Park (Weirs 2nds) by 197 runs in their Western Union Second Division match at New Williamfield.
Seven days after racking up 461 against luckless Anniesland, the side put bat to ball once again in reaching 301 for six in their 50 overs. Andy Carswell made 79 not out, Louis Ware (51) and Ian Wilkinson (31) with useful contributions from Fergus Martin, Vamsi Machana and Nick Gray.
In reply, Albert Park struggled against the accurate opening attack of Andrew Paterson and Jonathan Bowes.
The former took three quick wickets to demoralise the batting side, the latter took one for 22 in 10 overs before Chris Morton (four for 10) and Paul Bielby (two for 20) wrapped up the tail to leave Albert Park on 104 all out.
The win lifts the 2nds out of the bottom two in the table and on Saturday, they head to Glasgow to meet Victoria.
The Sunday XI made it a clean sweep for the second successive week with a five wicket over Kinross-shire in their latest Strathmore and Perthshire Union Development League match.
Stirling restricted their hosts to 140 for eight in 40 overs with two wickets each for Michael Phillip, Vamsi Machana and Stevie Nolan.
Machana (41) and Phillip (36 not out) then led the way with the bat helped by Andy Weir and Nolan who both made 22 as Stirling eased to victory.
On Sunday, the side are at home to Callander.