Scroggie Park outfit lay down marker by seeing off Gordonians

The weather relented, the sun shone and the wind was freezing – but a full card to kickstart the Strathmore and Perthshire NEC was more than welcome.

Having dropped down from East Premier Division last season, it was expected that Falkland would make a pretty big impact on the league and on the opening Saturday they did not disappoint.

They bat ted first against AS I Gordon ian sat Scroggie Park and set the visitors a target of 224 having lost eight wickets in the process.

Ben Strachan slammed 81, Swapnil Rane had 3-40 but it was an uphill struggle for the Aberdeen side. They toiled to reach 127 and were all back in the pavilion after 33 overs.

Strachan was again the main man for Falkland with 6-20, well backed up by Ray Hepburn with 3-35 and there is no doubt the Scroggie Park outfit have set down a marker for the season.

Having travelled to Aberdeen, Dundee HSFP batted first against Mannofield and the 164 they posted was certainly catchable but the homesters fell 53 runs short.

Neil Elliot and Jason Haddon had three wickets apiece for Mannofield, for 18 and 29 respectively then Haddon, recently returned from South Africa, put together a nifty 40 but had little support with Dundee seeing off their opponents for 111 in less than 34 overs with Zaheer Rasheed taking 4-19.

It took Forfarshire 2nd 45 overs to put together 151-8 with Graham Garden’s 44 and 35 from Craig McConnachie amounting to well over half their runs with Ian Stewart taking 3-23 and by the 33rd over Meigle had the points in the bag.

Raju Gayashan had proved a handful with the ball and when he and Peter Drummond Jr smacked 120 between them – 88 and 32 – the six wicket win was a formality.

It took Strathmore 45 overs to reach 137 and Perth Doo’cot came close to falling short until they overhauled that in the 43rd over for the loss of eight wickets.

At Peoples Park, a young and inexperienced Arbroath side were all out for 64 in under 24 overs.

Jamie King’s impressive 7-27 was the main factor in Arbroath’s downfall and with Jan Stander unbeaten on 32, it took Stoneywood Dyce almost exactly the same number of overs to pass the total for the loss of two wickets.