Falkland maintain winning ways thanks to Cooray’s massive 122

Three weeks into the season and not a game called off in Strathmore and Perthshire NEC has to be some kind of record.

Nevertheless, even at the end of round three, a definite pattern is emerging of a top two and a chasing pack of three with a couple of current strugglers.

Falkland and Stoneywood Dyce lead the way and at Scroggie Park Falkland prevailed over Mannofield, although the visitors made a fair fist of a fightback.

Batting first, Falkland reached 210-6 thanks to a massive 122 contribution from Harsha Cooray but with Grant Jamieson skelping 75 for Mannofield as they reached 84 before the first wicket fell, more support might have made it an even closer contest.

The final 183 all out tally came in under 43 overs with Ben Strachan, making up for a minor batting role, taking a valuable 4-23 then Cooray completed a hugely successful afternoon with 3-21.

Stoneywood Dyce also kept their undefeated record with a comfortable 82-run win over Perth Doo’cot, who never really got close to the home side’s 180-8, a score which was thanks mainly to Jack Mitchell’s 74 and 42 from overseas amateur Josh Newton.

Perth managed to scramble to 98 with only two batsmen reaching double figures and with six wickets down, it fell to S/D’s Jon Grant to mop up the tail with the final four wickets for 36 runs to finish the Perth innings in under 39 overs.

It looked as though visitors Arbroath United were going to make a decent fist of chasing the Strathmore total of 198 all out in less than their allocated overs but the visitors’ lower order batting failed to perform and they fell 39 runs short.

Strathmore had Michael Shum’s splendid 83 well supported by Muhammad Shoaib’s 35 to thank for a big chunk of their total of 198 and but for some steady bowling from Jon Burnett and Craig Ross it could have been more.

Bryce Carnegie led the Arbroath charge but after he went for 52 Shoib turned it on with the ball to take 3-19. Craig McDonald chipped in with 3-23, leaving Arbroath still looking for that first win.

Having travelled to Forfarshire 2nd, Dundee HSFP used up all but five balls of their allocated 45 overs but put together a very modest 132. Glen Carnegie did the most damage with the ball taking 4-34 and they had Dundee in real trouble.

Rory Johnston is returning from injury and his 31 runs helped the home side to the target for the loss of five wickets and almost 20 overs to spare.

ASI Gordonians batted first at Countesswells against Meigle and were all out in over 31 overs for 152.

Swapnil Rane hit an unbeaten 56 having come in a number eight with the score at 108-8.

Alan Neave’s 3-52 topped the bowling for Meigle and top of the batting honours was Raju Gayashan whose unbeaten 54 helped Meigle enjoy an eightwicket success.