Shock Grange defeat leaves Arbroath and Heriot’s to battle it out for title

The Eastern Premiership title race will, as expected, go down to the wire – but not in the manner most observers had imagined.

In a penultimate weekend of high drama, Aberdeenshire put a spanner in the works by pulling off a shock triumph over Grange, knocking them out of contention. Leaders Arbroath squeezed past the awkward challenge of Glenrothes, with a win by Heriot’s over SMRH earning them the chance to snatch the glory on the final weekend.

Ironically for Heriot’s seamer Adrian Neill, their last fixture is against Aberdeenshire, the club he helped become champions a few years ago.

He said: “It would be great personal achievement to win the league again with a different team. But Shire have hit form, so they’re not a team to underestimate. So we will play our own game and hopefully current champions Carlton do us a favour and beat Arbroath to enable us to keep the trophy in Edinburgh.”

Neill added: “It has been a great season for us and that is all down to all the players standing up and taking responsibility in their roles.

“We have shown real fight when either defending or chasing a low score. The desire has never deserted us.”

Meanwhile, a potentially explosive day in the Western Premier title race turned into a damp squib as none of the scheduled fixtures reached a conclusion on another rainhit weekend. However, there could still be fireworks as the major issues at both ends of the table go down to the wire on the final day of the season. It had looked as if long-time leaders Prestwick might clinch the title when their clash with Clydesdale got under way at the Henry Thow Oval.

With second-place Ferguslie’s match at Greenock already abandoned, the Ayrshiremen knew victory would be enough to clinch glory and they kept themselves firmly in contention by restricting Dale to 191-9.

Scotland spin prospect Mitchell Rao was the pick of the home attack with four wickets, while Mo Awais scored a half-century for the visitors.

Prestwick, who have scored in excess of 200 runs in the majority of their matches this season, would undoubtedly have backed themselves to complete the job but their innings never started as persistent heavy rain set in.

The upshot is that Prestwick must travel to Torrance House on Saturday and beat an East Kilbride team who need to win to have any chance of staving off relegation. Defeat for Prestwick would open the door to Ferguslie should they beat Uddingston at Meikleriggs.