The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Shire suffer
Manno field men made to suffer at the Grange
All the opening cricket action,
Aberdeenshire failed to get their new season in the Eastern Premier League off to a winning start in Edinburgh where they were blown off course by a whirlwind half-century by a former Aberdeen player at the Grange.
Scotland player Gordon Goudie, a product of the Stoneywood-Dyce youth set-up, opened the batting after Shire elected to field and took the game to the visitors with a blistering 51, scored out of a partnership of 68, giving one of the title favourites the best of starts.
Worse was to come for the Mannofield men as the Edinburgh side piled on the runs, including a masterclass of batting from another Scotland international Preston Mommsen who weighed in with an unbeaten 78, enabling his side to reach 264 for eight from its allocation of 50 overs.
Chasing the big total on a cold, blustery afternoon was always going to be a big ask, especially in the first game of the season.
Despite a sensible knock of 31 from opener and vice-captain Kenny Reid and a painstaking 48 from Shire’s new professional Akshu Fernado, it was always hard going for Aberdeen’s top side. Encouragingly for Shire, youngster Lindsay Munro applied himself like a veteran at number 10, hanging around for a valuable 19, while higher up the batting new signing Ewan Davidson marked his debut with a solid 28.
Even when they batted, the visitors were confronted by Scotland players, not least in Neil McCallum who took four for 43, wiping out the middle order of the Shire batting line-up in the process.
Goudie was his usual economic self, bowling seven overs for a mere 21 and taking the wicket of his old Aberdeen friend Reid.
Shire captain Chris Venske acknowledged it had been a tough encounter.
He said: “It’s always a hard place to play.
“They have a great set-up and some quality players who chose to come good on the first day of the season.
“Any chance we had of catching them cold was blown away by Gordon in the early part of their innings.
“But there were positives, including a good performances from new boy Owen Davies who picked up two wickets.
“Kenny Reid looked in good nick and our new pro made his mark so it was far from a disaster.
“We’ll now enjoy two home games against Arbroath United and RH Corstorphine.”