McAulay stands in for Gould as 3rd XI retain top spot and winning run

The Glens were looking to maintain their 100% record and had comfortably beaten these same opponents recently but were certainly taking nothing for granted.

Skipper Andy McAulay lost the toss and the visitors were immediately asked to take first use of a slightly damp but reasonably firm wicket. It was McAulay and Ross Mearns who strode out to the middle to face a father and son opening bowling pair of Jamie and John Reid and it was immediately apparent that timing the ball was going to be difficult due to the fact that the wicket was very slow and very low.

McAulay was first to fall when he played way too early at a delivery from John Reid and popped a return catch back to the bowler with the total on 11. Libin Thomas came out to join Mearns and this pair scored at a good rate, being watchful with the balls that kept low and punishing on anything that was there to be hit, until Thomas was next out LBW to John Reid for 18 with the total on 53.

Brett Wardle was next in to join Mearns and this pair's partnership was much the same as the previous one. With the total on 80 however, Mearns fell with his score on 35 when he was bowled by Deane, and he was closely followed by Awais Ali who came and went quickly.

This brought Graham Dodds Snr out to join Wardle and this pair put on an excellent partnership of 56 before Wardle fell LBW to Robertson for a well made 35. With further backup from new batsman Andy Muir, Dodds used all of his experience to end on 59 not out which saw the Glens post a score of 200 from their allotted 30 overs.

This was always likely to be way too much for a very young Watsonians side and so it proved. The Glens opening bowling pair of Richard Cox and Kenny Paton bowled very accurately with Cox in particular getting some prodigious in-swing to take 2 wickets from his 5 overs which only went for 5 runs. After 9 overs had been bowled, steady drizzle started to fall, so skipper McAulay immediately turned to the spin of Libin Thomas and Ross Mearns in order to get through some quick overs to ensure that the minimum of 15 in the second innings that would constitute a game were bowled.

This ploy proved very effective due to the slow pace of the pitch and wickets started to fall regularly, so after bowling 5 overs for 10 runs, Thomas was replaced by further spin from Muhammad Talha who took 2 for 4 from his 4 overs with his mixed bag of leg and off spin. These came from an excellent running catch by Gavin Howe and a thin edge to wicketkeeper McAulay.

By this point it was pretty much all over for the homesters, but not before Gavin Howe who had been brought on to bowl the penultimate over of the Watsonians innings, claimed his first ever ESCA league wicket as a result of a fine catch from Talha. Well done Gav. Andy Muir then finished the match off by taking the final wicket with a caught and bowled to leave Watsonians on 55 all out.

So the Glens 3rd XI go marching on and keenly look forward to next weeks' league encounter away at Leith who provided them with their sternest test to date earlier in the season. Maximum effort and concentration will undoubtedly therefore be required to keep the 100% record intact.