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On Sunday Ellon moved to the Barrow Cricket Club, the area champions, expecting another hard game.  Barrow elected to bat saying they needed some batting practice.  They started well taking the score up to 39 before Hayden Barrett caught  I. Kermode off the bowling of Steve Anderson.  The big shock for Barrow was a magnificent catch taken by Jonathan Barrett in the deep long on position off the bowling of Steve Anderson.  However, this brought in Barrow’s West Indian professional and one-day International, Raul Lewis.  His opening shot was a pulled six to square leg.  He looked as though he was going to tear Ellon’s bowling apart but Stephen Reid caused him some difficulty with some fine pace bowling.  Lewis had only accumulated 12 runs when he tried to cut Jonathan Barrett’s leg spin giving Andy Churchill a sharp slip catch.  M. Hughes and D. Park began to score freely until Jonathan Barrett had Hughes stumped by his father Hayden Barrett and then ran out Parker with a direct hit on the stumps.  (Incidentally Sam Barrett was fielding at third man making up the three generations of Barrett’s on the field).  After that there was not much resistance and the bowling of Scott Middleton and Chris Watson finished off the Barrow innings – the final catch being in the deep by Kenny Hutcheson off Charlie Reid.  The catch being matched by the celebration dance in front of the clubhouse.  This was a much better fielding performance by Ellon and some good catches were held.  However, there were still some silly mistakes and dropped catches so there is a lot of work to do if they want to perform well in Aberdeenshire Grade 1 this season.

When Ellon began their innings it was affected by an unfortunate run-out.  Charlie Reid was the victim.  Jonathan Barrett and Scott Middleton scored freely with some excellent drives.  Middleton hit five consecutive fours in his swash buckling innings of 63.  Barrett contributed 36 and together they had set the scene for Ellon to gain an excellent win over a surprised opposition.  Stephen Reid completed the rout with a well-struck 18 not out passing Barrow’s total in the 30th over.

The weekend was a good bonding experience for the Ellon players with the chance to show off their skills in first class conditions.  Now they need to concentrate on the softer slower wickets of Aberdeenshire and brush up on their fielding and catching.

Thanks go to Steve Anderson for organising the tour and to Penna Consultancy Ltd for their sponsorship.

Hayden Barrett, MBE.