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Battling Barrett Makes Queens Cross!
By Cav the Cricketing Correspondent
On a fine day at the Gordon Park Ellon Gordon Penna Cricket Club put their poor run of form behind them with a hard fought win against relegation strugglers Queens Cross. The architect of the win was the ever brilliant Jon Barrett, who added another century to his list of achievements for the only local Grade One side.
Skipper Middleton returned to familiar territory by losing the toss and being asked to bat first on a hard wicket. Given the batting friendly nature of the pitch this was not seen to be too big a disadvantage and the Ellon openers of Churchill and Anderson took to the field with quiet confidence. This air of optimism was such that Middleton, batting four, set off to Aberdeen to pick up a missing team member. To his horror he received a telephone call 20 minutes later requesting that he “hurried up”, as the Queens Cross attack of Taylor and Jamieson had made early inroads into the Ellon batting line up and he was in danger of batting 10. The first wicket fell in the 4th over when Jamieson removed Churchill with a superb delivery with the score on 8. Anderson was next to go, after giving Jamieson a simple return catch, in the tenth over for 13, and then two balls later Reid followed after not troubling the scorer. Ellon were now reeling at 8 for 3 and looked in danger of repeating their last home innings of 63, especially with Middleton somewhere around Balmedie. However, next man in Watson defied all expectations, and form, by helping to rescue the situation. Watson and Barrett, who had been watching the wickets fall from the non-strikers end, set about the Queens bowlers and added over 80 runs to the total in 16 overs. When Watson eventually fell, he had scored a chanceless 36 and Barrrett was cruising to the 50 mark. Middleton, newly returned from his travels, then kept the momentum going by blasting a quickfire 25 in the next six overs, moving the score along to 147 for 5 off 32 overs. With the pressure of posting a score removed, Barrett concentrated on getting to his 100 as quickly as possible, so to allow a declaration. First Parks, then White kept him company as he strove to reach the magic figure. When eventually the innings came to a close after 42 overs the score stood at 208, with Barrett accounting for exactly half that figure. White, the aforementioned “missing player” was not out on 10 and looked very comfortable despite his tender age.
A delicious Station Hotel tea was then taken.
At the resumption of play Ellon set about the task of removing the 10 Queens Cross wickets required for victory with relish. The opening bowlers, Reid and Francis, looked very sharp, especially Reid, who is without doubt the fastest bowler in the grades. Nevertheless, it still took 10 overs to eventually break the stubborn resolve of the Queens openers Hutton and Buchanan. Man mountain Francis took the first wicket, removing the middle stump of Buchanan with a spearing inswinger. Reid then took up the challenge and bowled Merry in the very next over, with a ball that broke the bail and then careered over the fine leg boundary on a single bounce! In his next over Reid forced Kazi to loop a ball off his bat to Doak the wicketkeeper, and the Queens Cross inning looked in disarray. Francis claimed his second a couple of overs later and after 20 overs the visitors had struggled to 52 for 4. A change of bowling gave the Aberdeen team no respite either, when Anderson claimed the wickets of Shepherd, Jamieson and Irfn in a great 8 over spell of bowling. Watson added to his batting exploits by claiming the wicket of Jawaid and reduced the relegation threatened Queens team to 80 for 8. At this stage the home team were begining to taste the after match pints! However, as always seems to happen with Ellon, the bowling side then started to toil. Taylor and Jamieson, dug in and took everything that the Ellon bowlers could give them, first showing stubborn resistance and then defiance by knocking the tiring bowlers around the newly mown pitch. With four overs left to go, it looked like the Visitors were going to hold on for an unlikely draw. Such desperate times lead to desperate measures, and Ellon skipper Middleton eventually decide to take matters into his own hands by joining the attack. To the amazement of his team, and himself, he broke the 9th wicket partnership just short of the 50 mark by trapping Taylor LBW in the 44th over. He then removed last man Robin Taylor caught behind to clinch a much needed win and propel the team back into the top half of the table.
Overall Ellon were just about worth their
win, but early innings collapses like the one seen on Saturday will not
be so easy to recover from against the stronger teams in the league. There
were lots of good points to come out of the match though, with Stephen
Doak’s performance behind the stumps, Andy Parks fielding and Craig Whites
good showing meaning that every player in the team did their bit. A similar
outing will be needed to compete with Academy in the league on Saturday
and Cults in the Aberdeenshire Cup on Sunday next weekend.