‘Sonians fall short against Stags
Last Saturday, 15th May saw Watsonians caught up in another capital clash, where the fires had been sufficiently stoked by player movements and off the field controversy. Grange were the visitors to Myreside and on one of the better pitches this season, Steve Paige put the Stockbridge men into bat.
Unfortunately, Watsonians had not learned their lessons from the previous week’s cup exit to Heriots and the seam attack offered the Grange openers a multitude of mixed lengths and lines. Oli Hairs was the man to capitalise blasting 102 within 30 overs before holing out to Ryan Flannigan in the deep in Paige’s second spell. While hairs had been feasting on the Watsonians attack Cammy Coles had played a supporting role, upon Hairs’ exit however, he slipped a couple of gears and raced to 95 before being removed by Stuart Chalmers. Grange’s lower order failed to fire but their innings still concluded on an above par 286/7. Captain Paige picking up 3 for 47 from his 10 overs.
Grange’s much touted batting line-up had done its job, a necessity given the dirth of bowling at Portgower place, and it was up to the Watsonians batsman to chase, and chase hard. Flannigan and James Easton once again got the innings off to a flyer, scoring at 7rpo in the first 10 before Easton mis-timed a pull shot from Micky Thomas to fall for 38. Easton’s dismissal also appeared to halt Flannigan’s progress and he was caught at mid-on for 28 aiming down the ground. When Tim Weston fell to Ian Worth for 11, the stage was set for off-season signings, Wright and Chalmers to mount an assault on Grange’s total. The pair took ‘Sonians to within 50 before both falling in quick succession to the part time off spin of Oli Hairs. This left the match tightly poised with Watsonians needing 45 from 5 and a half overs. George Cairns and Ross Paxton continued to apply the pressure on Grange with Cairns rotating the strike with ease and Paxton using a full array of shots to boost the total. Unfortunately however, two wickets in consecutive deliveries, Paxton falling LBW to a ball striking him on the gloves and Cairns run out by new man Paige in controversial circumstances, saw the end of any serious pursuit of the target and Watsonians fell short by 21 runs with 5 balls to spare.
In reality Watsonians made a good fist of chasing down an imposing total, however, it was a total considerably above par in the conditions. On the day, the bowlers simply were not disciplined enough to warrant shooting down the Stags.
This weekend sees Clydesdale come to Myreside where, nothing less than a return to winning ways will do.
