U13s win the Glenalmond 6s

Group Games (5 overs per side)

Cargilfield 68-2 

Loretto 25-4

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Cargilfield 70-2 

Ardvreck 22-2

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Cargilfield 84-3 

Craigclowan 15-3

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Final

Cargilfield 43-4

Belhaven 30-2

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The Glenalmond 6s is always one of the highlights of the cricket season, although sadly over the past nineteen years it has often fallen victim to the wet Perthshire microclimate! However, this year we were blessed with lovely sunshine and a large group of parents made the trip north and enjoyed another fantastic day of cricket where the team showed a huge amount of cricketing nous, both with the bat, the ball and in the field allowing us to defend the trophy which we won last year!

Our first game was against Loretto, a team we had met earlier in the season. Like that game, this one was very one sided and batting first we scored 68 for the loss of two wickets, with Rafa and James scoring most of the runs, well supported by Monty. Loretto amassed 25 for 4, with Jamie W picking up two wickets and Edward and James being very miserly.

Next up was Ardvreck. We batted first again and James scored an excellent 30, well supported by Monty and Theo, scoring 70 for the loss of two wickets in our 5 overs. In reply, Ardvreck found it hard to cope with our accurate bowling, scoring just 22.

Our final group game was against Craigclowan and we really hit our straps with Jamie W scoring a very impressive 42 not out, hitting the ball very hard and straight, as we reached 84 for 3 in just 5 overs – a mammoth score indeed. Our bowlers then kept it very tight, and Craigclowan scored just 15 in their five overs. So we were through to the Final, and a chance to defend the cup which we won last year.

In the other group, Belhaven came top after somewhat surprisingly having beaten Merchiston in the deciding group game in what was a very tense match: they had some good bowlers and their batting looked pretty good too, so it would be a proper contest, something we have not experienced so far this season. We batted first and right from the start were a little tentative and did not bat with the freedom of previous matches, partly due to being up against some better bowling but also the pressure of the situation: there was too much playing and missing and it was only the fact that they bowled 9 wides allowed us to limp to 43 for 4 at the end of our 5 overs. To be fair, the wicket had gone very slow and low, with Rafa falling victim to one that grubbed along the floor so we knew run scoring would not be easy, especially given the quality of our bowling attack, but the game was certainly in the balance!

However, we need not have worried…….another very miserly bowling performance from our bowling unit and scoring anything more than a single proved very hard indeed for the Belhaven batsmen. Monty and James only conceded 7 runs each, then Rafa got a wicket and only conceded two runs in his over, which left Belhaven requiring 28 of just 12 balls – a very tall order indeed and one that they ultimately fell well short of by 13 runs and so the trophy was coming back to Barnton once again.

The key to success in this tournament is a strong bowling attack, and as we know, after a long winter indoors, our bowling attack is very accurate and we give nothing away; also, we saw some excellent strokeplay and running between the wickets from the batsmen which meant we set some huge totals which proved unchaseable. All in all, a very good day for Cargilfield cricket and it is great to see the boys working so hard as a team, supporting each other and celebrating each others’ successes, either with the bat or the ball – teamwork at its best and we were well deserved winners today. Well played indeed.

Finally, a big thank you to Glenalmond for hosting us so well.