Drumps crash to West defeat
Drumpellier crashed to defeat against promotion chasing West of Scotland by six wickets at Hamilton Crescent on Saturday.
The toss was always going to play a big part on what looked a difficult wicket and so it proved as skipper Graeme McLaren lost the toss and was forced to bat.
The Langloan side made a slow but solid start, with Zaheer Mohammed and Ian Warden taking the score along to 20.
However the loss of both openers and Asad Mohammed in quick succession left Drumpellier reeling on 24 for 3.
Once again it was professional Pieter Stuurman and skipper Graeme McLaren who led the recovery with a 4th wicket stand of 85 before the former departed to a dubious LBW decision just two runs shy of a deserved half century.
McLaren fell shortly after for 43 but youngster Michael Anderson took Drumpellier along to a defendable score of 173 with West’s Gavin Smith the pick of the bowlers with 4 for 29.
The home sides reply got off to a flying start with New Zealand professional Grant Robinson capitalising on some wayward Drumpellier bowling to race to half century off as many balls.
However once Robinson fell the Langloan side managed to stem the flow of runs with Dan Stevenson once again the pick of the bowlers with 2 for 13 off his 10 overs.
West however managed to get across the line with plenty to spare as Stewart Leggat and Richard Brown both finished unbeaten on 30 with 10 overs to spare.
Skipper McLaren said “It was always going to be difficult after loosing the toss but we put up a good fight with the bat and got ourselves a total that we felt we could defend.”
“Then once again with the exception of Dan and Andy Stewart we bowled poorly and let them get away from us.”
Meanwhile Drumpellier second string remained top of the table with a convincing 34 run victory over Kilmarnock.
Drumpellier batted first and were dismissed for 122 with Ross Campbell and Mahmood Aziz both scoring 30, in reply Kilmarnock were dismissed for 88 with Aziz picking up 3 for 20 and Josh Allison taking 6 for 14.
Skipper Stevie Foster said “It has been an excellent effort by the guys so far this season and hopefully we can keep the momentum going.”
In Drumpelliers Junior team the Under 11’s sit top of the table after last Fridays victory over Weirs to make it 9 wins out of 9 and the Under 18’s lie in third following a impressive victory over Hillhead.