Dumfries Sports Club

Dumfries Cricket Club secured the biggest league title in the club’s 157 year history at the weekend when they became champions of Scottish National League Division 2.

A win by ten wickets in Saturday’s away fixture saw them deserved champions with two games still to play after having led the league from day one and with a record of won thirteen, lost one.

The emphatic win over opponents Weirs saw the Dumfries attack firing on all cylinders as they bowled out their opponents for just 61 with Alan Maskrey, Chris McCutcheon and Jim Patterson each taking two wickets and Scott Beveridge three. Tom McBride and Andy Parkinson then knocked off the runs without losing a wicket to start the champagne celebrations for the finest achievement in the club’s history.

Now in their fifth season in the National Leagues, after promotion from the Western Union in 2005, the title is a reward for APD Dumfries’s consistent challenge at the top of the table with the side having finished second twice and fourth twice. Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, Dumfries Cricket Club hosted a team from the Refugee Cricket Project (RCP) in London. The team, aged from 15 to 18, was composed predominantly of Afghan refugees and is supported by the cricket charity, Cricket for Change (www.cricketforchange.org.uk).

They were on what was a special trip for them to Scotland to see the team that is the story of the cricket world, the fast improving Afghanistan cricket team, play Scotland at Ayr on the Monday. That was a well chosen match since Afghanistan secured a comprehensive nine wicket win by playing the type of ‘hit hard’, ‘bowl fast’ cricket that also characterised their younger RCP counterparts.

Since the team expressly wanted to spend the rest of their time playing cricket they played a young Dumfries Select on Tuesday followed by two matches (of Twenty20) the following day at Ayr and Prestwick before making their way back to London.

The RCP side fielded first and after being welcomed to Scottish cricket by two heavy downpours that reluctantly forced them from the field the weather fortunately cleared to give them a perfect day for cricket. Read the rest of this entry »