Dumfries Sports Club

Stuart Corbett-Byers was re-appointed as the Captain of the Dumfries 1st XI for season 2011 at the recent Dumfries Cricket Club AGM. He is continuing as skipper after he successfully led his side to the National League Division 2 title this summer.

He and Vice-Captain, Jim Patterson, face the challenge of a reorganised league next year. The three ten team divisions of this year have been restructured into two National divisions of sixteen, the SNCL Premiership and the Championship. This means that Dumfries will be facing the likes of Poloc and Stenhousemuir in the Championship next season.

Also continuing as 2nd XI Captain and Vice-Captain are Stuart Alexander and Davie Davidson with the side again playing in Western Union Division 2 after the Nunholm side finished fourth.

Chairman Rory Fergusson said “The club are fortunate to have such a wealth of experience leading both league sides. We are hopeful that the firsts can maintain their form next season and mount a challenge for the first Scottish Championship title and that the seconds continue the development of the club’s younger players”.

The presentation of the season’s Club Awards takes place this Saturday at Nunholm after the Annual Dinner with guest speaker Sandy Strang on hand to mark the club’s most successful year ever. More information on playing for the club can be found at www.dumfriescricketclub.co.uk.

On the last home Saturday of the season Site Electrical Dumfries beat Windyedge, the visitors from Glasgow Accies, by 34 runs in a friendly match thoroughly enjoyed by both sides to round off the senior season at Nunholm.

However it was youth to the fore as the younger members of the side were set the task of winning the game. The Dumfries side were put in and eleven year old Chris McBride and Adam Elliott opened the innings.

With Elliott hitting the loose deliveries for four and McBride looking entirely comfortable the pair passed a fifty opening partnership and had reached 68 when Elliott was unlucky to be bowled for forty, in just under fifty balls, by a distinctly high full toss.

Todd Rafferty partnered McBride in a forty run partnership before falling to a close run out decision for an assured fifteen with the side just past a hundred. Read the rest of this entry »

A century at Nunholm by Drew Dawson capped the APD Dumfries league season by ensuring a final match win and their fifteenth win of the season. Already declared champions of National League Division 2, a possible anti-climax to the season was avoided when the side posted a first innings total of 253 for 4. In reply SMRH were all out for 168 with wickets shared amongst the Dumfries bowlers.

Immediately after that 85 run win the league trophy was presented by Cricket Scotland to Captain Stuart Corbett-Byers which in turn was followed by the rest of the team wasting yet more champagne, or a cheaper Spanish equivalent, over the captain in celebrating a winning climax to the season.

Dumfries opted to bat first at home and with a new opening partnership of Tom McBride and Drew Dawson. The opening bowlers Coyle and C Bissett tested the batsmen on a wicket which offering some movement and the opening was steady rather than spectacular and after ten overs the Nunholm side had reached 26.

More attention grabbing at the time was the musical accompaniment for the occasional boundary. In the spirit of celebrating the last day of a successful season a musical fanfare from the house DJ greeted boundaries and wickets during the match and caused a few to metaphorically fall off their chairs. SMRH took the music in good spirits but must have been intrigued when “Bad Boys” heralded the arrival of the openers.

Meanwhile back at the cricket the openers were intent in providing the solid platform with the fifty coming up in the 17th over and the hundred in the 31st. It was at that point that McBride, looking to boost the scoring rate, came down the wicket and was comprehensively bowled by the other Bissett (G) for 43. Read the rest of this entry »

In National League Division 2 on Saturday newly crowned champions APD Dumfries won a potentially difficult encounter at West Lothian by 52 runs. In ‘the Josh and Jerry Show’, Josh Geary scored 81 in the Dumfries total of 242 for 7 and Jerry Goodin took four wickets to restrict West Lothian to 190 for 9 at the finish.

Dumfries chose to bat and when Aussies Parkinson and Geary came together at 47 for 2 they proceeded to put together a match winning partnership. They had almost taken the total past two hundred when Parkinson was bowled for 69. However with eighteen balls left a century was just beyond Josh’s reach when McKenna took an unbelievable caught and bowled off a rising drive destined for the boundary. He departed for the day’s top score of 81.

Dumfries finished on a competitive 242 for 7 but they had the significant problem of the league’s top run scorer, professional Van Wyk, plus the fourth top run scorer, overseas amateur Cookson, to overcome.

Again Alan Maskrey set the tone for Dumfries by bowling both openers. With the score at 70, left arm spinner Scott Beveridge took a crucial caught and bowled to dismiss Cookson.

Leg spinner Jerry Goodin struck an equally important blow when he had Van Wyk caught for just 17. The two spinners then reduced the opposition to 120 for 9. However Raven and Heath delivered a tenth wicket unbeaten stand of seventy to take the game right to the end but nevertheless a defeat and Dumfries’s 14th win of the season.

In Western Union Division 2, JMS Nunholm finished their league season with a disappointing seven wicket defeat to Langloan. Langloan successfully chased the home side’s total of 183 in which Andy Reed was the top scorer for the Dumfries side with 59.

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 »