Two Fine Wins for Weirs on Saturdays

Weirs batted first at Helensburgh and battled their way to a solid total of 200. Sameer Zia top scored with 53 and there were also decent contributions of 35 from Rouman Butt and 34 from Zulfi Shahid.

Helensburgh started losing wickets early and regularly and never really looked like threatening the Weirs total. Sameer Zia backed up his batting performance with 3 wickets. Mo Ali also took 3 and there were 2 for Raja Safder.

The 1st XI's victory might have been overshadowed by the 2nd team however. In the first 8 games of the season Albert Park's record against the other 2nd XIs in their division was W4 L0 and their record against the 1st XIs was W0 L4. So, Albert Park were the best of the second teams but they couldn't compete against the first teams, right?

Wrong, the Weirs second string recorded their first victory of the season against a 1st XI as they beat Victoria at Albert Park by just 4 runs. It didn't look especially likely after they had batted first and made just 101, Brendon Hillyard top scoring with 23. And it looked even less likely as the Victoria openers got off to a good starting, putting on 40 for the first wicket.

But then, Russell Murray took a hand. Russell was making his first appearance of the season and many Weirs members had assumed him to be dead but he showed that Yorkshire cricket lives on, tearing through the Victoria batting order with 5 for 11. Brendon Hillyard also took 2 wickets including the final one to clinch victory as Victoria were bowled out for 97.

A great weekend for Weirs all round and with a heat wave predicted for next week who could ask for more?

Updated 16:25 - 30 Aug 2019 by Colin Baxter