Tranent and Preston Village Cricket Club

After some early-season inconsistency, June became a very successful month for both of TPVCC's league teams, who saw only one loss between them across 5 weekends of ESCA fixtures.

The 1st XI began the month on a disappointing note, slipping to a 25-run defeat at Selkirk. But after a weather-related abandonment the following week against Leith FAB, they came back strongly with back to back wins against St Boswells and Murrayfield DAFS 2's. 

After being put in to bat by St Boswells the 1's managed to reach 71 on a tricky wicket before being bowled out, Dougie Russell top scoring with 18*. Some highly disciplined bowling, spearheaded by a superb 5-fer for Shakeel Abdulla, then saw the opponents bowled out for 69 in a nail-biting finish where the final four wickets fell for just 4 runs!
Against MDAFS the following week the first team were again asked to bat first, putting on a very solid 151 for the loss of only 5 wickets, with excellent scores for David King (38), Thomas Hardwick (30) and Shakeel (35*). Some superbly economical bowling then saw Murrayfield bowled out well short of the target, with the wickets being shared around the whole attack.

Following another rain-ruined game in the final weekend of the month those two wins see the 1st XI sitting 3rd in an extremely tight Division 3.

The 2nd XI began June by edging a final-over thriller against Marchmont 3's by one run (where the final catch was taken sportingly by an opposition sub fielder!) and from there they didn't look back, following it up with convincing wins over Watsonian 4's at Myreside and Morton 3's at home.
After choosing to bowl first against Watsonians, a devastating spell from Chiru Bedduduri (8-2-13-4) saw our opponents reduced to 27-5, but after a hugely frustrating 8th-wicket partnership they managed set TPV a more competitive 111 to win. Again Chiru was the star, hitting his first 50 for the club and being the linchpin for the 2's chase, which saw the total knocked off for the loss of 6 wickets.
After winning the toss against Morton, the second team again elected to bowl and excellent spells from Sabu Mathew (8-0-14-4) and James Griffiths (8-0-15-3) saw the opponents bowled out for 70. Patient batting from Neil Craigmile (13*) and Robert Jas Min (22*) then saw TPV over the line with 15 overs to spare.

Those three wins meant that the 2's would go undefeated in June and climb to 6th in ESCA Division 6 table.

Lastly, there were two more player milestones to celebrate over the last month. Neil Craigmile reached a landmark 100 games for the club (to go with his previous cap for scoring 1000 runs), and Thomas Hardwick, seen here receiving his brand new hoopie from captain Aiden, reached 1000 club runs. Congrats both!