Uddingston stumped by the wet weather

Jun 26 2008 by Andrew McGilvray

TUNNOCK Uddingston were beaten by poor weather as their Scottish National Cricket League Premier Division clash against Heriots FP was rained off at Bothwell Castle Policies.

A similar fate befell Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie against Linlithgow.

The Villagers were on 40-1, pursuing Heriot’s 237-5 total when the heavens opened up and under the controversial Duckworth/Lewis rule, both sides were awarded two points.

That doesn’t help the Lanarkshire side, however, who have dropped down to fifth place, 10 points behind leaders Greenock, albeit with a game less played.

Captain Ricky Bawa won the toss and sent the Edinburgh side out to bat first on what was a slow track, with the run-rate restricted to not much above one per over for the opening 10.

However, wickets were also hard to come by and when Paul Hoffmann and Bawa were replaced by Neil Macleod and Amir Gul, things started moving faster.

Macleod got the first wicket with the score on 55, and after that wickets fell at regular intervals.

During his innings Brett Webber took his first wicket by bowling Jack Ritchie out, but the ball hit the stumps and flew straight into Webber’s mouth, forcing him off with an injury.

At the close of their innings, Heriots were 237-5, with Hoffmann bowling 1-16 off his 10 overs.

Ed Cowan and Scott Dalgleish opened for Uddingston, but rain had already started, and the race was on to get to the minimum 20 overs to force a result.

Captain Bawa set a target of 60-0 after 20, but the heavens opened at 41-1 in the 12th, and the game was abandoned.

On Saturday Uddingston travel to Shawholm to meet Poloc in a Premier League match, before taking on Linlithgow in their rearranged Scottish Cup tie on Sunday.