Turriff travelled to the neutral venue of Lairds, kindly catered for by Methlick CC, to play grades newcomer Grampian CC for the Johnston Rose Bowl on Saturday. With the brighter weather forecast for the first innings, with possible showers then overcast conditions in store for whoever batted second, Turriff opted to bat upon winning the toss. Without in form skipper Ian Smart, the Turriff batsmen would have their work cut out for them to post a competitive total. Turriff's left-handers David Chalmers and Steven Lings opened the innings, looking to see off Grampians hostile new ball attack and build a good first wicket stand. Noby and Seby, two nippy right arm medium pacers, opened the bowling. Both were immediately unsettled by the independent umpires who called both bowlers wide twice in their opening overs and warned Seby for running on the wicket on his follow through. With five runs on the board, four wides and leg bye, disaster struck for Turriff in the third over. Noby managed to move one back into Lings, hitting his pad and winning a lbw shout to remove him for nought.
This brought Immanuel Doss to the crease, who got off the mark from his first delivery and looked to play positively. For the next 15 overs, ably supported by Chalmers, Doss gave Turriff plenty to cheer about as he scored fluently and all around the wicket. In the 17th over Chalmers was bowled by Gibson for a hard fought seven off 48 balls. Unfortunately the old adage 'one brings two' was to prove true as a Grampian attack reinvigorated by the wicket steamed through Turra's middle order. Having found the boundary four times Doss was finally caught and bowled attempting a straight drive off change bowler Bigil. In the same over Blair Balment was bowled by Bigil, leaving the score at 53 for 4.
Dod Duncan and David Laing sought to rebuild the innings and get Turriff to some kind of total. Duncan took a liking to the bowling of Gibson, striking a six and a four in the same over to push the scoreboard onto 64. Grampian were quick to remove him from the attack in the face of this onslaught and bring back opening bowler Noby. In the 21st over Noby won his second lbw shout of the day, this time against David Laing to bring Christian Swan to the crease with the score on 64 for 5. Swan built a useful partnership with Duncan of 9 valuable runs before falling victim Grampian's other opener Seby, who got one to nip back into the right hander, striking him in the pads for an lbw. Duncan made 14 before becoming Seby's second victim, having guided the score to 75 for 7 to give Turra just a sniff of victory. Turriff's tail managed another three runs between them. Notably junior Noah Balment mad two runs in 8 balls,and had looked comfortable, before being run out as he tried to push the score ever higher. Turriff were all out for 83, knowing it would probably not be enough at Methlick with it covered wicket, fast outfield and short boundaries.
After the fantastic lunch put on by Methlick CC, Turriff set about trying to restrict Grampian to an improbable 82 runs. David Laing made the perfect start when he removed aggressive opening pinch hitter Jeby for just 4 runs, pinning him lbw off just the third ball of the match. This left Romin at the crease with number three Vaishak. Steven Lings opened at the other end and bowled a tidy first over, repeatedly finding the block hole and going for just one run. After another tight over from Laing, with just one run conceded from a wide, the batsmen pounced on a moment of weakness as Lings erred in his length from plenty of yorkers to plenty of low full tosses, giving away 9 runs. The batsmen then attacked both bowlers, taking the score to 37 after 9 overs. On the last ball of another expensive over from Lings, the bowler drew some inspiration and rapped Vaishak on the pads with an accurate away swinger and was awarded the fifth lbw of the day.
Balment replaced Lings, and bowled with gusto while Laing continued from the pavilion end. Romin and Bigil made no mistakes for Grampian and guided them over the line in the 17th over to complete a convincing win. Grampian player Bigil was awarded man of the match for his 2 top order wickets for 7 runs and 26 not out with the bat. Turriff made it into this cup final and despite the short notice fielded eleven players, albeit a mixed age and mixed ability team including two promising juniors. This in itself was an achievement as the club, which lost a lot of core players between 2013 and 2014, was almost in crisis last year. Turriff still have three league games, and next week go back to Lairds to play Methlick CC, so will be pleased to have had sight of their pitch this year which is a typical low and slow, but true, wicket. Victory on 8th August should keep Turra in 4th place behind Grampian.
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