Hawick overcome Selkirk in lacklustre cricket derby

Hawick cricket captain Euan Hair, left, receives the Ronnie Simpson Memorial Trophy from Selkirk CC chairman Roger Arnold.

Both teams had kicked off the ESCA season in Division Three with two wins but Hawick almost had last week off, having bowled their opponents out for 12, while Selkirk had succumbed in Edinburgh after a poor performance with the bat.

Unfortunately for the hosts, this week saw another tepid performance with the bat, with Selkirk crawling to an unsatisfactory 63 from 32 overs, reports Neil Gentleman.

Hawick’s bowling was solid, very little off line, and always looking likely to take wickets.

Stand-out performer, Stuart Hair (3-13), added a great two-handed catch above his head to remove D. Heard, who possibly thought his drive to mid on was for the boundary and not the last shot of the innings.

With 13 maidens from the 34 overs, the first four bowlers will have been happy with their performance and not a little put out that M. Tait (3-6), making up the numbers, manged to take three tailenders to finish with the best statistics.

Only G. Fenton (25) and B. Wilkinson (16) managed double figures for Selkirk, with others failing for the second time in seven days. The Souters’ total was never going to be enough to defend and Hawick did what needed to be done, with the loss of five wickets, using up 23 overs to saunter over the line.

There was not much batting to talk about from either side but G. Alexander (20) did what was required at the top of the order, holding off the Fenton brothers, scoring most of his runs with well-placed cut shots.

Huisamen (16) can thank I. Gardiner for surviving long enough to get Hawick past 50, as the Selkirk man did all he could to make catching a looping cricket ball look difficult, flustering and fumbling the ball to the turf.

Both D. Heard and R. Banks picked up a couple of wickets but would have liked another 20 or 30 runs at which to bowl.

E. Alexander knocked his second four over the fielder at mid wicket to maintain the 100 per cent league record for the visitors and carry the Ronnie Simpson Trophy back to Buccleuch Park, where they are due to welcome Tranent this Saturday. Selkirk travel to Edinburgh again this weekend to play Holy Cross.