Selkirk cricketers back on winning track

Having won the toss and asking the hosts to bat, captain G. Fenton (1-18) teamed up with elder brother M. Fenton (4-16) to remove the top four within 10 overs.

The pace of the bowling was a little too brisk for the openers, both edging to the slips – G. Fenton took the pick of these catches, two-handed above his head, at second slip for the first of M. Fenton’s four wickets, reports Neil Gentleman.

K. Paterson rolled back the years with a spell which bamboozled the opposition and culminated in taking the final wicket, allowing Graham, taking the keeper’s gloves as a late replacement behind the stumps, to add his second catch.

This was added to an earlier neat take, standing up to the bowling of Henderson (3-26) to remove Holy Cross top scorer Quinn (25). Bowling six maidens from his eight overs, Rory Banks was possibly frustrated that he only took one wicket for Selkirk – but he was to play a fuller part with the bat.

The Holy Cross bowlers were similarly miserly early on but, having only moved to 21 off the first 10 overs, the Souters were at least still intact regarding wickets, with K. Paterson providing a solid, patient defence, perhaps missing from previous games.

Paterson was given lbw to Reiss, the only bowler to take wickets for the hosts. But, while he had only added seven runs, Paterson had allowed G. Fenton (41) to pick up pace.

It looked most likely that the captain was going to carry his bat but he was undone by a ball which had him half way through his shot and looping the ball to short mid wicket, allowing Reiss to follow through and take an easy catch off his own bowling.

However, Banks (21*) was already looking comfortable and needing 15 to win when joined by M. Fenton at the crease. He scored 14 of them, finishing off with a clip down to the fine leg boundary for the winning runs.

With home games providing an advantage to most teams in the division, largely down to player availability for away trips, this was a good fixture to win and Selkirk will need to repeat the feat with trips to St Boswells tonight (Thursday) for a 20/20 fixture, and a return to Edinburgh to play Marchmont in the league on Saturday.