Partick XI in 2019
The Partick XI had another successful cricket season with winning the Western Cup, finishing second in the Premier Reserve League and reaching the semi-final stage of the Greenwood Trophy.
Firstly, to recap on the Premier Reserve League.
The season started off with rain being the winner against Shawholm before a shock loss against Nunholm by 71 runs meant Partick were already on the back foot. The team rebounded with wins against Whitehaugh by 6 wickets, Cambusdoon by 5 wickets and St. Ninians by 10 wickets. Partick went into the rival game against Titwood at the start of June with good momentum. That momentum was rewarded with a brilliant bowling display to bowl Titwood out for just 75 with Gurj Sandhu taking five wickets for 31 runs. The batsman decided to make things tense before getting over the line to win by 4 wickets; an important win against potential title contenders.
The team then extended the winning streak through June and July with 9 wins on the trot against Bothwell, Shawholm, Nunholm, Whitehaugh and Cambusdoon. Some performances to mention from those games include Graeme Etheridge's 5 for 25 against Shawholm, Rob Corner scoring 142 alongside Jesse Mills hitting a ridiculous 103 before the game had reached the 20 over mark, motivated by the need to take a phone call by at 2:30pm. Also, a mention to Amol Deshmukh scoring 88* against Cambusdoon.
At this point in the season, the team were looking on for retaining the title but what came in August sadly meant otherwise. Out of the 5 possible fixtures, 3 were rained off and the others were lost – by 37 runs against Titwood and by 15 runs against Langloan with St Ninians taking the title: A well deserved title win for them.
Now for the T20 stuff.
The Greenwood Trophy defence started with a 93-run win against Bothwell before another win against Whitehaugh. It was Victoria in the semi finals once again. After last year’s last ball heroics, it was always going to be a close game. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be this year with Victoria putting a competitive total on the board before Partick struggled to find partnerships throughout the innings and eventually falling 45 runs short.
The Western Cup was a competition the skipper was extremely keen to win this season. The group stage had mixed results with a loss at Hillhead and rain abandoning two more games, leaving Partick needing a big win against Victoria to make it through the group stage.
Victoria were bowled out cheaply and West chased it down to win by 9 wickets. Partick then faced Weirs in a close quarter final, managing to sneak through by 13 runs with Michael Miller scoring an impressive 50 on a wicket covered in Roller diesel: difficult to bat on to say the least! The semi final was won against Whitehaugh by 31 runs to set up a final against Titwood.
As you will be aware, it took 3 attempts to play this thanks to the rain. Eventually, on a difficult wicket, the Mitres restricted Titwood to 99 with wickets being shared around. However, John Oliver was the pick of the bowlers with 4 wickets. The chase was a tricky one in dimming light and with the rate climbing and a slight collapse, the situation was not great. Then Andy Galloway - often the hero of West at Titwood - came to light and hit several boundaries before Dhillon hit the winning runs in the final over. A great win after all the effort that had gone into getting the game on.
Out of the 28 games played by Partick, 15 were won, 5 lost and 8 cancelled: Not a bad return but, as always, it could have been better.
We look forward to next season.
