Autoecosse Forfarshire won tense encounter with Freuchie at Forthill on Saturday but Autoecosse Forthill and Autoecosse Forthill 2nd XI fell to Huntly and Norwood in their SPCU matches. Sunday's visit of Montrose to play Autoecosse Forthill 3rd XI was conceded by Montrose.
Freuchie won the toss and chose to bat at Forthill and the lively opening attack of Dale and Tim gave Forfs a great start with two wickets falling in the first seven balls of the innings. A second wicket for Tim came when Gourlay, after hitting three boundaries, edged behind with the total on 36. Andy found the edge of Black's bat with the total on 61 and the catch found the safe hands of Dale in the gulley. Tim leapt far to his left to hold a caught and bowled chance to dismiss Khalil without further addition to the score and with his next ball bowled Forrester to make it 61 for 6 and saw him finish with 4 for 38. A second wicket for Andy saw Freuchie slump further to 67 for 7 but an eighth wicket partnership of 62 between Trivedi (54) and Kelly (23) frustrated Forfarshire as the visitors recovered well from the early wickets. Trivedi and Christie (24 not out) added a further 45 for the ninth wicket before Galzo trapped Trivedi LBW as the Freuchie innings closed on 179 for 9 after 50 overs.
The Forfarshire response got off to an unconvincing start, and at 64 for 4 after 20 overs there was much to do when Scott joined Tony in the middle. Between them they batted cautiously and total reached 100 after 29 overs but Tony fell for 28, bowled by Birrell, to end a 66-run partnership leaving Forfs with 50 to get from the last 12 overs, with 5 wickets in hand. Jalees fell LBW to give Freuchie hope of an upset, but Tim (21 not out) batted comfortably alongside Scott whose 62 not out held the innings together and saw Forfarshire through to a hard earned victory.
At Castle Park, Forthill had Huntly in trouble early after three quick wickets but a mid-innings 72 from Ferguson saw a recovery before a further fightback from Forthill saw Huntly saw Huntly 158 for 8 with Ted taking 3 for 58. A late order half century from Tait undid the good work and Huntly reached a challenging 240 all out. Howie and Midge combined to open the batting for the first time - and a hard hit 15 from Midge got Forthill off to a quick start, but with only Howie (75) and Andy (22) resisting the home attack, Forthill were bowled out for 168.
At Dawson Park, three wickets each for Blair (3 for 24) and Craig (3 for 33) saw Norwood dismissed for 151 but in reply Forthill 2nd XI could only manage 114, Clark top-scoring with 26.