Galloway 1st XI continued their winning run when Victoria conceded Saturday’s match, rather than travel from Glasgow, which keeps them second in the league. There was no fixture scheduled for the 2nd XI.
The warm weather was not wasted as Galloway hosted London-based Wealdstone Corinthians in two 40 overs matches on Sunday and Monday. The home side claimed narrow victories both days in two keenly fought friendlies.
The first match was played under league rules on fielding circles and wides and, although four of the regular first 11 bowlers shared eight wickets for 90 runs, they rather worryingly conceded the majority of the 35 wides.
Howie Bradley was the exception with none. He also picked up the wicket of Andy Naylor who hit his own wicket, smashing a bail in the process.
Other bowlers used were Fergus Barne and Sparky Clark, each taking one wicket, whilst Jack Haggerty was the most economical. For the visitors Surendra Iyer top scored with 43 and Abhay Marwaha impressed with his 27 that included five cracking boundaries.
Galloway soon lost both openers to one-handed catches by wicket-keeper Naylor. They recovered thanks to a fine stand of 63 between Alan Lamb and Pat Druce before the latter was out. Then five wickets fell in eight overs to keep the spectators guessing who would win.
Clark fell to a sharp return catch by Dharmik Shah to make the score 151-9 and the visitors should have clinched victory when John Goodenough was dropped by Pankaj Patel. The same pair were involved when a second catch was held four runs later only for it to be ruled out as a bump ball. Goodenough steered Galloway to victory soon after.
Wealdstone Corinthians 158 (39 overs) P Druce 3-23, R Lamb 2-21, A Lamb 2-35
Galloway 162-9 (37.1 overs) A Lamb 43, P Druce 31, J Goodenough 21.
On Monday, a Galloway team did well to restrict the tourists to a similar total, with skipper Anthony Hulatt shuffling nine bowlers effectively.
Howie Bradley was the canniest, dismissing the top scorers Tejas Ved (43) and Surendra Iyer (41) to great catches by Jack Haggerty and Andy Naylor.
Their run chase began well with an opening stand of 37 between Sparky Clark and Paul Swift, who was first out for 14. Much depended on Anthony Hulatt and he didn’t disappoint with 54 while Andy Armstrong (10) and Willie Martin both supported him in stands of over 30.
Andy Naylor, being a member of both clubs, was well placed to steer Galloway to victory with a cover drive. One more wicket could have seen a finish as tense as the previous day’s. It was encouraging that the unused batting trio of Jack Haggerty, Kelly Rees and Nicola Brown had enjoyed contributing to the team effort in the field.
Wealdstone Corinthians 161-8 (40 overs) H Bradley 3-16, A Armstrong 2-13
Galloway 162-6 (34.2 overs) A Hulatt 54, W Clark 24, W Martin 17, A Naylor 16.
