Cruickshank Hat-Trick in Vain Against Melrose
HCC vs Melrose 21st May 2022, by Joe H. Striter
Haddington hosted Melrose at Neilson park in round 4 of the East of Scotland Division 3 league. After skipper Williams won the toss and elected to bat for Melrose, Syme and Proctor kept good control as the visitors made a slow and steady start to their innings.
After Ash Kumar removed skipper Williams, Wojcik and Scott started to take the game by the scruff of the neck, hitting hard through the line of the ball, whilst a few drops, and mistimed shots landing safe frustrated Haddington.
After a patient effort in the field, Haddington finally had a chink of light, with Scott playing one big drive too many and finding cover for a deserved, but by no means luck-free, 38 including 7 boundaries.
Melrose lost a slight bit of momentum with James Cardwell-Moore taking an excellent catch to remove key man Loftus for 19, who was just starting to motor.
There’s no match for experience, and with the door half ajar for Haddington, who better to capitalise than Alan Cruickshank. He set his field perfectly for Wojick who couldn’t resist the flighted tempter, finding Scott Logan in the deep who kept his cool to take a towering catch, leaving Wojcik to depart for a well played 42. This brought Lewis Baird to the crease who proceeded to smash his first ball to keeper Sale, and then decided to stand his ground, waiting for the umpire to give him his golden duck marching orders. Cruickshank on a hattrick. Some drift, dip and spin brought the ball jagging back through the Grand Canyon sized gap between bat and pad of Nerkar to disturb the stumps and give Cruickshank a well deserved hat trick, finishing with excellent figures of 4-18 from his 6 overs.
Kumar picked up his 3rd of the innings, and Melrose’s fourth duck, before Macpherson scored some vital runs towards the end of the Melrose innings as they finished with a competitive 147-8.
Haddington started as they meant to go on, losing Kumar cheaply to a shot that caused more trouble than the ball it was pitted against. Whilst Loftus and Wilson bowled well with their partnership of pace-on seam and pace-off swing, Haddington continued to get batsmen in and then swiftly got themselves out again with an abundance of loose shots.
Scott Logan batted nicely for 25, entertaining a few middle order partnerships that promised much but didn’t deliver a match winning blow. Andy Bell, was looking good to steer the side towards victory, in a similar manner as he did in Musselburgh a few weeks earlier, before being unceremoniously run out by his batting partner, who refused to take the runs on offer, firmly giving Melrose the upper hand.
The outside hopes of the host now rested on Syme and Proctor, who put up a valiant effort before Proctor’s stumps were rearranged by the excellent Loftus, giving Melrose a deserved 34 run win.
Haddington are back at Neilson Park on Saturday when they host local rivals Tranent in what is sure to be an entertaining game.
Player of the Match, and deserved winner of Spice Pots gift set, was Alan Cruickshank.