The Roon’d-up: Fearn Fires 150 As Title Tilts Continue
The Roon’d-Up is our regular summary of events on the field at West over the 2025 season. We’ll cover all the results as well as outstanding and notable performances throughout the season to keep you up to date on the latest goings on at Hamilton Crescent.
Our first and second teams remain in title contention after convincing wins this weekend.
The West of Scotland XI secured a victory over Kilmarnock by 8 wickets at Hamilton Crescent. Having won the toss, West asked the visitors to bat and soon found early wickets through openers Laurie Kitchen and Dave McNulty. Captain James Fennah also added to last week’s heroics with four wickets for the loss of just four runs as the Ayrshire club folded to a meagre 72 all out inside 23 overs. While West found themselves at 35/2 during their chase, the win was never really in doubt as Joe Carrasco (39) and Larvert Masunda (16*) saw home the chase with more than 25 overs to spare. Victory leaves West clear at the top of Western Premiership Two and on course for promotion with two games to play.
The Partick XI were victorious on the road, meanwhile, beating St Ninians by 71 runs in Prestwick. In just his second appearance for the club since returning this summer Jonathan Fearn hit a stunning 154* off just 150 balls. As part of an unbeaten 190 5th wicket partnership with skipper Johnny Williams, who also reached 51*, Fearn guided Partick to an imposing 255/4 putting them well in control at the break. While the Ayrshire hosts built a fair innings in reply, they were always well behind the required run rate. Tight seam bowling from Graeme Etheridge (3-25), young spinner Athsham Hussain (4-26) and Williams (2-12) reduced St Ninians to 184/9. With two games left, the win keeps Partick in second just behind Western Championship One leaders Titwood.
Jonathan Fearn (154*) and Athsham Hussain (4-26) celebrate match winning performances against St Ninians.
In Stirling, Hamilton Crescent lost by 7 wickets in tough encounter with promotion hunting GHK Strathclyde. Batting first, our third string were reduced to just 18/4 and then 55/8 as bowlers Numan and Iftikhar ran riot for the visitors. 17 from number 8 batsman Swami Ananthanarayanan, however, gave Hamilton Crescent something to bowl to as they stumbled to 81 all out. Two early wickets for MS Dhillon gave them some hope, however, reducing GHK to 31/3 at one stage but Iqbal (23) and Syed (25*) saw the Old Anniesland side home with more than 26 overs to spare.
The Sunday side won a third consecutive friendly against Hillhead by 49 runs at Hughenden. Having won the toss, captain Rizwan Hussain elected to bat first and strong contributions from Swami Ananthanarayanan (49), Anubhav Joshi (29*), Faris Aslam (26) and Manish Kaushik (22) took West to 189/9 off their 40 overs. Hillhead started slowly against a tight opening bowling spell and two wickets a piece from Ananthanarayanan and Ollie Leadbitter put Hillhead on the back foot. A brilliant catch on the boundary from Jainill Vadalia complete the Hillhead innings on 140.
The Sunday XI enjoy their 49 run victory over Hillhead.
This Tuesday West’s midweek XI complete their league fixtures with a game at home to Mearns with a 6pm start.
