The Roon’d-up: Skippers spin West to victory
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.
On a busy weekend, with all our senior sides in action, wins for our first and second teams maintained their title hopes.
The West of Scotland XI convincingly defeated Langside by nine wickets at Albert Park. Batting first Langside quickly found themselves on just 39 runs for the loss of 9 wickets and were unable to recover as they were bowled out for just 55. Early damage was inflicted by opening pair Laurie Kitchen and Gurjit Singh, who removed the home side’s top order, before captain James Fennah took centre stage with an incredible 6 wickets for the loss of just 15 runs. West saw off the low total in just 17.3 overs as Sam Page (14), Joe Carrasco (22) and John Oliver (18*) completed the chase. The win maintains the side’s league leader status with just 3 weeks of league action remaining.
The Partick XI, meanwhile, defeated Albert Park by 72 runs in the reverse fixture. Electing to bat first at Hamilton Crescent, Partick’s opening pair of Rauhit Krishnan and Andrew Appleton (36) made a solid start, reaching 49 before the loss of Krishnan for 21. Youngster Avaneesh Yilapavanam top scored for our second team, scoring 42 off 76 balls, with support from the returning Jonathan Fearn who scored a pacy 31 and Jesse Mills with 25. Usman Sarfraz, meanwhile, took 4 wickets for the visitors. In reply, Albert Park lost early wickets, with 3 for opening seamer Graeme Etheridge, but a determined 59 from Ahmad Arif steadied the ship until skipper Johnny Williams (3-52) and Jesse Mills (2-15) entered the fray with their spin bowling ultimately dealing the lethal blow as Albert Park were out for 149. The win leaves Partick behind only Titwood with three to play.
It was a more difficult weekend for our women’s side meanwhile, as they were defeated by eight wickets in a close T20 semi final against Watsonians/Dumfries at Stirling. Batting first, West scored 134/6 against a strong bowling attack with Robyn Marment top scoring with 29* off just 24 balls, as a 53 run unbeaten seventh wicket partnership with Beth Haley (16*) gave West some hope going into the chase. Watsonians/Dumfries Women’s batters had other ideas, however, as despite wickets for both Marment and Abbey Gore, Molly Paton (39*) and Emily Tucker (34*) both remained unbeaten to complete victory with just 10 balls to spare.
The Hamilton Crescent XI were also on the losing side, as they were defeated by 61 runs at Western Championship Division Two leaders Anniesland. Anniesland made a strong start as Sunil Maniyar played a starring role, smashing 118 off just 77 balls, as our 3s bowlers toiled to try and restrict the visitors total. There were wickets for opener Naweed Zazai and youngsters Athsham Hussain and Himansh Joshi but Anniesland scored an imposing 259/3 from their 40 overs. Hamilton Crescent lost regular wickets in pursuit of the total, restricted to 43/4 at one point. But another strong innnings from James Scott (42) with support from Joshi (32), Hussein (21) and vice captain Manish Kaushik (26) steadied things as Hamilton Crescent finished on 198/9.
Our annual game against the local sports and health club Western Baths on Sunday, however, had a more fun vibe as our Sunday XI ran home winners by 60 runs. Openers Akshat Fondekar and Naweed Zazai both reached 30 with the bat before retiring, whilst Swami Ananthanarayanan made 29. Jesse Mills and Athsham Hussain completed the innings as West made 149. There were debut overs for Inaya Hussain and wickets for Faris Aslam, Alex Yeo and Nakul Jain as Western Baths reached 80 all out. Overall, a fantastic game, however, and a worthy thank you to Western Baths for the support they provide the club throughout the year.
On Tuesday, West’s midweek XI are away to Glasgow Accies with a 6pm start.
