THE second match of the season saw Stonehaven travel to the beach links in Aberdeen to play the young and energetic Mannofield side, keen to go one better than a winning draw last week against Kintore.
Skipper Clive Hinchcliffe won the toss and elected to field on a bright but breezy day.
The opening overs were tough going with the pitch doing little and the seaside breeze a difficult addition.
Some flowing shots from the Mannofield openers saw
the total slowly tick past 50 and onto 73 before some excellent fielding removed West with a run out.
With the total still quite low and the overs ticking past 25, Mannofield starting taking some risks to push ahead and the other opener, Lawson, was caught in close from a leading edge for a solid 59. At this point, with runs required, Thistle piled on pressure and it told when Alex Keith had Johnson out with a superb diving catch from Chris Van Der Ruit in the deep.
The flood gates then opened from the 35th to the 45th over and Thistle took all the remaining wickets with the captain, C. Hinchcliffe and A. Keith mopping up the tail to finish Mannofield in their 46th over for a total of 157.
Alex Keith ended with a brilliant 5 wickets for 34 runs.
With the previous weeks batting performance fresh in the memory, Thistle started with confidence as openers A. Keith and A. Milroy smashing the first 4 overs for 44 runs before a late swinging ball caught out A. Keith for 17.
A. Hinchcliffe arrived at the crease in his usual style and smashed an enormous six almost into the nearby driving range, narrowly missing a passing Mercedes.
The score screamed along with both Milroy and Hinchcliffe taking no prisoners before Milroy was caught in the deep for 35.
B. Milne and A. Hinchcliffe both departed quickly afterwards scoring 10 and 37 respectively but with the score on 112 for 5, Thistle wobbled slightly.
M. Jenkins and A. Kemp arrived fresh at the crease and took their time to settle and used the remaining overs to their advantage, just 5 runs were scored from the following 10 overs much to the delight of the Mannofield team.
With the total in sight, Kemp and Jenkins picked up the pace with some fine shots whilst riding their luck at times.
As the winning runs approached, Kemp finished the victory in style with a big six over mid-wicket and maximum points went to Stonehaven.
Both Jenkins and Kemp returned to the pavilion carrying their bats and a valuable 47 partnership and Thistle march on to face Grade 1 new boys, Caledonian next Saturday at Mineralwell Park.
Final Score: Mannofield 157 all out - Stonehaven Thistle 1st XI 159 for 5
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