Charlie Allan: Grades is grades, so we shall see...

In the first of a series of monthly updates from the Aberdeenshire Grades, Methlick's Charlie Allan casts his eye over the results and highlights so far...

Fears that the severe winter and late spring would be followed by a wet summer have proved groundless. At the halfway stage, there have been hardly any cancellations due to weather and the programme has been fulfilled with hardly a hitch, for once. Over the four Grades and out of 307 fixtures, only eleven have been lost due to weather.

Dry pitches should be fast pitches, with the ball coming on to the bat, so it is perhaps surprising that there have only been four centuries in Grade 1. Best were 130 by K Laghate for Cults against Mannofield, 118 by Jonathon Barratt of Ellon against Banchory, followed by F Awan’s 108 for Culter against Aberdeen Grammar FPs and A Win’s 100* also for Culter against Stonehaven.

But none came near Stuart Anderson’s 140* for Methlick in Grade 2, in a fruitless run chase against runaway league leaders St Ronald.

In the top grade, Stonehaven were popular opponents for bowlers, yielding six wickets to M Javaid of Cults (including a hat trick) and G Vanderoot of Grammar FPs, both times for only 22 runs.

It will take a huge turn around in performances in the second half of the season if the Grade 1 champions this year are to come from any but Culter Curry Bon Accord, who have currently a 93% record, and Cults Cosalt who have taken 86% of the points available to them. Only Ellon Gordon, who are on 80%, look anywhere near strong enough to make a realistic challenge to those two.

Those three are all from outside the traditional Aberdeen city boundary and their dominance underlines a change in the balance of the grades between Town and County. The highest placed Town team at the halfway stage is Mannofield, effectively Aberdeenshire’s third team, and the two bottom clubs - and looking likely for relegation - are the two other City clubs, Queen’s Cross and Grammar FPs.

In the meantime, the City clubs who have played at Duthie Park and on the links for a hundred years - the Portcullises, the Crescents, Caledonians, Gordonians, Anchorians and the Academicals - languish in the lower divisions.

We are not nearing the end of the City teams, though. One of the grades’ founder members, St Ronald, look certain for promotion... and another old name may re-enter the top flight next year. Artisans have formed a strange alliance with the Cults second team and may be promoted with their suburban cousins - though no-one is quite sure how it will work for Cults to have ‘one-and-a-half’ teams in Grade 1.

But I predict that we shall see.