A busy Sunday at Saints Sport
Last Sunday was very busy for Saints Sports with two different sporting events taking place in town! On Sunday 17th September, the St Andrews Shinty Tournament and the Cricket Varsity took place.
Sunday saw the re-instatement of the St Andrews Shinty Tournament, which welcomed teams from Newtonmore, Aberdour, Glasgow and Stirling to compete alongside four St Andrews sides. With the magnificent Fingal Shield and the more modern women’s trophy glowering down over the competition, the teams took to the field. Sunday was a cloudy day, which are ideal conditions playing Shinty.
Newtonmore quickly showed their quality, taking apart the teams in their group. St Andrews however, remained the winner as numerous players including Donnefort and Hamish Bos Mutus quickly earned compliments on their goal-stopping ability. Unfortunately, Stirling pipped the St Andrews 1s to the post on a goal difference to set up a rendezvous with Newtonmore in the final. Though they put up a mighty fight, Newtonmore defeated Stirling to emerge victorious.
Whilst the tournament was mixed, there was a women’s only component at the end, where St Andrews showed even more calibre. Under Miz Finx and Kylura’s leadership, the team defeated Glasgow, but were stopped in the final by an experienced Aberdour side. Thanks go to Wendy Chamberlain MP for presenting the trophies.
On the Cricket end of things, the St Andrews Men’s and Women’s teams faced their greatest rivals, Edinburgh, in the annual T20 varsity match.
With the women’s game first, Edinburgh were put into bat first. A vital wicket from Saoirse Rse in the second over of her spell made a blow to Edinburgh’s top order. After a wicket and two run outs from fresher Bella Howarth and some tidy bowling from the rest of the attack, Edinburgh set a target of 152. Abi Mitchell and Bella got off to a good start, but an unfortunate batting collapse meant they were unable to reach the target. Despite the loss, there were some fantastic performances from many of the team and it was great to see so many making their debuts for the Women’s team!
Next was the men’s game and after being put into bat first, they got off to a flying start reaching 50 for no-loss. Fresher-William Perchard top scored with 40, closely followed by Fergus Cato with 39 of just 19 balls. Robbie Innes guided the St Andrew’s innings with class, finishing 34 not out.
Club President, Jamie Innes got the defence off to a top start with a tidy run out and a wicket in the power play. Vice-captain Joe Pattenden finishing the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/0/11/3. Edinburgh gained some momentum through the middle overs before a brace of wickets from Annant Bhargava, with some fantastic catches from Robbie Fyfe and keeper Tim Burgess, dented any hopes of a chase.
Finally, a hoovering 3-fer from skipper tidied up the tail. St Andrews bowled out Edinburgh, 45 short of the target, for 105. A very clinical team performance, particularly in the field, with contributions spread evenly.
Congratulations to both Shinty and Cricket for putting together an entertaining day for the spectators and Saints Sport for supporting in the organisation of this.