Gala 2nd XI welcomed Peebles County to Meigle Park on Saturday in their first pre-season game of 2022. With a mix of youth and experience, Gala challenged the away side unfortunately losing out by 4 wickets. Gala can be proud of their performance against a good Peebles side who are placed a league above them in the ESCA system.

Winning the toss Gala elected to bat first with openers Ross Patterson and John Imray. The pair got off to a good start taking the home side to the half century mark before Patterson was caught by Gallop off the bowling of Burns. Shortly after Shutte grabbed the away side’s second wicket with the young Imray falling for 22. With the dismissal of the opening pair, Gala struggled to keep up the scoring losing 4 wickets for just 11 runs. With a little fight back from James Boyle (12) and extras (18) meant Gala got up to a defendable score of 107 off of 36 overs. Schutte and Gallop were the pick of the Peebles bowlers with the former picking up 3 and the latter 2.

The Peebles innings started off well for the Gala bowlers and Thomson and Skeldon both picked up one each. A Skeldon picked up 1 more wicket and Thomson 3 more as the pair regularly took wickets in the Peebles innings however, the hard work would be undone thanks to a brilliant half century from Caddick as he and Burns (19) saw off the Gala bowlers and knocked off the runs with 7 overs to spare and 4 wickets in hand. Thomson picked up 4 wickets as well as a catch to match Skeldon’s 2 wickets with Kenny Paterson, Caitlin Ormiston, and Rhys Gilchrist each taking a catch to contribute to the Gala defence.

Gala can be proud of the effort they put into the game with plenty of positives to take from the game. The team will look to go one better this week when they welcome Edinburgh South to Meigle Park for their 2nd pre-season fixture. As always thanks to Peebles for coming and we wish them all the best this season in division 5.

GALA SCORECARD
R Patterson c A Gallop b N Burns 27
J Imray c N Burns b T Schutte 22
S Anderson b T Schutte 8
S Paterson c unsure b A Gallop 7
R Anderson b A Pace 7
C Thomson c A Gallop b T Schutte 0
R Gilchrist run out 0
J Boyle lbw A Hayward 12
L Skeldon c K Easter b A Gallop 5
C Ormiston c Jenkins b A Common 1
K Paterson Not Out 1

Extras – 18
Gala 107 all out from 36 overs
Fall of Wickets: 1-51, 2-58, 3-66, 4-69, 5-69, 6-69, 7-92, 8-102, 9, 105, 10-107

PEEBLES BOWLING
A Hayward 5-1-6-1
A Common 6-2-14-1
R Common 5-0-25-0
N Burns 6-0-14-1
T Schutte 5-0-18-3
A Gallop 5-1-10-2
N Jenkins 2-0-14-0
A Pace 2-1-4-1

PEEBLES SCORECARD
A Gallop c C Thomson b L Skelson 17
A Pace c K Paterson b C Thomson 2
R Common c C Ormiston b C Thomson 1
P Caddick not out 52
A Common c R Gilchrist b L Skeldon 1
K Easter b C Thomson 5
T Schutte lbw C Thomson 4
N Burns 19
Extras 8

Peebles 109-6 off 33 overs.
Fall of Wickets: 1-7, 2-13, 3-32, 4-47, 5-64, 6-72

GALA BOWLING
C Thomson 7-1-19-4
S Paterson 7-1-17-0
L Skeldon 8-0-31-2
C Ormiston 7-0-35-0
R Gilchrist 4-0-4-0