The season is coming to a close too early for Dumfries’s Sunday XI. Gatehouse were the visitors on a perfect cricket day; the sun shining on an immaculate Nunholm.

Batting first Dumfries had to be careful against tidy bowling but made steady progress with the top order all getting starts but failing to go on. Skipper Irwin then upped the tempo with some good strikes through the off side to reach 35, and when he departed Peter Johnstone, with 33 not out, kept rotating the strike to allow top scorer Chris McBride to make an unfussy fifty and newcomer Jack Austin to show off his brand of batting at the end.

A target of 184 to win in the forty overs was, one felt, dependant on Fraser Conn and Howard Bradley making significant contributions and they did not let their team down. Conn was unluckily bowled off his foot from one going down the leg side for 42 and Bradley made his first mistake when victory was in sight with a top score of 56.

The Dumfries bowling was variable. The old heads of Stuart Alexander and Dave Strachan provided the control but no wickets and the young pretenders came up with the wicket-taking deliveries but also some run-making opportunities.

In the end Dumfries were the winners by six runs in a game which could have gone either way.

The Roger Lever Photography Dumfries Man of the Match award went to Dave Strachan; not only for his miserly 7-over spell conceding just 12 runs but in particular for his magnificent slip catch which had the batsman still shaking his head many an over later.

Match Scoreboard: Friendly
Dumfries Sunday XI beat Gatehouse by 7 runs. At Nunholm.
Match ball sponsored by Galloway Industrial
Dumfries Sunday XI 183/5 (40 overs)
C McBride 53 rtd, M Irwin 35, P Johnstone 33 not out,
J Bradshaw 14, G Lyburn 10, D Strachan 14;
B Flack 7 overs 2/39, F Conn 7 overs 1/15, H Bradley 7 overs 1/20
Gatehouse 177/7 (40 overs)
H Bradley 56, Fraser Conn 42;
M Irwin 5 overs 2 for 25, Aidan Collingwood 7 overs 2 for 37, J Cox 7 overs 2 for 44,
Roger Lever Photography Dumfries Man of the Match: D Strachan