Capital rivals Carlton and RH Corstorphine will contest the annual Masterton twenty:20 cricket final at Boghall, Linlithgow, on Wednesday with the former going for a remarkable 16th title since the competition was introduced in 1964.
But RH Corstorphine, who last won in 2009, are optimistic of success even without George Munsey and Brandon McMullen who are on Scotland duty while Manas Sahare, who hit the winning runs – a six – in a rain affected semi-final victory over Stewart’s Melville, is also absent.
Says injured skipper George West: “We have a number of good players ready to step up and among those to look out for are Owen Gould, a batsman who captains Scotland under-19’s, as well as opening pair Anthony Dunford from South Africa via Stirling County and Edinburgh University student Dishan Rame.”
Carlton, whose win two years ago propelled them to a European Champions Cup competition in Malaga, Spain, will be captained by Umair Mohammed who says:
“We have a 13 man squad and will choose the appropriate 11 on the night, taking into consideration the pitch, ground, weather etc.
“Playing at Linlithgow will be a challenge as not many of us have played there recently but I do think it’s important to bring top quality cricket to these lovely grounds in the Lothians.
“Corstorphine are a solid outfit and have beaten some good teams along the way. They have match winners amongst their ranks but the focus will be on how we go about our business and what we need to do to win the game. We can only control the controllables with the added incentive to make it to the national T20 finals day.”
Much might depend on the availability of Hugo Southwell, once on Sussex’s books and a former Scotland rugby full-back. Hugo hit 36 not out in Carlton’s semi-final win over holders, Heriot’s, which eventually beat the weather at the fourth attempt!
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