Clydesdale booked a Scottish Cup final date with holders Heriot’s next month thanks to a five-wicket win over Ferguslie at Meikleriggs.

Adil Ghaffar, a former Ferguslie favourite, put his old team on the back foot with a winning haul of 6-25. Only Taimoor Ahmed offered the Paisley team some hope with an 83-ball 56 but the next highest contribution to a total of 148 was a generous 34 Extras from the ‘Dale bowlers who contrived to deliver 27 Wides.

Clydesdale’s chase was steered by former skipper Paddy Barbour whose 81-ball 57 included seven boundaries and a maximum, taking the Glasgow team within 28 runs of their target. When he departed, Ghaffar displayed his batting skills with an unbeaten 23 to carry ‘Dale to a five-wicket win with more than eighteen overs in hand.

Falkland produced the shock of the Eastern Premier season so far with a brilliant 11-run win over champions Heriot’s at Scroggie Park. The Edinburgh side went into the clash as unbeaten league leaders, their only blemish being a tied match also against Falkland early in the campaign. And, despite dominating large chunks of Saturday’s clash, Heriot’s found themselves up against a team who refused to accept second best.

After opting to bat, the Fifers were in danger of squandering a promising start before battling their way to 224-8. It looked like being a lot more when Jack Henderson (18) and Steven Meikle put on 47 for the first wicket. Meikle and Jarryd Lookwhy carried on the good work, taking the tally to 111 before the former fell for a patient 44 including seven boundaries.  His departure sparked a middle order collapse with Asif Khan – later the hero –falling for a duck before Lookwhy followed for 43.

The Fifers were imploding until Julian de Jager counter-attacked with a brilliant 53-ball 70no including five boundaries and the same number of sixes. Falkland still appeared to be a few runs short at the halfway stage while Heriot’s could be satisfied with their work in the field, Charlie Cassell, Gavin Main and Ryan Brown all taking two wickets.

The champions strengthened their grip by cruising to 75-0 and then 158-3. However, when Logan Briggs trapped top scorer Cassell for 65, the Fifers seized control, claiming the final seven wickets for 55 runs.

Asif Khan sparked panic by claiming three wickets in a single pivotal over and went on to finish with 5-32 while Taha Khan took 3-26 including the clinching one of Ryan Brown who had threatened to guide the visitors to their target with a spirited 30.

Former skipper Henderson, who made his return following a short break from the game, said: “I’d say they won 80% of the game but we won the 20% that mattered.

“First innings we held it together with great knocks from Jarryd and Steven, then Julian came in and paced an innings perfectly - but we were probably 30/40 runs short. Second innings we knew they would come at us hard but we didn’t panic which was the key. Then Asif came on and ripped through the middle order which shifted the momentum in our favour.”

Elsewhere, the league’s two in-form batters, Liam Naylor and Callum Garden, continued their extraordinary run-scoring exploits.

Naylor notched his sixth century of the campaign, though on this occasion it was in a losing cause against Carlton at Grange Loan. He reached three figures at a relatively sedate pace – 109 deliveries – though he accelerated to post 140 with sixteen boundaries and just one maximum before being eighth out.

It was a measure of the top scorer’s dominance that the next highest contribution to RHC’s total of 266 was Kess Sajjad’s 32 while Ollie Davidson and Harry Simpson claimed three wickets apiece to keep Carlton in contention.

Struggling early on 26-2 and 67-4, the home side were put on course by an 88-run stand between Dan de Costa and James Stronach. The latter became one of Tyler Stagg’s four victims – three clean-bowled – for a run-a-ball 36 while de Costa went on to reach 96 with fourteen boundaries before also falling to Stagg with his side still 51 runs short of the target.

However, Simpson completed a fine all-round display with a valuable 46 before Fergus Foley’s unbeaten 21 secured a two-wicket win with eight balls to spare.

Meanwhile Garden scored 107 of his team’s 181 runs in an easy eight-wicket win at Edinburgh South, the Forfarshire man completing a second consecutive league century and his third of the campaign.

Arbroath returned to winning ways against Stewarts Melville at Lochlands where Jack Plomer and Hayden Laing scored half-centuries in a total of 237 before Craig Ramsay’s 5-33 helped secure victory by 63 runs. 

Meigle remain rooted to the bottom despite a spirited display against Grange at Portgower Place, the visitors falling 19 runs short of a 255 target.

Grange needed lower order contributions from Freddie Huddleston (42) and Dewi Jones (52) to post a challenging total before Jones claimed four wickets to complete a good day’s work.