Kingholm are Champions!

Just two years after St Michael's won the Western Union Division II, the club again hit the heights when second string Kingholm maintained an excellent unbeaten record to become the clear winners of this season's Division IV. The team's overall record was:-

Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	Points	%
14	10	0	4	307	87.71

With Scotland juniors Bellwood, Brockwell and Marscheider in the squad, it had been expected that Kingholm would perform creditably. In fact, First XI call-ups and representative commitments meant that none of the trio were by any means ever present, and all regular players had a role in the team's success.

The statistics may suggest an easy ride but several fixtures could in fact have resulted in bad defeats but for outstanding individual performances.

The very first game was a good example, when having dismissed Whitehaugh for 64, it took careful innings from Alastair Smith (23 not out) and Davey Armstrong (19) to hold out for victory from 25-6.

Similar feats were achieved all season and included Chris Bellwood's devestating 4-7 (at home) and match-saving 90 not out (away) against Garscube, late wickets by Kenny Wilson and Kim Bellwood to save the home fixture versus Inverclyde in the dying overs, as well as big innings by Scott McCann, Chris Brockwell, Alan Coulter and Ross Marscheider to defeat Helensburgh, Clydesdale (twice) and Inverclyde away.

When there were not enough runs on the board, late flourishes by Kim Bellwood and Alex Taylor or steadier efforts by Colin Taylor and Alan Cringean came to the rescue. On the one occasion when the team seemed in real trouble and Ardrossan had slogged their way to 229-7 at the Kingholm, the heavens intervened and washed out any further play.

In spite of some batting collapses several batsmen got among the runs and Ross Marscheider lead the averages with an excellent 64.7. Outstandingly, just three bowlers - Kenny Wilson and the two Bellwoods - shared a massive 72 wickets between them.

But overall, success was down to a series of combatative, determined performances from a squad whose main form of celebration was just to go out and win again. By the last game of the season, when Rouken Glen were dismissed for just 11 by an injury hit squad, it was becoming a habit.

21/09/06