Amazing turnaround earns survival for Westquarter and Redding Cricket Club

Under the inspired captaincy of Umar Salik, Westquarter ended their East of Scotland Cricket Association Division 2 campaign on August 28 by beating Heriots 3 by 41 runs.

"We only won one of our first 10 games,” Salik, 33, of Falkirk, told the Falkirk Herald. “And that was against the leaders Leith at their ground.

"The same team who only won one in 10 games turned everything around.

“The moral of the story for everyone is: ‘Never give up regardless of how things stand’.

"This season we had no permanent captain as the guy from last season – Kevin Misell – was injured.

"I wasn’t the permanent captain when we started our campaign. On the day we won against Leith, I was given the captaincy.

"And after that, the senior people who normally get the role of captain came back – including Alan Reid who was captain – and we lost games back to back.

"They went on holiday and I took charge again and won four in a row.

"It was a great team effort. When I took charge I gave everyone clarity of what their role in the team was.

"We had more team meetings and studied the stats of the other teams so we had a proper plan.

"If we could beat the top team, we knew that we could turn it around and save ourselves from relegation.

"I would like to take on the captaincy full time next year but I think Kevin might step back up again. He’s been a good captain and I was the vice captain last year but obviously we never got the chance to play.”

Having looked in dire straights earlier in the season, Westquarter finished comfortably clear of the bottom two positions, with a seventh place finish on the cards.

A lot of it was down to the considerable efforts of all rounder Salik, their top run scorer of 2021 on 378. With ball in hand he took 31 wickets throughout the year, including a hat-trick against Callander CC.

Another star performer was Richard Tresidder, who scored 211 runs and took 29 wickets in a fine campaign.

Other top men were Zaki Ausat: 155 runs and 24 wickets; Sidhant Mankar: 201 runs with 50.25 average and 7 wickets; Adham Aslam: 291 runs and 2 wickets.

Away from the men’s league season, the club has played its first ever hard ball women’s games after a tie up with Callander Cricket Club.

This sees the two clubs combining to field a ladies hardball team taking on Stewarts Melville, Royal High Corstorphine and Carlton in friendly games during the summer.

This is just the start with more hardball games planned for next year as the club looks to grow its female section which also includes a plan to enter Cricket Scotland’s Wee Bash ladies softball competition during the winter.

Westquarter and Redding Cricket Club are a friendly local club in Falkirk who are always looking for new members, players and volunteers.

If anyone is interested to join the club please get in touch via email at [email protected] or call Umar on 07468 518384.