LAST weekend turned out to be a non-event from the perspective of Greenock’s players and supporters as the action on both days was called off early due to the inability of the opposition to raise a team in the face of competing attractions in Glasgow.

As it turned out, the weather would have dealt the games a fatal blow, so the early call-offs turned out not to be as unfortunate as first feared.

This weekend there are again games organised at Glenpark on both days as the club looks to fill in the gap in the league season that has occurred due to the Commonwealth Games.

On Saturday, the 1st XI entertain Hillhead in a friendly match. Earlier in the season, the Glasgow side defeated a Greenock 11 by two wickets in a closely-fought pre-season encounter.

Greenock will therefore be looking for a little bit of revenge — but more importantly they will be wanting some of their key batsmen to get some precious time in the middle prior to the resumption of league action.

Only Neil Flack has scored runs consistently this summer and if Greenock are to end their season on a positive note, then the rest of the top order have quite simply got to start scoring runs.

A reasonably strong side has been selected for this game, with Jonathan Hempsey skippering in the absence of Shailesh Prabhu. The line-up is: JPC Hempsey (capt), GR Crichton, MI Crichton, FJ Godsman, CJK Hempsey, GJ McDougall, RP Mountford, BR Peterson, SS Sanghera, DK Thomas and an other.

The match starts at 1pm.

Sunday sees something a little different as the Hillend XI take on Inverclyde for the Bell Cup.

This trophy was originally contested by the member clubs of the Greenock Cricket Association as far back as the start of the 20th century.

Even after the Second World War, the local junior cricket scene was a thriving one with fondly remembered clubs, such as Ingleston, Octavia, Rankin Park, Scotts (the predecessors of Inverclyde), Phoenix and of course Hillend, at the forefront. Gradually these clubs disbanded one after the other and now there are just the two left, Inverclyde and Hillend, the latter surviving as Greenock’s Sunday XI.

The Bell Cup was considered to be a most prestigious competition and was always keenly fought for, right up into the 1990s.

The trophy was recently discovered after being thought for a number of years to have been lost.

The idea of a challenge match between Inverclyde and Hillend for the trophy was floated and both sides have agreed that this is a worthwhile venture. It is very much hoped that this will become an annual event.

The action will commence at 1pm.

Greenock Cricket Club is proudly sponsored by Cleaning Supplies 4U.