Last season's success had generated interest in the Club with a large turnout at the AGM. New players had arrived and the team was expected to be stronger than last year and everything pointed to a successful season for the Club.
It began well enough with a victory over Fochabers in a friendly and three straight wins and a drawn in the Morayshire Junior League:
Buckie 89
Fochabers 26 (W A Donald 7 for 9) at Fochabers
Buckie 105 (W A Donald 43)
Cullen 35 (W D MacKenzie 4 for 7, J S Mackie 3 for 4) at Cullen
Buckie 35
Gordonstoun 27 (W A Donald 5 for 10, W Wood 3 for 0) at Gordonstoun
Buckie29
Newmill (E) 23 (W D MacKenzie 5 for 8, W A Donald 3 for 9) at Buckie
Buckie 129 (A C W Lowe 88)
Elgin 2nd XI 57 - 5 (J S Mackie 3 for 11) at Elgin
From then on it was mostly downhill with defeats from Keith (twice) and Fochabers (twice). The only bright spot was a resounding win over Cullen 61 to 7. W A Donald took 7 wickets for 2 runs. Fochabers, who went on to win the League, defeated Buckie by 6 wickets at Buckie in a game which was "entirely spoiled by a thunderstorm". They also won the return game by 5 wickets (Buckie 51 against Fochabers 53 for 8).
Buckie 26 (H Clark 4 for 1, J McWilliam 3 for 13)
Keith 31 (W A Donald 5 for 11, W D MacKenzie 3 for 9) at Buckie
Keith 108
Buckie 49 at Keith
Buckie received a bye in the first round of the Herd Challenge Cup and despite having high hopes of retaining the trophy these were dashed when they visited Keith in the second round.
HERD CHALLENGE CUP
KEITH v BUCKIE Buckie travelled to Keith on Saturday and played Keith CC in the second round of the Herd Challenge Cup. The weather was fine, and there was an exceptionally large attendance of ladies and gentlemen to witness the interesting contest. Buckie had a strong team out, so strong, indeed, that one critic remarked that they were quite able to play fifteen of their opponents; but, unfortunately they were beaten. The reason is hard to explain. The Keith batsmen gave chances enough, but owing to the deplorable state of the ground around the pitch these chances went a begging. Buckie's slow bowling was overdone and many boundaries resulted from this. It seemed to suit the Keith batsmen and they took full advantage of it. When Buckie went to bat the game was practically finished; few had any idea that Buckie would reach Keith's total of 137. The first 3 wickets fell for 10, but thanks to splendid batting by Donald and McKenzie, the decent score of 91 was run up - a score which should have brought them into the final of the cup. Some of the supporters did not show a sporting nature when McWilliam of Keith was run out and kept up a continual booing all through the game. Something better was expected from the Keith crowd, as every time Keith CC has been at Buckie they have been fairly treated by the players and spectators alike. The captain of the Keith team had to request |
some members of the crowd to behave like gentlemen. However, Buckie is not downhearted and hop to meet Keith again in the same competition.
KEITH BUCKIE |
The Buckie 2nd XI were busy too, though unsuccessful on most occasions. They lost three times to Buckie High School and had a victory and a defeat to show for their efforts against Buckie Wednesday.
They also played Thistle FC and could only share the spoils with both teams scoring 33 runs.
Buckie High School played Milnes Institution, Fochabers and won easily 90 runs against 30 runs.
Cricket had really taken off in the town and a report in the "Advertiser" highlighted the fact that a "few years ago there was practically no cricket played and now the Public Park is alive every evening with young and old all taking a part in the summer game. There was a fairly good veterans team which played weekly and the matches with them were proving more interesting than practice"
 |
It was therefore somewhat surprising to find that very little cricket was played in 1913. The Club did not appear to enter the league and cup competitions and the only games played were two friendlies:
Buckie 26
Bishopmill 41 at Buckie
Buckie 25
Cullen 26 for 2 at Cullen
In 1914, an effort was made to revive the game and a match was arranged between veterans and apprentices. There is no indication as to whether the game took place and there is no report of any other games being played.
