DUNFERMLINE and Carnegie Cricket Club are into the last eight of a national competition but suffered more league disappointment at the weekend.

The McKane Park club's first XI had been due to play two matches in as many matches, the second of which, on Sunday, at Helensburgh in the Scottish Challenge Cup, but advanced without batting a ball after their opponents failed to raise a team.

That came after a convincing defeat at RHS / Corstorphine second XI on Saturday, which has left the West Fifers sitting third bottom of the East of Scotland Cricket Association, League Division Two table.

Put into bat, a line-up without skipper, George Olney, Chris Hill and Yasar Arfat lacked the firepower to mount a reasonable total, with a poor start seeing them collapse to 44 for four.

Although there was a recovery, led by Raja Khurram, their total of 131 was never likely to be enough, even if the hosts didn't bat convincingly, with a couple of dropped catches helping their cause.

However, they stabilised their innings and got home with six wickets to spare, leaving Dunfermline and Carnegie to focus on the last match of their first half of the campaign, at home to leaders Tranent / Preston Village, this weekend.

Club captain, Vasu Reddy, commented: "We were 40 or 50 runs short of a good total and we have get a more stable batting line-up in place for the second part of the season and start winning games."

Dunfermline and Carnegie (6) 131, R Khurram 52, A Xavier 20.

RHS/Corstorphine 2nd XI (20) 132 for 4.

In Division Six, Dunfermline and Carnegie's second XI cemented second spot with a convincing home win over Peebles County (pictured).

On being put in to bat, the hosts did so convincingly, with half centuries from Saeeb Shakoor and Soheil Ali, and other good knocks from David Miller and James Spreng, helping them to a total of 233.

Peebles batted well in reply, but were always struggling to keep up the run ratem and they ended up 61 runs short.

Dunfermline and Carnegie 2nd XI (20) 233 for 6, S Shakoor 53, S Ali 51, D Miller 33, J Spreng 25, R Cox 21 not out, N Jenkins 2 for 35, A Common 2 for 46

Peebles County (8) 172 for 9, P Caddick 50, R Common 45, S Shakoor 3 for 40, S Wilson 2 for 8, M Ashraf 2 for 26.

Dunfermline and Carnegie's third XI put on a promising performance against Leith FAB third XI at the Links on Saturday in a Division Eight game.

Leith batted strongly on taking first lease of the track, but lost wickets along the way, although 253 was a convincing score. However, the young, visiting, Dunfermline and Carnegie side also batted well, with fine contributions along the way from Nishanthan Nithyannathan, Gareth Coles and Callum Bond helping them to a creditable total of 167, their best of the season.

Leith Fab 3rd XI (20) 253 for 7, R Bebba 76, S Soni 60, T Burke 4 for 38.

Dunfermline and Carnegie 3rd XI (9) 167, N Nithyannathan 43, G Coles 31, C Bond 29, C Chaitanya 3 for 16.

Meanwhile, in the Perthshire and Strathmore Cricket Union League, Broomhall were beaten by six wickets by Kinloch second XI.

Broomhall 147 for 4, E Breen 51 not out, C Clegg 49 not out.

Kinloch 2nd XI 148 for 4.