Scorecard

Forfarshire Cricket Club 1st XI v West Lothian on Sat 05 May 2007 at 1pm
Forfarshire Cricket Club Won 15 runs

Match report The day started overcast but bright, warm and no sign of rain. It must surely be the driest and warmest start to a season – ever! There were a few forced changes from the previous week with Rhino away on Scotland duty and Umi and Neily studying - dam students! Pete lost the toss and we were asked to bat first, which we would have done anyway. Debutant Craig (Wally) Wallace opened the innings with Drummy and the new ball was seen off without too much trouble. Craig was first to go caught behind, and the inform Weed strode out to the crease. It wasn’t long before he and Drummy got into their stride and were building a good partnership. They were able to put pressure on the fielders with some excellent running between the wickets and some well chosen aggressive shots.

Tony soon caught up Drummy’s score and his fifty came up in good time. Unfortunately he didn’t add many more to his score, when he was out caught behind. Drummy completed his fifty and carried on mostly untroubled. Just as we were looking set for a big total the breaks were put on by the loss of quick wickets. Robert chose to hit through the covers in the air rather than on the ground and perished, Chic was bowled off an inside edge and with Richie out caught and AB LBW the scoreboard showed a very different picture. This was surely one of the worst collapses at Forthill for a long time – possibly ever!

There were still quite a few overs left and we needed someone to stay with Drummy, Steve was able to hang around for a while but he too succumbed to the bowling of Dixon. When Blackie was out caught (what did I tell you?) Drummy decided he should be a bit more positive, unfortunately he didn’t quite get hold of it and was caught at mid-on. The innings was wrapped up by a ropey LBW and we were all out with four overs remaining.

Early wickets would be the key and Sam found some swing and continued his good form of the week before to provide just that. The top three batsmen were dismissed for just a few runs but we knew that the pro would be the key wicket. Another good delivery from Sam saw skipper Dixon bowled. An edge dropped short of Drummy behind the stumps and West Lothian staged a recovery, with McOscar supporting Kruger well. When a sharp chance off Kruger went down at Gully we prayed that it wouldn’t cost us the game, Kruger doesn’t offer many chances. After seven tight overs without a wicket, I was replaced by AB who soon found his line and length to continue the pressure.

Gally came on at the other end for his first bowl of the season and looked like he had been playing all winter. An excellent spell was rewarded with two wickets and the important scalp of Kruger. After Umi got the first notch last week Gally made his mark on the pro-counter when Drummy took an excellent low catch. Blackie came on and bowled tidily, the Mighty Q taking another catch in the deep to give Blackie his only wicket of the spell. AB replaced Gally and picked up a wicket and at eight down it was all but over, or was it. Number 9 and 10 showed everyone how it was done and put on some late runs to take them passed the 200 mark. A couple of chances were missed to finish off the innings and get us the extra 2 bonus points.

It was a well earned victory but one that was much closer than it should’ve been. With only 2 batsmen contributing to the total we needed the wides and miss-fields that West Lothian gave us to reach the total. At 140-1 a much bigger total was possible and we were at least forty runs short of what we should have got. We then bowled too many 4-balls and 18 wides to help them gain extra points. I also had to field far too many balls at fine leg, indicating that we were bowling both sides of the wicket. In fact a wagon wheel of their innings would probably reveal that a large percentage of the runs were scored on the leg-side. Verdict: good win but plenty of room for improvement.

Forfarshire Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
217		        
Peter Drummond Caught  92 2
Craig Wallace Caught  12
Tony Weed Caught  51
Robert Cannon Caught  5 1
Graham McLelland Bowled  2
Richard Gallagher Caught  1
Aman Bailwal Lbw  0
Steven Murphy Bowled  6
Graeme Black Caught  4
Graeme Quinn Lbw  1 1
Sam Tilston Not Out  1

West Lothian Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
G McKenzie4.001300.003.25
Matt Dixon6.021700.002.83
A Williamson9.222739.002.89
G Heath9.0054154.006.00
J Smith5.012900.005.80
A Raven5.003500.007.00
Mark Dixon7.002964.834.14

West Lothian Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
202 (0.0 overs)		     
A Raven Caught  12
D Fleming Bowled  1
A Hamilton Lbw  0
K van Wyk Caught  40
Mark Dixon Bowled  16
J McOscar Bowled  43
A Williamson Caught  10
G McKenzie Caught  0
J Smith Not Out  28
G Heath Not Out  27
Matt Dixon  

Forfarshire Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Graeme Quinn10.043400.003.40
Sam Tilston10.0055413.755.50
Aman Bailwal10.0140140.004.00
Richard Gallagher10.0230215.003.00
Graeme Black10.0036136.003.60

  • Umpire :
    M.Flynn & C.Allen
  • Scorer :
    R.Milne