Scorecard

Kinloch v Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sun 05 Aug 2012 at 1pm
Forfarshire Cricket Club Lost 1 run

Match report
Forthill 2nd XI headed across the Tay Bridge to St Andrews to play Kinloch on a murky August day – but at least it wasn’t raining. On arriving at the ground there was no opposition in sight.........and much confusion over where we were changing and where we were playing... The groundsman sent us packing from the normal changing facilities to another venue which was proving hard to locate – and then word eventually arrived from the Kinloch players (by now arriving) that we were actually using the facilities at the first place we had all gone to....!!!

After finally undressing; we were then advised that we were not playing on the cricket pitch directly outside the pavilion we were in – but instead had around a half mile hike to another adjacent ground. The poor start to the day was further added to when it was found that the toilet facilities in a room right next to the changing rooms were locked.........but thankfully an open cubicle was finally found in the darkest depths of the tea pavilion. After all of this – we set eyes on the square for the first time and saw a very green looking pitch; with the only thing identifying the match strip from the rest of the square being some white crease markings.

Simmy lost the toss and Kinloch perhaps surprisingly opted to bat first.

With overcast conditions and such a green wicket; the bowlers not surprisingly had the upper hand with movement in the air and off the wicket being the order of the day. Batting was proving tricky and a succession of wickets fell at regular intervals and the bowlers all enjoyed success. A very slow outfield also made hitting boundaries difficult. Only Khan (21) for the home team managed to come close to mastering the conditions and some lusty blows at the end from Whisson (19) helped to get the score up to 81 off 26 overs before the innings closed. Chris was the most successful bowler with figures of 4 for 23.

It was decided to turn around immediately and the Forthill early order batters found similar difficulty with batting as the Kinloch bowlers also found the conditions helpful. From a dodgy looking 10 for 3 Clark and Glenn took the score to 42 for 3 after 15 overs when perhaps surprisingly it was decided to take tea.

So..........a half mile hike back to the tea pavilion was undertaken. Perhaps it has been forgotten what the point of cricket teas are in some clubs – but as a reminder; it is a chance to offer some hospitality to the visiting club by providing suitable fare that will help to feed the players during what is a long day and having travelled to play the fixture. This gesture is then reciprocated when the reverse fixture is played. It is part of the fabric of the game of cricket and should not be neglected or forgotten. We found before us a large Tupperware box that was filled with a combo of coronation chicken and egg sandwiches. Whoever brought that box can be free of criticism as they had clearly made an effort. The other assembled offering of two quiches, a packet of potato scones ( free of topping), a packet of custard creams and a packet of bourbons was hardly enough to feed two teams of cricketers...!!

One could only assume that a number of the opposition players had failed to bring any tea and Kinloch obviously have no one performing the DT tea monitor role like we have at Forthill... A first ever zero out of ten tea mark was awarded by the tea adjudicator.

A further half mile hike back to the pitch was undertaken and proceedings re-started.

Young Hogey adjudged Clark (20) LBW and this led to a mini collapse which saw Forthill move from 43 for 3 to 50 for 7 and Kinloch smelled an unlikely victory. Younus (4 for 10) was the main wicket taker. Simmy came to the wicket and in typical fashion dug in and he and Glenn took the total up to 62 when Glenn (21) fell to a smart catch at point. Young Connor came in and did well and he and the skipper edged closer to the winning post when Simmy was pouched at cover with seven still needed. Morgan was last man and he joined Connor and they did well to survive some good bowling and nudged towards the 82 needed for victory. With one run still required Connor was unfortunately bowled by a good delivery and Kinloch secured an unlikely victory by one run and the narrowest of margins.

Credit goes to Kinloch for bowling and fielding well and this was a harsh lesson for the Forthill youngsters in chasing a low total in difficult conditions against experienced bowlers. The order of the day was to defend the good ball and wait for a scoring opportunity and above all protect your wicket. Too many players failed to follow this set of golden rules.

The tricky wicket, slow outfield and overcast conditions gave the bowlers the upper hand all day and it was no surprise that a low scoring encounter ensued. As is often the case with low scoring games – an exciting finish was the upshot and unfortunately we ended up just one run short of victory and Kinloch claimed the 25 points for victory and cemented third spot in the table...

That covers the cricket.....

Regular readers of this match report will know that a degree of humour is always injected into these reports and they are designed to be “fun” reading for anyone who cares to look in and catch up with Forthill 2nd XI events. On this occasion it is difficult to add any humour as this was a day when unfortunately the latter part of the game will be memorable for some unsavoury on field behaviour as opposed to the very close and exciting game of cricket it ended up being.

Forthill 2nd XI as a team is renowned for fielding teams full of young cricketers who are learning their way in the game. The senior players who look after the boys take their responsibilities very seriously and do their utmost to teach the boys the good things about the game – including to play in a sporting manner and to uphold the virtues of the game of cricket. In this particular fixture we had only two players over the age of 18 - which means at times we need to ask young players to perform umpiring duties and this is never an easy task for anyone and especially for youngsters as young as 14 who are pressed into duty. If asked to umpire, we try to get these boys to perform this task diligently, fairly and to the best of their ability.

On this day particularly; with lots of movement in the air and off the pitch, the adjudging of LBW’s was very difficult and on many occasions the Kinloch bowlers chose to bowl around the wicket which means securing a successful LBW decision becomes even more unlikely. It seemed that every time the ball hit the pads an appeal followed irrespective of where the ball had pitched or was heading.

The game then reached a conclusion. It is obviously fair for any team to celebrate a wicket under any circumstances and especially in tight matches like this one. But it has to be remembered that this was an SPCU First Division game being played on the back pitch at St Andrews University playing fields – but such were the celebrations when the final wicket was taken you had to wonder whether some of the players thought they had indeed just won the World Cup.

Incorrectly (but perhaps unsurprisingly) some of the young Forthill players reacted and took exception to this and they must learn not to react.

Welcome apologies for the events were dished out afterwards by senior Kinloch players.

For this correspondent who is in the final throes of a long cricketing career and who thought he had seen it all...............this was a new (and unfortunately not very pleasant) experience.....!!!

Next week sees us make the Saturday trip to Coupar Angus to take on the local side on the artificial wicket at Larghan Park. Let’s hope for a better day all round...!!

Kinloch Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
81 (0.0 overs)		     
B Shakir b  Hogarth 1
R Bowman ct  Carnegie b Hogarth 8
K Ramprasad ct  A Hill b Carnegie 14
K Khan ct  McConnachie b Welsh 23
S Mangi b  Carnegie 0
R Sharma ct  McConnachie Welsh 1
K McGregor ct  McConnachie b Welsh 3
S Whisson ct  Johnston b McConnachie 19
Z Younis Not Out  2
-  
-  

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Jack Hogarth6.001326.502.17
Samir Hill6.021100.001.83
Glenn Carnegie6.011628.002.67
Christopher Welsh7.102337.673.21
Craig McConnachie2.0014114.007.00

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 6w 3lb 
for 10 wickets
10
80		        
Jack Hogarth b  Ramprasad 1
Rory Johnston lbw  Bowman 0
Adam Hill ct  McGregor b Bowman 14
Glenn Carnegie ct  b Ramprasad 21
Clark McConnachie lbw  Younis 20
Samir Hill ct  Shakir b Younis 0
Christopher Welsh b  Younis 0
Craig McConnachie b  Younis 0
David Sim ct  Shakir b Bowman 11
Connor Wilson b  Shakir 2
Morgan Sargeant Not Out  1

Kinloch Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
R Bowman9.002237.332.44
K Ramprasad9.0223211.502.56
K Khan9.021800.002.00
Z Younis9.031042.501.11
S Whisson1.00500.005.00
B Shakir1.41010.000.00