Scorecard

Perth Doo'cot 2nd XI v Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 13 Aug 2016 at 1pm
Forfarshire Cricket Club Lost 39 runs

Match report With the league season hurtling to a close; Forfarshire 3rd XI’s third last game of the season was a trip along the Dundee/Perth dual carriageway to Pigeon Loft Park to take on Perth Pirates 2nd XI.

Arrival at the ground unveiled a soft wicket and some old sages predicted a low scoring game……. With eight visiting players safely at the ground; the only players missing were the travelling Walker party. A sweepstake was hurriedly prepared with the questions being a) what time would the Walker station wagon arrive and b) how many of the scheduled three players would be in attendance. With a scheduled start time for the game of 1pm; predictions ranged from 12.55pm to 1.20pm…. and either a full complement or just one missing player was among the range of guesses. The car turned up and the adjudicator ruled that an arrival time of 12.54pm - and a full trio of players appeared. This meant that no one won the money this week and the jackpot is rolled over to next week.

The Pirates won the toss and opted to bat first under sunny skies.

Kailas and Lewis were the youthful pair entrusted with the old new ball and both bowled excellent spells. Lewis once again displayed great accuracy for his 13 years of age and continues to show great promise. Kailas bowled his full spell and finished with deserved figures of 3 for 23 from 9 very good overs. This good start put the Ferry team on top and Blair and his Dad continued the good work with tight spells of spin bowling that were hard to get away. We did have a couple of appeals for catches behind the wicket turned down against two of the Pirates better players which would have been handy dismissals for us. The refusal of the one that lobbed off the outside edge to first slip was particularly hard to comprehend. The explanation from our hosts was that the umpire thought it was perhaps a bumped ball…. and the batsmen incredibly claimed that he didn’t even hit it! Clearly very differing versions of events.

For regular followers of Forfarshire CC you could imagine the amazement that the batsmen was by default suggesting that Ted had turned the ball so far that it ended in first slip's hand’s…

James came on and also bowled very well and with some more luck (and better catching from his fielders) could have finished with even better figures than his return of 3 for 29. Rohan also bowled at the tail end of the innings and for his 13 years of age showed great control in bowling a tight line and also continues to improve on a weekly basis.

At the end of the innings, the Pirates had mustered 137 all out and with a bit of luck and some slightly better fielding this total could have been 20 or 30 runs lower. Credit goes to the young bowling attack (plus Ted) for a fine display and there are great signs of progress among many of our young players.

There was relief from a cricketing point of view that Frank McGaffney was not in the visitor’s ranks; however there was huge disappointment from a food perspective that his absence meant that we were not provided with the now famous Victoria Sponge from the wee bakery in Auchterarder. The tea table was clearly a poorer place without Frank’s cake… and it has to be said that the remaining fare was average at best. Let’s start with the plus point. You do get a good cup of tea at the Loft. It is served in a nice sized cup and it is a flavour filled brew. As for the rest of it… Average sandwiches, average cakes, no inspiration and no real effort it appears on the food provision front…… 40 out of 100 was awarded in points terms; and there is no chance it would appear of the Loft custodians ever getting their hands on the Golden Urn to adorn their quaint tea room. The only chance they have of securing the urn next season would be if Jamie Oliver signs up for them as a coach.

With tea consumed, 138 was needed to secure victory; but we knew that on the soft track and against a decent attack this would be a tricky task. The Sim brothers opened up and a solid start was the instruction. A few scares were survived against some good opening bowling, although the opener from the Scone Road end was a bit erratic and served up some welcome wides which kept the board ticking. David fell to a catch behind and did the right thing by immediately walking when he hit the ball. Steven soon followed when bowled by a nice delivery and this brought Cammy and Craig together. They were batting away nicely, but with slow bowling now introduced run scoring became harder. Craig edged behind and also walked off and young Lewis was next in. He also played well and a bit of a comeback was on the cards when Cammy unfortunately popped one up to cover having played well.

If ever a captain’s innings was needed, today was the day. Solid defence and sensible play to keep the board rolling - and staying at the crease and helping the young players around him was expected. Clark proceeded to immediately try and plant Khalil into the tattie field on the leg side…..but missed the ball and was bowled. Not a career highlight…

Lewis and Blair also did well but couldn’t quite build the innings needed to see us home – and it was the better looking of all the Sims in the shape of young James who produced the best batting display for the visitors mixing sound defence with some good attacking intent to score a fine 23. However overs and partners ran out and eventually the innings closed on 100 in spite of the best efforts of Kailas and Rohan.
This was a case of so near yet so far. If we had managed to keep the first innings to 100/110 then it would have been a different game. If one of our more experienced players had managed to spend more time at the crease….well who knows.

The upshot was a defeat; although some valuable bowling points were accrued. The big bonus of the day was a fine bowling and fielding display and great signs for the future.

With only two games remaining the Ferry side remain second bottom of the table and still just ahead of the Dalnacraig Dodgers. The two remaining games for us are a home game with St Andrews Academicals on Sunday then a long trip to St Modans Sunrisers to round off the season. This one will go down to the wire!

As for the far more important 2016 Golden Urn, Forfarshire Third Team hold pole position after a magnificent and varied feast a few weeks back. A final home fixture on Sunday is a chance to end the season with a bang and further increase the lead. Interestingly, St Modans did hold the lead after a fine tea earlier this season and they have the opportunity in the final game to lay on a feed fit for a king and steal the spoils. This one will go down to the wire as well….

On reflection, a relegation would mean that we would once again get to play Arbroath and the chance to get a braw tea for once! Every cloud has a silver lining…..






Perth Doo'cot 2nd XI Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
139 (44.1 overs)		     
S Cranston b  Narayanan 8
D Armstrong lbw  Narayanan 15
E Nicoll b  Narayanan 17
F Ali Run out  23
K Khalil ct  McConnachie snr b B Walker 6
A Hussain Run out  34
H Gow b  J Sim 0
R Armstrong b  J Sim 4
K Sarhal ct  B Walker b Tauro 11
M Rehman ct  & b J Sim 1
T Rehman Not Out  4

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Kailas Narayanan9.002538.332.78
Lewis Robinson5.001200.002.40
Blair Walker9.0025125.002.78
Gordon Walker9.002300.002.56
James Sim8.012939.673.63
Rohan Tauro4.1016116.003.84

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
100		        
Steven Sim ct  R Armstrong 5
David Sim ct  D Armstrong b Sarhal 2
Cameron Walker ct  R Armstrong b Rehman 12
Craig McConnachie ct  D Armstrong b Khalil 4
Lewis Robinson ct  R Armstrong b Rehman 11
Clark McConnachie b  Khalil 2 1
Blair Walker b  Khalil 7 1
James Sim ct  Nicol b Ali 23 1
Kailas Narayanan ct  D Armstrong b Rehman 4
Rohan Tauro b  Ali 3
Gordon Walker Not Out  0

Perth Doo'cot 2nd XI Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
K Sarhal 9.0127127.003.00
R Armstrong 9.0217117.001.89
K Khalil 9.001635.331.78
M Rehman 7.021427.002.00
T Rehman 3.01414.001.33
E Nicoll 2.00700.003.50
F Ali 0.50422.004.80