Scorecard

Arbroath United v Forfarshire Cricket Club 2nd XI on Tue 22 May 2012 at 6.15pm
Forfarshire Cricket Club Lost 8 wickets

Match report Forthill XI made their season’s bow in the Three Counties Cup and made the short trip down the A92 to a sun drenched Lochlands to meet Arbroath XI. It was a mixed team that was on show for Forthill with sundry young and old third team players being drafted in to make up the numbers. The Arbroath side was strengthened by the presence of both their club professional and also Scotland prospect Calvin Burnett who both qualified to play under the current cup rules.

The team gathered in the rather cramped visitor dressing room. Ted entered the area and it immediately started to stink of cigarettes and when he opened his bag other sundry smells filled the air. This when married with Lachlan’s visit to the little boy’s room, quickly saw the room empty. Howie lost the toss and we were inserted and Arbroath bowled well up front. It quickly became apparent that the wicket was a little slow and run scoring was tricky. Clark was first to go when he expertly picked out the home pro’s hands on the extra cover boundary. Lachlan came in at three and played some nice shots before Howie fell trying to push the score along. The pattern of the innings was set. Tight bowling, difficulty in scoring runs, regular wickets falling in hopeless pursuit of runs...

Scott was the only one looking comfortable and he was then unfortunately run out by Butts. The very next ball Butts then almost ran out Scott’s brother Andy without him facing. If he had been successful, one could only presume that Scott and Andy’s father would have been on the pitch filling in Butts. The innings folded meekly in the face of some good pace bowling by Burnett and some very tight bowling from the professional (2 for 8 from 4 overs) and a meagre total of 75 was the result.

This correspondent was disappointed that there was no tea in between innings as that was the only reason he agreed to play...............

It was clear we needed a miracle to gain victory and after a few overs Arbroath looked quite comfortable and in spite of us picking up a couple of wickets on the way and trying manfully; the winning runs were hit off the first ball of the eleventh over. Calvin Burnett carried his bat in a nice unbeaten knock.

In truth – this was a hiding.......and we were well beaten by a better side.

There does seem to be a little bit of a worrying trend in the three and two counties cups these days where teams take advantage of the rules, bring in players who regularly play at a higher level and give them prominence in an attempt to secure victory. One feels a little sorry for the guys who regularly play in these sides only to be left out to accommodate these players, and also for the guys who do play - but have to go through the game without batting and bowling when they are used to a more active role in the side. The rules obviously cannot be written to ensure every eventuality is covered – but clubs themselves can ensure they select only players who regularly play at the level concerned. If they do HAVE to select players from a higher level due to genuine lack of numbers then the skippers can easily ensure they bat low down the order and do not bowl.

This should not be read as sour grapes on this particular occasion; but maybe the Union and the clubs can show some common sense and return these competitions to genuine contests between players who regularly play at this level?

Pride was duly swallowed after the game – and the evening was complete when immersion difficulties were encountered, hot water could not be secured and a shower was not able to be taken. Smelling like Teddy’s bag on a hot day – we went to the bar and shared a drink with our friends from Arbroath and put the Three Counties champagne on ice for another year.

Forfarshire Cricket Club 2nd XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
3b 3lb 
for 10 wickets
6
76		        
Graeme Garden ct Gove b Plomer 13 26 1 50.0
Clark McConnachie ct Vithana b Plomer 6 7 1 85.71
Lachlan Tosh ct Swan b Burnett 14 20 1 70.0
Dennis Petrie b Fleming 6 29 20.69
Scott Cameron Run out  19 20 3 95.00
Adam Hill ct Hurst b Vithana 1 6 16.67
Lindsay Garden Run out  4 10 40.0
Andrew Cameron Run out  3 5 60.0 1
Jack Hogarth Not Out  3 5 60.0
Glenn Carnegie Not Out  1 2 50.0
Gordon Walker  

Arbroath United Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
M Hurst4.001100.002.75
R Plomer4.001427.003.50
C Burnett4.0016116.004.00
M Fleming3.0113113.004.33
H Vithana4.00818.002.00
C Ross1.00800.008.00

Arbroath United Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
6w 4b 1lb 
for 2 wickets
11
79 (10.1 overs)		     
J Plomer ct A Cameron b Petrie 19
C Burnett Not Out  37
H Vithana Run out  7
M Gove Not Out  5
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Forfarshire Cricket Club 2nd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Scott Cameron3.001600.005.33
Dennis Petrie3.0014114.004.67
Gordon Walker2.001500.007.50
Andrew Cameron1.001900.0019.00
Glenn Carnegie1.00600.006.00
Jack Hogarth0.10400.0024.00