Scorecard

Dalnacraig v Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI on Sat 10 Aug 2013 at 1pm
Forfarshire Cricket Club Won 6 wickets

Match report Forthill 2nd XI made the short hop into Dundee on Saturday to take on old foes Dalnacraig at the Spider Dome in the latest round of SPCU Div 1 games.

The Dalners lads were sitting proudly at the top of the league and with the Forfarshire lads in the dizzy heights of third spot - this was technically (if unbelievably) a top of the table clash. A young, but strong looking visiting side took to the field when skipper Sim lost the toss and was invited to field first. The home openers of Lindsay and Milne undoubtedly came into the veteran category and Samir and Craig held the upper hand as a variety of play and misses, swishes and edges were displayed. All of this meant a slow run rate; and both bowlers could count themselves very unlucky not to register in the wicket column after fine spells.

Adees also bowled well – as did Andy and wickets started to fall at regular intervals. Hogey also came into the attack and when he bowled Hopkins Senior first ball things were looking good for the visitors. Hogey indeed bowled a fine spell to finish with career best figures of 5 for 23 - and only some late lusty blows straight out of the Sloggers Manual helped Dalnacraig up to a total of 148 all out. This was a good bowling and fielding display from the Forthill lads on what was certainly not the greatest of wickets. Even so – the total was clearly a very achievable one.

Throughout the week preceding this match, home opening bowler Hopkins Junior had used social media outlets to advise the world that his club were going all out to win this year’s Golden Urn. He spoke about all range of topics from marking criteria through to cake icing technique and as a result we were looking forward to a slap up tea. What transpired was a huge disappointment. The sandwich offer was bland at best with a very heavy reliance on all things egg. What looked like a mini pasty had a curry flavoured centre – and what looked like a pakora was a hair ball. The cake offer was worse with no home baking on view and purely some bog standard McVities wrapped treats on show. The tea was wishy washy and the juice weak. No ladies were on view, but to be fair the home team did put forward their wicket keeper who has an ample bosom as a substitute tea pourer.

The home fast bowler who had built up the tea event was conspicuous by his absence from proceedings; and one could only wonder what in his wildest dreams made him think that his club had any chance of winning the best tea in the league! Perhaps young Master Hopkins had taken in some alcohol at the time?
The tea adjudicator swiftly awarded the tea a paltry three out of ten - amid hollers of discontent among his own team mates who thought it was alongside the Rossie Cafe as one to avoid and was not worthy of three points. The tea adjudicator stuck by his mark however and pointed out to the politeness of the tea pourer, the cleanliness of the cups and the comfortable benches as all being worthy of one mark each.

Still hungry, Andy and Calum padded up and Gordon Ramsay’s apprentice took the new ball along with his Dad. It was Hoppy Sr. who made the breakthrough when he bowled Andy – but the young pair of Calum and Hogey then started to tick the score along nicely and were in little trouble against the home attack. Kidderminster came on and his bowling matched his chat as his pies were despatched all around the ground – and in spite of Calum and Hogey departing the combined efforts of Midge and Craig saw the visitors home to a very comfortable six wicket victory.

This win saw Forthill 2nd XI move up to second place in the table just a few points behind Dalnacraig – but with Norwood and Perth Do’ocot also closely placed just behind both sides, an exciting end to the season is on the cards with just three games to go. The elevated league position came as a bit of a surprise to the Forthill lads who hadn’t even looked at the league table for some weeks.

The Man of the Match award went to Hogey for his fine all round contribution and he received a new bin bag to put his plastic bottles in and a buzzer.

The young visiting team all made their way home and the skipper was once again socialising elsewhere – apparently at a Susan Boyle fan club night out – so this left elder statesman Clark to perform the post match opposition team bonding role alone with the High School lads. Ramsay’s apprentice was clearly keen to gain added Golden Urn points - and offered to purchase Clark some amber nectar from the Tayview Hotel - so Clark headed to the appointed watering hole as advised. With no opposition in sight, he bought himself a drink and stood alone for a period of time waiting for the Dalnacraig team to arrive. After a lengthy period of inactivity and reflecting that this is how the first team lads must feel in a night club - to his dismay no one showed up and with great disappointment and loneliness he got into his car and drove home.

At this juncture, Hopkins Junior decided to use the medium of Twitter to advise the world that he and his mates were in the Boars Rock and did I want to join them. By this time I was in Monifieth, and much as I enjoy the valued company of the Heh Skale boys – there was no chance of me doing a U turn and wasting valuable petrol and heading back to down town Dundee.....

So the chance of some chat and the opportunity to hear first hand why the tea was so poor was gone.....

Next week Kinloch are the second last league visitors of the season to Forthill for the Forfs Thirds.

Apparently the skipper is going to record the latest episode of Cricketer’s Come Dancing next weekend, so Sim Junior is due to be at the helm for this encounter. Players selected are asked to get to the ground early so that the stand in skipper can give out name badges and introduce himself to everyone.

Dalnacraig Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
148 (44.2 overs)		     
D Lindsay ct  C Garden b A Cameron 24
L Milne b  Hogarth 35
N Kriz b  Carnegie 26
R Kopkins b  Hogarth 0
J Amin ct  A Cameron b Sargeant 20
B Smith Run out  17
M Saghir ct  Ross b Hogarth 0
S Gjaz ct  Ahmed b Hogarth 0
D Kilminster b  Sargeant 3
G Hopkins Not Out  3
A Lindsay b  Hogarth 0

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Samir Hill6.001800.003.00
Craig McConnachie6.011400.002.33
Adees Ahmed9.032000.002.22
Andrew Cameron7.0015115.002.14
Glenn Carnegie6.0031131.005.17
Jack Hogarth7.212354.603.14
Morgan Sargeant3.001527.505.00

Forfarshire Cricket Club 3rd XI Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
149		        
Andrew Cameron b  R Hopkins 4 1
Callum Garden ct  Kriz b Gjaz 50 1
Jack Hogarth ct  Lindsay b Saghir 42
Fraser Ross Not Out  23 1
Glenn Carnegie ct  Amin b Gjaz 11
Craig McConnachie Not Out  8
Samir Hill  
David Sim  
Clark McConnachie  
Morgan Sargeant  
Adees Ahmed   1

Dalnacraig Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
G Hopkins9.013300.003.67
R Hopkins9.0415115.001.67
D Kilminster5.012700.005.40
M Saghir6.0130130.005.00
S Gjaz7.0033216.504.71
A Lindsay2.001100.005.50