Glenrothes Cricket Club 1 st XI began their 2008 campaign with a trip to Edinburgh Accies.  Accies were playing in the national league last season so a difficult trip was expected.

Saturday mornings weather did nothing to inspire with constant rain and winds, however it appeared Edinburgh was perfectly dry!!

New skipper Honeyman lost the toss and was asked to bat on a decent looking early season wicket.  There was a new opening pair in Geoff Sampson and Mike Boyd, Boyd made a brisk and confident start while Sampson played the holding role!  Sampson managed to get off the mark in the 11 th over and promptly saluted his team mates in joy!!

Sampson (20) was the first to go, the first real loose ball that was bowled at him and he popped it up for a simple catch.  Willie Morrison (14) was next in and played some super strokes and was unlucky to drive the ball against his foot and it rebounded to hit the stumps.  Overseas player Arnold was next to join Boyd at the crease and it was the opener who was next to go following the drinks break, chipping one to the point fielder having made a well constructed 48.  Honeyman joined Arnold and it was the South African who was next to go for 13 following a huge six he was out caught next ball in the covers.

Vice-captain Hopcroft joined his skipper at the crease, 2 fours followed before a miscued pull shot went skyward and was caught.  Wicket-keeper Cammy Ross played a cameo with a solid 29 runs to support the lower order.  Glenrothes were all out for 177 runs in the 50 th over.

In reply Edinburgh Accies made a flying start hitting some nice boundaries, Opening pair Lewis and Georgeson had no luck, however Georgeson did make the breakthrough.  Boyd bowled a very steady 10 overs giving very little away, while Slocombe and Arnold bowled at the other end.  Arnold generated some nice turn and had some catches been taken off his bowling his figures may have had a different look to them.  Hopcroft replaced Boyd and took a wicket with his first ball, a good reaction catch by Sim! Hopcroft finished with 3 wickets before being replaced by Georgeson to finish.  Accies were creeping towards the total, however Glens continued to take wickets, Slocombe holding his nerve in the closing stages.  Accies tied the scores with 3 overs remaining and also 3 wickets in hand.  However what happened next was quite amazing, Slocombe had wicket number 1 caught, Georgeson clean bowled wicket number 2 and in the final over amazingly Honeyman dropped a catch but recovered well to run the remaining batsman out.  Scores were level and the result was a tie.  Quite an amazing game which swung both ways and either team could have snatched victory.  With 11 bonus points plus 5 for a tie, 16 points from 20 was a decent start to the season.

The 2 nd XI game with Old Contemptibles was less fortunate, called off early on Saturday morning following 2 days of constant rain.

This week the 1sts are again in Edinburgh playing at Myreside against Watsonians 2nd XI.

Carlton 16pts  Glenrothes 16pts