Glenrothes 2 nd XI vs Kirk Brae

Glens traveled to the capital for their first league game of 2006 , revisiting the ground where they finished the 2005 season, but against different opponents.

Kirk Brae had came up to division 5 after finishing second in division 6 last year and are hotly tipped to do well this season.

Skipper Gould lost the toss and his opposite number elected to field.

Glenrothes went with experience in their opening pairing of Dave Snook and Club president Geoff Sampson and got off to the worst possible start. Snook , after hitting the second ball of the day for 4, clipped the 4 th delivery to square leg and was caught.

Nigel Duthie, back at the club after a few years break, joined Geoff at the crease and the pair started to put some runs on the board. Nigel had moved onto 8 by the 9 over when Kirk Brae skipper Sangster clean bowled him. Newcomer Eddie Gibbs came in at number 4 and with only a 1 hour session in the nets in the last 10 years , he looked rusty as he followed Duthie back to the pavilion in the same over for the first duck of the day. Experienced campaigner John Bell came and went for nothing and Glens were reeling under the Kirk Brae openers onslaught. Craig Gould entered the fray and he and Sampson steadied the ship for the next few overs and successfully saw off the home teams opening bowlers, with a mainly defensive action. Having done the hard job, Gould then fell to an innocuous delivery from first change Blake for 7. Chris Yarwood (0) was then victim of a dubious LBW decision, when the ball appeared to hit his bat first ! Ross Mearns joined the ‘duck’ crew minutes later and was replaced by last minute call up and new club player , Robert Swan. Geoff Sampson finally succumbed after a hard fought 15 in 21 overs and was replaced by Gav Henderson.

Swan took the attack to Kirk Brae and smashed 12 in one over, including a gloriously massive six. Henderson then made it five ducks for Glenrothes and this left a last wicket partnership of Swan and birthday boy Tom Dick. Tom looked in good form, but he was left by himself when Swan swung and missed at a delivery that was on the stumps. Glenrothes had failed miserably with the bat and were all out for 66.

Glenrothes’ only hope was to bowl and field superbly well and hope for a collapse from the Kirk Brae batsmen. Elder statesmen Snook and Bell opened the bowling for Glenrothes and soon they were giving a glimpse of hope for an unlikely victory with Bell belying the years and taking an excellent 3 wickets for 14 runs in his 9 overs, and Snook backing that up with an admirable 1 for 27 from 9 overs. This is where Glenrothes hit a problem – due to call offs during the week, the 2nds had been weakened by the loss of normal opener Darren Lewis and occasional bowlers Andy muir and Brian Morris who had been called upto the first eleven and with only Ross Mearns as a recognized bowler, Skipper Gould had to bowl himself in a competitive match for the first time in 2 years. Despite Mearns claiming one more wicket via an LBW decision, Kirk Brae reached their target with 5 wickets in hand – although their match winning batsmen, Lynch (25no), should have walked first ball when a ‘plum’ LBW decision was turned down by the Kirk Brae umpire. Whether this would have made any decision to the result is debatable, but at the end of the day Glenrothes were well beaten due to their miserable batting performance.

Match result – Kirk Brae 20 points – Glenrothes 2nds 3 points.

Glenrothes will now look to their first home game this week versus Leith Beige to kickstart their season.

Click here for Saturdays scorecard