Glenrothes 2nd XI v Marchmont 2nd XI

Glenrothes 2nds made the trip “o’er the watter’ for the second time in three weeks to take on Marchmont 2s at Cavalry Park. Skipper Gould broke his duck for the season when he called correctly and won the toss , and promptly put the capital side into bat.

Glens stuck with the opening bowling partnership of Snook and Bell, and both bowlers made runs hard to come by for batsmen 1 and 2 of Marchmont.

Gould made a bowling change after 13 overs, bringing on paceman Ian Georgeson in place of Dave Snook who was tiring slightly, and it was to be Georgeson who made the breakthrough for Glenrothes, sending the stumps of opener Webster skittling with a fine delivery.  Some fine fielding, most notably from Robert Swan was backing up the bowlers at this point. John Bell finished his 9 overs with excellent figures, but undeservedly no wickets, of 3 maidens and only 15 runs from his spell. Leg Spinner Ross Mearns was brought into the attack to give the batsmen something different to think about, and the Marchmont pairing slowly increased their tally. Gould replaced Mearns from the top end after he had bowled 3 overs and the Marchmont score was on 89 when the skipper took the scalp of the Australian opener Braddon (38) catching him full on the toes for an unquestionable LBW. Georgeson finished his 9 overs with 1 wicket for 35 runs. Snook came back on to complete his 9 overs and managed to take a catch off his own bowling to dismiss Clayton with the score on 116. Gould replaced himself with Tom Kimmet at the top end and Mearns came back on from the bottom end, but the batsmen quickly got the measure of the young spinner as they upped their run rate. Gould returned to the fray and picked up the wicket of the Marchmont Skipper Snowdon for 53, courtesy of the quick hands of Geoff Sampson with a stumping,  with the score now 161 for 4.

Granger and Crabbe saw the marchmont innings to its close , despite several close calls and lucky shots. The Marchmont total had reached 185 as the Glenrothes fielding standards dropped as the innings wore on, and quite a few runs were lost by individual errors.

Glenrothes started the run chase with Willie Morrison and Geoff Sampson looking to emulate their 87 partnership of last week, but this was blown out of the water when Sampson(1) fell attempting a ‘cut’ to a ball that ended up on middle stump. Morrison followed soon after for 13 and Glenrothes needed a bit of stability in the middle. They got this with the pairing of John Bell and Ian Georgeson, with Ian playing the shots and scoring the runs, and JB holding his end up well. Ian eventually went for 27 , with the score on 63, when a delivery kept low and evaded his bat. Gav Henderson (0) , promoted to number 5 , came and went when he dragged a very wide delivery back onto his own stumps. Dave Snook joined his bowling partner at the crease for the 4th wicket stand and both players were soon playing some lovely shots, and indeed would have scored a lot more but for some impressive fielding from the home side. Dave eventually succumbed for 16, but he and Bell and pushed the score upto 106, and Glenrothes were just behind the run rate. Craig Gould joined John in the middle and the pair of them saw off the remaining overs of the main strike bowlers, without adding to the score too much. Glenrothes were now behind the run rate set by Marchmont, and needed an injection from somewhere, skipper Gould duly obliged attacking the young change bowler and dispatching him for 15 in one over. Bell continued in the attacking vein and the two Glenrothes players pushed the score along very brightly. It has to be said that the Marchmont fielders were in excellent form and several times saved certain boundaries with last gasp dives. The Glenrothes score had reached 161 when Bell fell LBW, and Swan joined his skipper at the crease with 24 runs required from 2 overs for a tie. The pair tried valiantly, and with 3 balls left 12 runs were required to win, Gould smashed a four, then took advantage of poor fielding to run a 3 and leave Robert facing the final ball – with the score on 181, a four would tie the scores, a six would clinch victory for Glenrothes. Swan swung hard and fast, but made no contact and Glens had fallen 4 runs short of the Marchmont target, Gould scoring 44 not out and Swan undefeated on 5.

Glenrothes took 8 points to Marchmont’s 20 .

Edinburgh Accies come calling to the  town park this weekend and Glens need a win to get up the table.

Click here for Saturdays scorecard