3rd XI Batting Woes Continue - Another match lost

Glens were boosted by the return of Gav Henderson who has been in fine form with the bat and ball this year and were also bolstered by Mark Braid to add batting prowess.

Skipper Craig Gould lost the toss again and Glens were asked to bat on the artificial surface. Andy McAulay and Mark Braid were the opening pair tasked with getting Glens off to a good start. This plan went awry in the second over when McAulay top edged one to square leg without getting off the mark. Gav Henderson came in at 3 and departed 2 overs later matching McAulays run tally, bowled by the impressive Crispin, who had accounted for Andy as well. Manju Kadanaik was Glens number 4 and he neglected to move his feet and was trapped LBW for 1 by Allan. Braid must have wondered what was happening as his partners came and went with alarming regularity.

As well as this problem Braid was also being troubled by the dodgy artificial surface, having to dig a shooter out from his toes then being hit in the shoulder next ball showing the variability of the bounce from the pitch. Alan Hutchison came in at 5 and scored a mighty 2 (mighty in comparison with batsmen 1,3 and 4) before Allan clean bowled him leaving Glens 16 for 4 in the 9th over.

Gould was next up and after discussing with Braid he was advised to play on the front foot as everyone else had been out trying to play off the back foot. The pair decided to try and see off the opening bowlers who were given license to continue their distruction of the Glens batsmen. Things were going well and neither Gould or Braid were looking in any trouble until the 16th over when a tricky dipping Yorker accounted for Mark , scoring a hard earned 13.

Joe Burton and Ian Green came and went for ducks, Joe going to the same ball as Mark and Ian bowled by one that kept quite low. Glens were now 36 for 7, but Gould had his eye in and was beginning to punish the change bolwers. Youngster Daniel Graveling cam in at number 9 and he and Gould stick to their guns and moved the score along to a bit of respectability. Graveling eventually went, caught at mid on for 9 , but his 52 partnership with Gould had edged Glens upto 93 in the 35th Over.

Brian "Gandalf" Morris scored 2 before being bowled off his pads, leaving Chris Yarwood as the skipper's last partner. With score on 104, 1 ball left of the penultimate over, and Gould looking forward to attacking the final over, Chris was bowled all ends up and the Glens innings finished. The skipper left standing , having run out of partners for a fine and stubborn 47.

Glens took to the field knowing every ball had to be good and the fielding had to be top notch. Gav Henderson was given the new ball and his opening partner was Brian Morris. Morris struck in the second over removing Opener Maliks off stump for a duck and the Glens had reason to believe.

No further wickets fell in the ensuing overs and Gould made the bowling change after both Gav and Bilbo had bowled 6 economical overs, no complaints there, but opener Colthard who had punished Glens in the reverse fixture was still there looking menacing. Graveling and Kadanaik were the change bowlers. Skipper Gould made a further change after Daniels 3rd over as he was having to compensate with his fielding placements due to anything going down leg resulting in byes being scored. Andy McAulay replaced Daniel to slow things down a bit with his off spin. The change worked when Manju caught Colthard at fine leg for a fine 31.

Manju was bowling his tricky inswingers and was being very economical and hard to hit and was unlucky not to get a wicket when Ian Green unluckily dropped a hard hit leg cut at point. Andy then trapped Hatigan LBW with the score around the 80 mark. Gould replaced Manju from the bottom end and apart from a very loose first ball, which was skelped for 4 he continued the economical vein of all the Glens bowlers. Manju blotted his copybook when he dropped a chance off his skipper which looked easier than the one he had held, then redeemed himself next over taking another catch from McAulays bowling...again more difficult than the one he dropped earlier !

The SMRH batsmen plugged away and slowly but steadily matched the Glens score , finally a single was taken in the 34th over to take all 20 points. Disappointingly Glens had lost again but what was worse was that they had only picked up 4 points - their lowest tally of the season.

Poor batting and shot decision by Glens cost them badly, but full marks for effort in the field and their bowling, forcing SMRH to goto 6 overs from the end to get a very low total.

With 3 games left Glens simply have to win 2 of them to ensure survival, the only saving grace is all 3 are at home. Can the new home at Gilvenbank be their saviour - tune in next week to find out.