3rd XI maintain 100% record

Glenrothes 3s travelled to Edinburgh on Saturday to take on Holy Cross 3s at Inverleith Park.

Skipper Craig Gould won the toss again and elected to bowl first.
Chris Humphreys and Andy McAulay opened the bowling for Glens and made life difficult for the Opening batsmen.
Andy struck his second over when the batsman looped one up to debutant Muhammed Talha. This was to be the beginning of a flurry of wickets for Glenrothes. Chris Humphreys got in on the act taking 4 wickets in his next 4 overs, including two absolute peaches of slower deliveries which totally bamboozled the Holy Cross batsmen. Only opposing skipper Graham was offering any resistance as Cross slumped to 32 for 6 after 12 overs. Humphreys and Gould combined to run out Broomhead when the batsmen went for a suicidal second run.
Kiwi Darren Palmer bowled a bit of a mixed bag and picked up two wickets including one of the most obscure wickets you will ever see. The batsman parried the ball and it spun up in the air, over the batsman's head came down behind him about 8 inches from the stumps and slowly the spin directed the ball towards the stumps and just managed to dislodge one of the bails, much to the amusement of Gould who was behind the stumps.
Palmer picked up a second wicket courtesy of a brilliant running and diving catch for the other debutant Awais Ali.
Talha replaced Chris from the bottom end and bowled well, picking up the wicket of Cross Skipper Graham. Brian Morris came on from the top end and Gandalf picked up the final wicket of the Holy Cross innings when McGill hammered one into the deep, where Gould had astutely put Ian Green, who despite appearing to have come in too far , to the catch above his head.
Holy Cross finished on 99. One of the highlights of the innings was Greg Morris , who if he hadn't hesitated would have had a peach of a run out, hiting middle stump from 40 yards ! He showed his fallibility however a little later when from 5 yards he picked up and threw at the stumps and managed to hit the batsman in the shoulder !!!! Chris Yarwood fielded with his usual tidiness at square leg and all was good for Glens in the field with the exception of 17 wides and Darren's cartwheels !

Andy's Mcaualay and Muir were Glens opening pair and with the skippers words ringing in their ears of "to take their time and not get out early" they duly did just that batting conservatively and patiently, slowly building the score. Muir went for 15 in the 17th over, and this brought "prancing pony" Palmer to the crease who hop, stepped and jumped down the wicket to the slow slow bowling of McGill , duly missed and was stumped. Chris Humphreys made a brief cameo, including 2 lovely fours before falling to the same bowler, the same way - not what his skipper wanted to see ! Ian Green came in at 5 and steadied the ship in his own style, blocking most balls and scoring when he could. All the time Grandad McAulay was plodding along very nicely. Ian went for 10 and Talha didn't trouble the scorers right after him. Awais Ali joined Andy in the middle, and the score had crept into the 90s when Andy holed out with his poorest shot of the day for a very finely constructed and invaluable 40. Greg "the done" Morris joined Awais, and the latter hit a lovely 4 to take Glens to within 2 runs of victory. Both of these runs were plundered by Greg , even if his teammates had to provide the shout to get them to run the winning run !!
Another win for the 3s, albeit in more of a struggle than should have been needed, but 100% record is intact.
The 3s now have a free week due to the inane league structure that has left 7 teams in Div 8.