The Gladiators Under 14s hardball team had a great time at Upper Largo last night, sneaking through in a last over thriller which could have went either way.

Gladiators batted first with skipper Archie leading the way as opener retiring on 31 not out. The other batters found things a bit trickier but battled hard, with Saim in particular building his confidence with a couple of boundary shots.

A few runs left out in the field with lack of confidence in calling - other than two occasions where they did call for runs but the balls had went straight to the fielders to allow Cameron and Murdo to complete well taken run outs for the Lions.

Gladiators finished on 85 for seven from their 16 overs.

Largo Lions made a solid start in the second innings, before Jack made the breakthrough with a good catch by Samuel at mid wicket to dismiss Murdo for 14.

This brought Hamish to the crease who took the attack on to hit everything to leg - Gladiators could have possibly strengthened the legside boundary to help, but playing with one less player than the Lions meant it would be tricky to cover every gap.

With Cameron retiring on 17 and Hamish retiring on 30, Lions were 76 for 1 requiring 10 runs for the win from the final 17 balls.

It was though to be a heroic display from the Gladiators. Jack claimed his second wicket bowling his namesake in the 14th over, then the two youngest players closed out the innings with really good bowling - Euan conceding three runs in the 15th over and then with just four runs needed in the last over Clara played a blinder in conceding only two runs and getting a run out also!

Gladiators somehow won by two runs in the end, but it really could have went either way - a tie would have been fitting!

A huge thanks to Largo for hosting the game.