Actual cricket!!!!

With a pre-season dominated by wet weather, it was a wonderful surprise to get the go-ahead from Clackmannanshire for today's friendly match - and not only was the match played, but the sun shone throughout!

A 40 overs match was agreed, and if a team was bowled out then they would bat on to the full 40 overs to give everyone much needed time in the middle.

Clacks won the toss and chose to bat first, though it was Glens skipper Qasim Ahmed to make the breakthrough in the first over to have Johnson caught by wicket-keeper James Slingsby.

Good consolidation by Gupte and Edwards got Clacks back on track before second-change bowler Kevin Le Roux bowled Gupte, soon followed by his second wicket with an excellent catch in the slips by Nigam Panwar. Clacks 54 for 24 in the 20th over.

Edwards was now joined by Carman, and the Aussie pair looked in little trouble and soon had the scoreboard moving - though not as much as they deserved as the long boundaries coupled with a slow outfield stifled their boundary hits.

It was to be debutant Muhammed Saleh Ashraf to split up this pair though as he bowled Carman, and soon followed with his second wicket as Scott-Angel chopped a catch up to short cover for Sufyan Ahmad to take the catch. Clacks now 79 for 6 in the 26th over.

Wickets continued to fall over the next few overs, as Mayank Sautiyal made his mark on the game. First bowling Edwards for a well made 37, then repeating the trick against home skipper Hutchison and then a third time to bowl Raj.

It was then left to young Ben Krzyzanowski, trapping McBeth LBW, and Shaun Rowcliffe to get the final wicket with a catch by Qasim Ahmed. Clacks bowled out for 100 in the 36th over.

But as a friendly game, the last 4 overs were batted out and the returning Clacks batters made excellent use of that time as opener Johnson showed his class with a quickfire 27 to guide the home team to a final total of 140 for 12 in their 40 overs - extra two wickets going to Kevin Le Roux and Qasim Ahmad.

The Glens batters found the batting conditions on the artificial pitch tough, though this reflected more on the excellent bowling of the home team.

Sufyan Ahmaad struggled to get going and eventually tried to hit his way out of difficulties only to hit up a catch to the point fielder off the bowling of Hutchison. He was soon followed by Adeel Ali trying the same type of big hit, only to be bowled by Gupte - Glens 11 for 2 from 8 overs.

This brought together James Slingsby and Nigam Panwar and both batted well to get the Glens innings back on track. Slingsby being very patient before whipping away anything on leg, and Panwar rotating the singles well.

It was to be the drinks break at 20 overs to have the big impact though, as Slingsby (40) lost his focus to hit a catch to mid-wicket off the bowling of Smith. He was immediately followed by Panwwar (13) hitting a catch to mid-off.

A third was to follow soon after as Shaun Rowcliffe missed one of the bowling of Scott-Angel, leaving Glens 62 for 5 in the 22nd over.

It was to be youngsters Anas Tanveer and Ben Krzyzanowski together now, and they batted sensibly with Tanveer in particular keeping the scoreboard moving alongside a few wides from the home side.

Having added 19 together, Krzyzanowski moved in to big-shots mode but couldn't get his timing across a number of shots before edging a catch to slips. He was soon followed back to the pavilion by his replacement, Mayank Sautiyal, as he was bowled by Gupte - Glens 86 for 7 in the 30th over.

Tanveer was now joined by his skipper Qasim Ahmed - and they only took one over to get their first target score of 101 as Tanveer hit the first 6 six of the day followed by a boundary 4.

Both continued to bat very well, taking Glens to 122 in the 35th over at which point Tanveer retired not out for an excellent 27. Qasim Ahmed soon followed him back as we caught and bowled by Scott-Angel for a quickfire 22.

This left Muhammad Saleh Ashraf (19 not out) and Kevin Le Roux (4 not out) to see Glens through to the end of the 40th over, finishing on 152 for 8 for a morale-boosting win to kick off the season.

Great credit goes to the ground staff at Clacks for getting The Arns looking so wonderful, and the welcome provided by everyone there was every bit its equal.