Poor Batting Display Mars Inaugaral Gilvenbank Match

The weather gods finally shone on Gilvenbank and Glenrothes 3rd XI had the honour of playing the first match for Glenrothes CC on the new artificial wicket, against SMRH 3s from the capital.

In keeping with the season so far Skipper Craig Gould lost the toss and Glens were asked to bat on the new surface, not knowing what to expect in terms of bounce etc.

Openers Andy McAulay and Chris Yarwood struggled early on, but Chris soon edged one past gully and found the outfield to be exceedingly fast despite its spongy texture. Chris struck a more convincing boundary an over later before he decided to kick the ball onto his own stumps from the bowling of Augustine. Brett Wardle joined McAulay in the middle and both batsmen alarmingly found it easier to hit the ball straight to the SMRH fielders rather than the big open gaps between them.

Wardle fell for 1 when caught at mid on. Keith Graveling joined Andy, but McAulay decided to follow Chris's lead and was bowled off his legs for 15. Iain Georgeson came and went for 1, leaving Daniel Graveling to join his father. The Graveling "twins" started to up the rate with some fine looking batting before Keith was bowled by Allan for 18, just as he was looking comfortable.

Gould and Ross Mearns never troubled the scorers with both recording Ducks. Club chairman Eddie Gibbs was next in at 9 , and he was barely at the crease when young Daniel fell to an audacious catch at deep cover for a fine knock of 17. Gavin Henderson, back at the club after a golfing sabbatical came in to join Eddie and after they had both taken a look at the bowling for a few overs they started to push the score on to respectability. A fine 43 partnership blossomed before Gibbs had his stumps skittled for 20 well crafted runs.

Young Gladiator George Gawthrop making his senior debut joined Gav and bravely saw off the last 4 balls of the 37th over. Gav then clubbed a defiant 4 from the first ball of the 38th over before taking a single on the 3rd ball, leaving young George to face the pace of Kapoor who duly despatched him 2 balls later. Glenrothes ended on 118, assisted by 22 extras including 17 wides from the Stew Mel bowlers.

A truly poor batting display from some of the more regular players, with only the Gravelings, Gibbs and Henderson getting pass marks.

Daniel Graveling and Iain Georgeson opened the attack for Glens and it was Daniel who made the breakthrough in the 5th over, a short pitched delivery, that deserved to be smacked to the boundary, deceived Sharkey and the batsman was through the ball before it arrived and was duly bowled. Georgeson was making life difficult for the Stew Mel batsmen in his first game in over a year, but at the other end Gould was forced into a change with Daniels calf muscle cramping up. Keith Graveling replaced his son from the top end. Opening bat Coltherd now started to open up and was looking very stylish and assured in his batting with
Georgeson the only bowler really giving him any trouble at all. "Plug" bowled out his 8 overs and Wardle replaced him and was immediately smashed for consecutive sixes from his first two balls, with his natural swing of the ball ending up very much in Coltherds 'ark'.

Ross Mearns took over from Graveling senior who was having issues with his run up due to a depression at the edge of the strip, and Rossco ended Coltherds fine innings(46) when the batsman slogged to deep mid off right where skipper Gould had placed Henderson who safely took the catch. Wardle claimed the scalp of Allan (34) and Mearns added the wicket of Gibson, but the Stew Mel skipper Coltherd had already done too much damage during his innings and Glens target was breached 2 balls short of 25 overs.

As stated earlier too many players did not perform with the bat and this is a cause for concern for Gould, 2 defeats from 3 games was not how he envisaged the season starting. Hopefully the numbers of unavailable players that have dogged the whole club since the season started will start to ease, but the team selected for this game should have had enough runs in them to win this game.

Next up is a trip to St Andrews to play Fife rivals Largo and a better performance will be required.