Watsonians 3rd XI v Dunfermline Carnegie Cricket Club First Team on Sat 26 Apr 2008 at 13.00
Dunfermline Carnegie Cricket Club Won By 6 wickets
Dispite a wet morning in Dunfermline and the weather prediction suggesting more rain. The trip over the bridge brought a suprisingly sunny afternoon at craiglockart.
The wicket was damp and looked slow, strangely the Watsonian skipper won the toss and elected to bat first.
Carnegie opened the bowling with Matthew Wauchop and Niall Walker. Wauchop as senior bowler choose the end with the support of a strong breeze. He bowled a very good line and didn't give the batsmen any chance to score. It wasn't long until he would make the crucial breakthrough, an excellent inswinging yorker removed the opening bat. With Walker struggling to get into a rhythm caused by a strong head wind, he was replaced by Steward who also toiled into the wind. Wauchop continued an impressive spell and made his and the teams second wicket with a ball that swung in to remove the batsmens middle stump. Matthew completed his brillant opening spell of 7 overs conciding only 13 runs and picking up the two important wickets.
Carnegie Captain David Mitchell decided to make a double change at the 14 over mark bringing himself and Martin Honeyford on to bowl. With the wicket being slow and difficult for the batsmen to score, the key was bowling line and length. Both bowlers executed this plan and the pressure was building on the batsmen. This presure led the opening batsmen, who had looked very comfortable, to charge Honeyford's bowling. The result of this was losing his middle stump, this triggered a rap star style celebration. Pressure was showing on Watsonians and the bat started to get thrown around. A couple of boundaries came but it never looked comfortable. Martin Honeyford picked up his second with the fourth batsmen swinging and missing a straight ball. With the experienced top four removed, this left a succession of young talent cricketers. With Carnegie keeping their discpline to bowl straight and staying alert in the field, the middle overs brought a further four wickets, all of which went to captain Mitchell. The most notable was a diving one handed catch by walker in Gully to remove the watsonians wicketkeepr, making up from an earlier drop. Honeyford and mitchell ended their spells with good figures of 2 for 16 and 4 for 19.
With he tail exposed, Ralph Thomas on debut got his first wicket for the club. A big outswinger tricked the batsmen to clip his off stump. This capped an exciting debut with a wicket and a brillant fielding display. At the other end Graham Lindsay finished the innings bowling the last man, Watsons ending on a total of 87 from 34 overs.
Carnegie pleased with their work at the half way point, a strong team effort with five bowlers picking up wickets and an impressive fielding display. An early finish meant that tea wasn't prepared, an agreement between each captain led to a tricky 10 over spell before tea.
Carnegie batsmen Matthew Lafferty and Phil Daughtrey batting through the 10 overs safely ending with a team total of 22. This was an encouraging display of discpline. After the tea break, Phil hit a powerful boundary only to follow up with a miss-hit pull shot that ended up with a comfortable catch at mid-off. Gary Steward the top batsmen of last season, looked comfortable and ticked the score along at 2 an over with Matthew looking steady at the other end. With the score moving onto 50 for 1 the result looked comfortable.
The introduction of two young spinners brought a double breakthrough, Lafferty and Steward bowled to similar balls, playing back on a slow track. Both batsmen made a solid start to their season getting some time in the middle scoring 17 and 16.
Neil Harris and David Mitchell then paired up with the score on 60 with 7 wickets in hand. Harris hasn't played much cricket in the past couple of years, however, he looked in great touch and continued to accumulate runs. He showed a lesson in good foot movement to play the impressive young spinners. At the other end Mitchell struggled and was out for a duck to a catch behind. This was a thoroughly deserved third wicket to the young leg spinner.
With the memory of last seasons opening game horror show batting calapase, Matthew Wauchop and Neil Harris showed good composure to knock off the runs in impressive style. Harris ended on 22 not out and Wauchop 10 not out, including some typical hefty blows. Carnegie won the game with 6 wickets in hand.
A good start to the season for Carnegie with most players getting a chance to participate in the result. Only last seasons players player not getting an opportunity to bowl or bat, his time will come. A special thanks for Stevie for supporting the team as 12th man, making his debut in the field for an over.
Team selection for Largo away next week will be tough with a strong team performance and a host of players available next week (Owen, Stevie, Kevin, Gavin and Jason). Training will be key to ensure everybody is on form.
Watsonians 3rd XI Batting
87 for 10
| S.B. Lockhart |
4 |
Bowled |
| S.J. Lockhart |
18 |
Bowled |
| J Fulforth |
6 |
Bowled |
| A Borthwick |
16 |
Bowled |
| A Easton |
10 |
Caught |
| O Curtis |
0 |
Caught |
| D Lockhart |
7 |
Caught |
| C Nabnay |
0 |
Bowled |
| J Moore |
2 |
Bowled |
| C Cash |
4 |
Not Out |
| F McNab |
6 |
Bowled |
Dunfermline Carnegie Cricket Club First Team Bowling
Dunfermline Carnegie Cricket Club First Team Batting
89 for 4
Watsonians 3rd XI Bowling