Unbeaten run ended by the Broch.

A good game of cricket, played in good spirit (for the most part...)

Early showers at the Broch left the green track looking ripe for seamers. Fraserburgh won the toss, and put Portcullis in to bat. Good tight bowling early doors from Alan Rennie gave a taster of things to come, with one popper and a grass cutter in the first over. The steep angle of descent from Gareth Symon exacerbated the varying bounce, with his first ball flying from just short of a length over Simon Percivals' head. Simon went soon after to a top edged pull- not the only batsman to contribute to their own downfall. Sajid never looked happy, despite two effortless sixes to the short boundary, and impatience eventually forced him to attempt to pull a straight, low one. A good, full ball accounted for Ross Bowie, who looked like he could mount a challenge. Mashook Ahmed took advantage of the wider balls from a tiring Rennie and was building a good partnership with Grant Huitson before a leg stump yorker removed him. Grant continued with a fair bit of luck, finding the leg side boundary at regular intervals. A decent score looked to be on the cards, but Rennie, back for his second spell, ripped out the Portcullis lower order for next to nothing. The skipper, who had dropped himself down to 11 due to a sore knee, came in and looked in good nick despatching Rennie with a forceful on drive. The innings ended with one shot too many, setting Fraserburgh a target of 147.

By this time the weather had taken a turn for the better, and the early variable bounce that Fraserbugh had enjoyed was not so much in evidence. Their batsmen took advantage of this and the short boundary helped them race off the mark. Two LBW decisions, both of which could only be called generous, removed the openers, but by this time Mark Oldham had started to get into the swing of things, and bludgeoned his way to 96 not out. The only pieces of fielding worthy of note were a fine one handed caught and bowled from Mashook, and a brilliant direct hit run out from Paul Brown- his second direct hit from deep cover in as many overs. The only other moment of excitement came when Ross was called for a wide that flicked the batsmans' pads on the way past. The resulting argument involving umpire, bowler and skipper provided a welcome relief for the fielding team, and gave Bowie snr enough energy to squeeze out one more over. No more wides were called from that end- only signalled when the bowler wasn't looking.

Sean O'Donnell came on at a rather unfortunate time, with the hosts requiring 14 to win, and Mr Oldham on strike. He may need a long spell to get his economy rate back down to tolerable levels.....

Although we didn't have a full strength team out, in fairness we were easily beaten. Another 50 runs would have been needed to make it a tight match. Fraserburgh looked a decent outfit, and on that form must be in the running for promotion.

Sunday, 14 May, 2006