By Graeme Anderson

On Saturday Clackmannans first eleven travelled to Edinburgh to take on Watsonians III. Due to Watsonians II team having to switch the venue for their game, the Division 4 match was switched to Roseburn. The outfield at the ground was badly in need of a lawnmower, and the rain during the past few weeks, meant that any shots played along the ground, were lucky to provide 1 run where 4 would be the norm.
Loosing the toss Clackmannan were asked to bat and the usual openers Geoff  Logan and Graeme Anderson headed out to bat. Both batsmen struggled to score runs early on, as only the extras column and Logans pull shot were producing any runs. Anderson really struggled, only managing 6 runs but doing enough for another fifty partnership, before being given out LBW with the score on 57 in the 18th over. Craig Black came to the crease and immediately was dropped twice with only a few runs to his name. Logan then departed for a well made 43, after taking full advantage of the short ball.
Sixty nine for 2 after 22 overs brought Keith Hefer out to bat, as Watsonians brought on their spin bowlers.  Black was now making them pay for dropping him earlier as he sent the ball over the ropes for several big sixes, including one shot that went into the nearby river. Hefer departed for 3 in the 28th over with 96 on the board. With Tippu Sultan (9) and James Couper (3) departing fairly quickly it needed somebody to hang around with Black. Richard Passe (6) came to the wicket in the 35th over with 135 on the board and he was able to do that, helping Black take the score to 158 before being run out with 9 overs remaining. The remaining batsmen tried their best to hang around with Black.  However it was Black who was eventually caught for 98 after skying one straight up in the air. The tail end batsmen did well to take the score to 200, the last wicket falling on the last ball of the innings.
After the break Craig Black and Rizwan Ashraf opened up the bowling, with Black steaming in with only 2 men in front of the bat. However it was Ashraf who did the damage, getting the ball to nip back into the batsmen. He picked up the first wicket, bowling Legget with only 2 runs on the board. Black was proving to be expensive, however, all the runs were coming through inside edges past wicketkeeper Logan and an edge which Anderson was only able to get a fingertip too. After 8 overs Black was replaced by Tippu Sultan with 22 on the board. Ashraf continued to bowl well and picked up a second wicket as he bowled Kurtis for 10. Bowling his 10 overs straight through Ashraf was very unlucky to only finish with 2 wickets for 24.
Watsonians had made their way to 62 by the  20th over, and were only just behind Clackmannan. In the 21st over Matthew Booth replaced Sultan and Keith Hefer took over from Ashraf. Hefer struck in his first over having Sweetman (19) well caught by Graham Fraser. Booth and Hefer continued to send down some good deliveries but were leaking enough runs to allow Watsonians to reach 101 after 30 overs. Watsonians managed this with some aggressive running between the wickets. Clackmannans ground fielding was poor, the outfield didn’t help things much, but missfields and poor throws meant that several run out opportunities were missed and extra runs added to the total.
Booth injured himself stopping a shot with his foot and had to be replaced mid over by Will Kay, Watsonians sportingly provided Clackmannan with a sub fielder. Black came back on to replace Hefer he quickly picked up the wicket of the remaining opener Baker who had fought hard for his 56. By the 40th over Watsoniains had 132 with 4 wickets down. Kays first 5 overs had only gone for 12 runs, but with the batsmen unable to attack Black it was Kay they went after, he found no support from the Counties poor fielding. Sultan returned to the attack when Black had finished and he immediately removed Sands (27) and the dangerous Kolte (51) who had got his team within touching distance of victory.
The County finally managed to pick up a couple of run outs at the end, leaving the Watsonians juniors needing 13 off the last over, which proved just too much for them as their innings closed on 196 for 8 wickets after 50 overs.