By Scott Malcolmson

Clackmannan were looking to put last weeks loss behind them as fourth placed Drummond Trinity came into town. Trinity won the toss and elected to field.
With regular opener Neil Ramsay sidelined through injury Clackmannan turned to Ken Hutchison to partner Dan Smith. Clackmannan got off to a solid start with runs coming freely to both batsmen. Smith took the game to the opposition playing some amazing shots all around the wicket. The score quickly hit 50. Both batsmen continued in great form until Trinity brought on Irving who in his 2nd over bowled Hutchison with a swinging ball.  Noor Jhangir came in and helped Smith through to 50 then went after a wide ball and nicked one through to wicketkeeper Reed. Simon McDowell joined Smith at the crease in his first game of the season for the 2nd team.
With Clackmannan going at a healthy rate both batsmen kept the momentum going by hitting the boundary with a regular occurrence. Smith was next out as he tried one pull shot too many and was caught by Waheed at mid on for a brilliant 78. Auranzeb Alamgir was next in with instructions to play his natural attacking game. This he did as he hit the ball to all parts of the ground for quick 34 before getting bowled. Nick Bryant-Nichols came in with Clackmannan in control of the game with the run rate at almost 6 an over. His first act of the day was to run McDowell out on 49.
Scott Malcolmson joined Bryant-Nichols and with only 6 overs to go attacked the bowling from the offset. They managed to push the score pass 250 before Malcolmson was run out on the second last ball for a quick fire 28. Bryant-Nichols was bowled with the last ball and Clackmannan finished on 266 for 7.
With Trinity needing over 6 an over to win tight bowling was the order of the day and Nick Bryant-Nichols was just the man for this. He beat the bat and stumps with regularity and was rewarded with a wicket. Bryant-Nichols bowled his allocated 8 overs with 1 wicket for 5 runs. Noor Jhangir at the other was not as effective but should have had a wicket but Rich Passe dropped the catch.   Auranzeb Alamgir replaced Jhangir and in his second over got a wicket after a fine catch by Taylor behind the stumps. Muktar Ahmed replaced Bryant-Nichols and bowled well ripping into the Trinity batting with 3 wickets that put the game beyond the visitors.
With Trinity only going at 3 an over and running out of batsmen a win looked unlikely. Trinity started to hit boundaries as they chased extra batting points with scott Malcolmson the main recipient of this. Drummond Trinty finished on 155 for 6 off their allocated 40 overs.
This was a resounding victory for Clackmannan who responded well after last week’s loss. The total of 266 was only possible after a great opening partnership by Hutchison and Smith. Next week Clackmannan travel to Broomhall for what is always an interesting game.