Clackmannan County Cricket Club

By Dan Smith

Clackmannan County welcomed visitors Townhill to the Arns on Saturday, fully aware that they were agonisingly close to securing the league title, needing to pick up five points from the encounter to ensure the title. Clackmannan skipper Craig Black won the toss and elected to bat first on the ever reliable artificial track. The team were cheered on by Clackmannan second team, who were out in force; having won secured their own league title on Saturday morning due to their match being cancelled.
Clackmannan openers Graham Oliver and Dan Smith started tentatively with some tight bowling from the Townill openers, before Smith chopped on to a seaming delivery. This brought Craig Black to the crease and he immediately looked at ease, with opener Oliver playing expansively with confidence. As Townhill’s bowlers faltered, Black and Oliver put them to the sword, finding the boundary with ease, with Black striking several impressive sixes; bringing up his half century in the process. When Black eventually perished, eight short of what would have been an extremely well deserved century, the pair had put on a massive 145 runs for the second wicket. Next batsman James Couper faced the daunting task of following up this excellent partnership, but unfortunately he edged a good delivery to slip and was dismissed for a golden duck. Keith Hefer then joined Oliver at the crease, with the latter having reached his fifty and accelerating the score greatly, striking several crushing fours and two massive sixes. At the other end Hefer was also striking the ball ferociously before finding himself dismissed unfortunately for 34, on the receiving end of a freakish yet quite brilliant catch. Oliver brought up his second century of the season to raucous applause from the onlookers, with his Dad Gordon Oliver standing proud at the bowlers end. The father/son pair then took the score to 282 after 45 over’s before heavy rain led to captain Black declaring five overs short of the allotted fifty, with Graham finishing on 121 not out. A phenomenal score which was mainly due to the superhuman efforts of Graham Oliver and Craig Black, with Graham in particular giving a performance of the highest order.
After a short break Clackmannan took to the field knowing they had already secured the league title, but were eager to finish the season in style. The “Cougars” opened the bowling with the league’s top bowler Riswan Ashraf and regular opener Matthew Booth. In the third over of the game Ashraf struck with two wickets in two balls, clean bowling the dangerous J.Hynd and then accounting for J. Hynd jnr in the same fashion. Booth then got his name in the wickets column, accounting for Pringle with an excellent outswinger. Keith Hefer was then introduced to the attack, and immediately set about introducing an early finish. In an excellent spell of controlled pace bowling he picked up four wickets for only five runs, sending the batsman’s off stump cartwheeling on two separate occasions. This excellent bowling effort meant that Townhill were dismissed for only 18 runs.
A crushing victory for Clackmannan by 264, a fitting way to end what has been an excellent season. Credit must go to all club members for what has been a phenomenal season.
Man of the match was awarded to Graham Oliver for his hard hitting hundred, with real competition being provided by Craig Black for his 93 and Keith Hefer for his 4 for 5.

Match Report
Clackmannan County 1st XI v Townhill
Click here to view scorecard
Date 29/8/2009	Venue The Arns	Result Win	Weather showery
By Dan Smith Clackmannan County welcomed visitors Townhill to the Arns on Saturday, fully aware that they were agonisingly close to securing the league title, needing to pick up five points from the encounter to ensure the title. Clackmannan skipper Craig Black won the toss and elected to bat first on the ever reliable artificial track. The team were cheered on by Clackmannan second team, who were out in force; having won secured their own league title on Saturday morning due to their match being cancelled. Clackmannan openers Graham Oliver and Dan Smith started tentatively with some tight bowling from the Townill openers, before Smith chopped on to a seaming delivery. This brought Craig Black to the crease and he immediately looked at ease, with opener Oliver playing expansively with confidence. As Townhill’s bowlers faltered, Black and Oliver put them to the sword, finding the boundary with ease, with Black striking several impressive sixes; bringing up his half century in the process. When Black eventually perished, eight short of what would have been an extremely well deserved century, the pair had put on a massive 145 runs for the second wicket. Next batsman James Couper faced the daunting task of following up this excellent partnership, but unfortunately he edged a good delivery to slip and was dismissed for a golden duck. Keith Hefer then joined Oliver at the crease, with the latter having reached his fifty and accelerating the score greatly, striking several crushing fours and two massive sixes. At the other end Hefer was also striking the ball ferociously before finding himself dismissed unfortunately for 34, on the receiving end of a freakish yet quite brilliant catch. Oliver brought up his second century of the season to raucous applause from the onlookers, with his Dad Gordon Oliver standing proud at the bowlers end. The father/son pair then took the score to 282 after 45 over’s before heavy rain led to captain Black declaring five overs short of the allotted fifty, with Graham finishing on 121 not out. A phenomenal score which was mainly due to the superhuman efforts of Graham Oliver and Craig Black, with Graham in particular giving a performance of the highest order. After a short break Clackmannan took to the field knowing they had already secured the league title, but were eager to finish the season in style. The “Cougars” opened the bowling with the league’s top bowler Riswan Ashraf and regular opener Matthew Booth. In the third over of the game Ashraf struck with two wickets in two balls, clean bowling the dangerous J.Hynd and then accounting for J. Hynd jnr in the same fashion. Booth then got his name in the wickets column, accounting for Pringle with an excellent outswinger. Keith Hefer was then introduced to the attack, and immediately set about introducing an early finish. In an excellent spell of controlled pace bowling he picked up four wickets for only five runs, sending the batsman’s off stump cartwheeling on two separate occasions. This excellent bowling effort meant that Townhill were dismissed for only 18 runs. A crushing victory for Clackmannan by 264, a fitting way to end what has been an excellent season. Credit must go to all club members for what has been a phenomenal season. Man of the match was awarded to Graham Oliver for his hard hitting hundred, with real competition being provided by Craig Black for his 93 and Keith Hefer for his 4 for 5.