By David Watkins

Clackmannan 2’s tackled their second, in a run of three home fixtures, against Largo 3’s, as the season entered its second half. The home side rang the changes again as Ken Hutchinson,, Auranzeb Alamgir, Ash Rasul and Nick Bryant-Nicholls were replaced by Graeme Anderson,  Rik Odendal, Ali Band and Will Kay.
The heavy midweek rain and the lack of Nick Bryant-Nichols pre-match warm-up of sausage rolls and doughnuts were enough to persuade captain Scott Malcolmson to send the opposition in to bat.
It soon became clear that the rain had taken some pace from the pitch and the Largo openers had plodded to 13/0 when Alison Ramsay struck in the 6th over, as she won the new-ball sibling battle with Neil by bowling Scott with a perfect full to...yorker. The defeated brother did not take defeat well and taunted his sister from fine-leg with various pie-related taunts.
Neil evened the score in the 9th over as he nipped one back off the seam and trapped  Tooze in front to leave Largo on 19/2. Four balls later it was 19/3 as the luckless Houston  glanced a leg-side catch to keeper Taylor.
Gillespie and Grewar then set about repairing the damage for Largo and they were happy to accumulate slowly with minimal aggression.
Neil Ramsay and Alison Ramsay were replaced by Ali Band and Will Kay, but with the pace bowlers unable to dislodge the pair, Malcolmson turned to his spin trio, Rich Passe, Kash Ali  and himself. The captain ended the 81-run fourth-wicket stand as Grewar skied a sweep towards deep square leg. Dave Watkins, duly interrupted from a dutiful study of the cloud formations, sprinted to take the catch, although in truth the ‘catch’ owed more to an absorbant frontal area than a safe pair of hands.
The young number three Gillespie completed a very mature half century but he soon began to run out of support as Alison Ramsay bowled Marshall for 1. This got Watkins off the hook after he had made a Tufnellesque hash of an over-the-shoulder catch a few overs before.
The returning Will Kay then castled Ashaar for , to leave the visitors on 132/6. The pressure immediately told on Gillespie as the youngster top-edged Ali and, for the second time, Watkins’ meteorological musings were put on hold as he went to his left to take the catch. A well-timed wide earned Ali an extra ball in the same over and he used it well as Seath bottom-edged to Taylor to leave Largo on 135/8.
Cricket, however, is a fickle game and in the next over Ali was smashed through backward square for four by young Brown. Rik Odendal at point gleefully pointed out the batsman’s youthfulness to the startled bowler but the spritely South African had over-estimated said youthfulness and Ali’s embarrassment was only barely mitigated by Brown furiously announcing that he was 12 rather than 10-years old.
Largo closed on 145/8 with Neil Ramsay the pick of the bowlers taking 2/13 from his 9 overs with 4 maidens.

In reply, Clackmannan openers Richard Passe and Graeme Anderson were tied down by Largo’s very promising young opening bowlers and after 8 overs the home side were crawling along at just 18/0. The pair began to get moving against the change bowlers with Anderson, in particular, upping the rate with some impressive drives. But with the score on 62 Anderson was bowled by the tall Seath for 32.
Seath struck again four overs later, removing Neil Ramsay for four and an over later, Greig Taylor gave off-spinner Greaver a return catch to leave Clackmannan wobbling on 77/3.
Dave Watkins joined the resolute Passe and the pair, helped by some lung-bursting running (for the former anyway), began to get on top of the run rate. The Watkins cover drive is not a shot that cricket historians will remember with fondess and so it proved again as he skied one to cover for 18 to leave Clacks 112/4. Rik Odendal came in at six and connected with a couple of boundaries before catching a yorker on the toe to be LBW for 8.
The home side were out of danger at 127/6 but Scott Malcolmson and Passe certainly took their time with the remaining runs and, if the game had been at Dunbar or Gargunnock, they would have found their ears burning from the dark Geoff Boycott-related grumbles emanating from the pavilion area.
They saw Clackmannan home with four overs to spare and Passe hit the winning runs with his best shot of the match, a crunching drive through mid-off for four. The opener carried his bat with a knock of 46.
This game is unlikely to interest the schedulers of ESPN Classic but it was another win, Clacks’ sixth straight, and kept up their momentum at the top of ESCA Division 7. Next week Dunbar visit the Arns for the first time.