By Greig Taylor

The sun shone on Meiklewood this evening as Clackmannan travelled to play Gargunnock in a midweek 20/20 friendly.  Having only 9 players at the toss, CCCC skipper for the day Matt Booth won the toss and decided to bat. 
Clackmannan opened proceedings with Tippu Sultan and Keith Hefer.  Some loose bowling allowed Tipu to open his stance and swing through the line.  At the end of the first over, Hefer hit a sweet off drive and set off for the single, only for the ball to be intercepted by the mid-off fielder. This was unlucky; however this unfortunate luck was not to end as the ball popped up off the inside of his boot, into his throwing arm and then with a direct hit ran Hefer out for 0.  Aranzeb Alamgir joined his older brother at the crease and the laid back styles of the two were to pay off as Smith had 12 cracked off his first over.  However, the wily character of Kennedy at the other end was using the pitch to his advantage and had both Alamgir (5) & Sultan (11) bowled by balls that shot through.  Craig Black and Dave Watkins were both new at the crease, however the latter succumbed to the same fate as the brothers; though he fared a little better scoring 9 runs.  The fall of the wicket brought Greig Taylor to the crease with the score sitting nicely on 54 after 4 overs; however 4 wickets had been lost.  Some consolidation was needed and the two provided this, nurdling the ball around, pushing the singles and hitting the occasional boundary.  Black then opened up and started playing some classical shots, all around the pitch, with the straightest of sixes off Thompson to take his personal score to 30.  Black departed after attempting to launch a ball into the adjacent field but fell to the grass cutter that was bowled by Bailey.  With 9 overs still to go, Clackmannan were sitting on 76 and were in desperate need to raise their score.  GVCC skipper Farquhar brought himself into the attack and instantly Taylor took a liking to his bowling, cracking 15 off his first over.  Taylor, now joined by Matthew Booth, decided to open his shoulders and take it upon himself to get CCCC score up to at least 120.  The pair had taken the score to 109 before Booth was bowled by Farquhar for 12.  Morven Ross joined Taylor and the pair ran hard, ensuring Taylor was kept on strike.  Eventually, Taylor tried one heave to many and was bowled, after dragging on, by Farquhar for an excellent 45.  Simon Bassi (7*) and Ross (1*) saw out the rest of the innings finding scoring hard in the latter overs as the GVCC boys bowled very tightly.  Clackmannan finished on 135 for 7 off their 20 and on a tricky batting pitch, the skipper was happy with a defendable total.

After a short break, Clackmannan opened the attack with Calum Ross and Auranzeb Alamgir.  Ross got a wicket second ball of the innings, bowling Thompson for 0.  Alamgir then bounced out Sutcliffe for 3, with Taylor taking a good catch down the leg-side.  For his efforts, Alamgir was told to take a rest by the skipper.  Nae luck Auranzeb.  Ali and Sultan replaced the opening pair, and Sultan took a wicket first ball as he got the ball to grip and cut back sharply to remove Booth LBW for 1.  Ali was getting the ball to move left, right, sideways, anyway... and this was causing the GVCC batsman problems.  Sultan, having been knocked for a couple was taken off and replaced with Craig Black.  Black bowled tight and enjoyed the assistance the pitch was giving him, cutting the batsman in half on a number of occasions.  However, the batsman had his revenge with the biggest six (personally) I have ever seen hit at Meiklewood but a batsman.  It was huge!  However, GVCC batsmen Lloyd and Kennedy were starting to put on a partnership that looked like winning the game.  This would have been the case until Ali bowled the dangerous Kennedy for 31.  Two balls later, after being hit for four he bowled Smith with a ball that really should have been dispatched, but the wicket was still in the book, so to speak.  Watson (3) was clean bowled after some tight bowling outside off stump by skipper, Booth.  Bailey (15*) and Lloyd (26*) (by this time batting with a runner due to him over exerting himself in an attempt to despatch a ball to the moon) saw out the innings but GVCC were always running short of the Clackmannan total.  Eventually ending up on 102 for 6, Clackmannan won the game by 33 runs.  A good effort, by the Clackmannan side, to win the game in such a comfortable fashion after the mini batting collapse had left them sitting precariously on 54 for 4.  Greig Taylor takes man of the match for scoring a well compiled 45 that proved the difference between the two teams and Dick of the Day has to go to Craig Black as it was his bowling that was dispatched by Kennedy for miles.