By Scott Malcolmson

At the Arns for the last few months the only sound you would hear was from the trains regularly passing. This was no ordinary Saturday afternoon since you could once again hear the sound of leather on willow and the usual second team chant of "Who are you?" Although this was later replaced by "every little helps" once our Tesco expert Alistair Band arrived at the ground.

Clackmannan won the toss and elected to field. Neil Ramsay almost got Clacks off to the perfect start with a wicket with his first ball but were unable to hold on after a terrific effort by Callum Ross at gully. Blair Campbell almost got Neil his first wicket of the season but spilled a sharp chance at slip. At the other end Blair would have got the breakthrough had the skipper not changed the field at the start of the 8th over with Alison Ramsay being moved from 2nd slip to square leg. In typical fashion the ball would have sailed straight to Alison. Alison Ramsay and Alistair Band replaced the opening bowlers. This had an immediate effect on the batsmen as they upped the scoring rate in the next four overs scoring 23 runs taking the Broomhall score to 48 off 12 overs.The breakthrough finally came in the 13th over when Alison had Ian Barron caught by Nick Bryant-Nichols at mid-off. Nick. Bryant-Nichols and Noor Jhangir were the next to bowl. Nick in his first game since an arm injury robbed him off most of last season was showing some rust and was unusually expensive at the start of his spell. Fortunately Noor was fairing better at the other end and struck in his 3rd and 4th over having Ash caught by Scott Malcolmson at mid wicket for 48 after a terrific catch (who wrote this report again) and having Ahmed bowled respectively. Bryant- Nichols finally got his deserved breakthrough getting the dangerous Ness out LBW for 2. Malcolmson at the other end along with Bryant- Nichols helped reduced the run rate but this pairing were unable to penetrate Broomhall’s innings. The skipper recalled the opening attack of Neil and Blair. Although this didn’t have an immediate effect it did slow the run rate down. Neil finally got a wicket bowling Cook for 27. Broomhall ended on 140 off 40 overs.

After the tea break Broomhall struck quickly with Greyvenstein getting Passe caught behind by wicketkeeper Ash for 2 in the 3rd over. Campbell and Ramsay rebuilt the Clackmannan innings slowly from this setback and by the 15th over had progressed the score to 54. Blair and Neil were now growing in confidence and were starting to find runs easier to come by, finding the boundary with some elegant shots. They pushed the score to 77 before Ramsay fell to his nemesis and Broomhall skipper Mike Warren, caught for 35.
Clackmannan skipper Malcolmson joined Campbell at crease and got going quickly with a square cut for 4 off his first ball. They pushed the score along and by the 22nd over Clackmannan were on 104 for 2, the score identical score to Broomhalls at that point.
Campbell had played brilliantly in his first game opening the batting for the 2nd team but almost ran himself out for 48, however he didn’t have to wait long for his maiden 50, achieving it in the 32nd off a quick single.

After the regulatory round of applause from the gallery and the well done speech from the skipper in the middle, Campbell along with Malcolmson saw Clackmannan to victory in the 36th over. Campbell and Malcolmson finished on 53 and 30 not out respectively.

This was a great game played in good spirits by both teams. This was a good result for Clackmannan with some good performances by Band in the field, Ramsay with bat and ball and the very impressive Blair Campbell who picked up the man of the match award with his 53 not out and 7 overs for 13 runs.

Thanks go to Broomhall for the game and to Greg Taylor for an immaculate scorecard in the second innings of the game, hope you can hop into your usual spot soon Bunna.
Next up for Clackmannan 2s is a visit from Morton at the Arns next Saturday.