By Greig Taylor

Much like a roller-coaster ride, Clackmannan County's 1st XI position in the league has been up and down over the last few weeks, dropping to 4th from 1st after the loss to West Lothian but after the crushing victory over fellow title challengers Livingston last week, the county side reclaimed the number one spot. To drive home this position, Clacks had to travel to the Midlothian to play bottom of the league side Penicuik, who have struggled this season having not won a single game. On winning only his second toss of the season, county skipper Craig Black chose to bat much to the confusion of the rest of his team. His decision had seem to backfired as the county side were soon reeling at 13-2 in the 5th over, with both openers Graham Oliver and Graeme Anderson back in the hutch for 1 and 3 respectively. David Watkins joined Craig Black at the crease, aiming to steady the ship and they did so taking the score to 49 before Watkins was caught sharply at slip for 6. Scoring wasn't easy and with the knowledge that Penicuik's bowling attack wasn’t the strongest, it was only a matter of batting time and cashing in later on in the innings. Veteran number 5 Gordon Oliver had now joined Black at the crease and the two toiled away. As the change bowlers came on, Black decided it was time to up the run rate, and suddenly the scoreboard began to tick over with frequent regularity. At the halfway stage of 25 overs, Clacks were 105 for 3 and in a good position to post 220 which would have been a very competitive score. However, skipper Black and Oliver had other ideas. The half time drinks must have contained some sort of tablet that enlarged the size of the small, circular red ball as the ball was being dispatched to all parts of the ground. Using all his knowledge and skill, Black firstly brought up his half century with a late cut shot, but in no time at all he was soon acknowledging the crowd again bringing up his 3rd century of the season. Not to be outdone, Oliver brought up his own half century in good time with a trademark clip through midwicket. After hitting the ball through a locals conservatory roof in addition to clearing the pavilion with a swivel pull shot, Black perished aiming to push towards his 150 and potentially the elusive double ton. A cracking knock off 138 by the county skipper proving to his team that batting first was the right decision. The 175 run partnership had now taken the score to 224 (the original competitive score) and with still 11 overs to go, Clacks looked in a good position to score 300. Keith Hefer made his way to the crease and found the going easy, as he breezed his way to 29 before his partner, Oliver, fell 14 short of a well deserved century. A gutsy and chance-less knock of 86. At this stage, the score was on 285 and with 5 overs still to be bowled, the potential total kept on rising but with a late flurry wickets, including that of Hefer, who scored a magnificent 55 off only 23 balls, Clackmannan had to settle at 326-7. A stupendous score that would need some effort to be chased down.

After a stunning spread of teas, Clacks took to the field knowing that “...their only enemy of the day would be complacency...” (quote Clackmannan County President, David Henderson) Clackmannan players had a spring in their step, and some tight bowling saw the already high run rate, rise even higher by the over. Hefer and Rizwan Ashraf opened the bowling and had learnt, from watching the first innings, that bowling full and straight would provide opportunities for wickets. Such an opportunity was taken by Hefer, having Harrison caught at 2nd slip one handed by Richard Passe. Maybe the singing of first slipper Gordon Oliver (singing a rendition of Middle of the Road “Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep”) had spurred on Rich to take such a stunning catch, but we will never know as he is too traumatised to recall such events. Wickets kept on falling at regular intervals, with Neil Ramsay and debutant Tariq Mehboob ripping the heart out of Penicuik's top order and in doing so reducing Penicuik to 37 – 6. Ramsay finishing with excellent figures of 3 – 17 with Mehboob taking 2 -10 in his first performance for the club. As is usually the case, Ashraf came back on to mop up the tail and he didn’t disappoint taking 2 wickets in 2 balls, and with the hat trick ball rapping the last batsman right in front of middle, he was unlucky not to get the decision but such is the joy of cricket. Rich Passe claimed the final wicket having Scarr chip the ball to skipper Black at midwicket with the score on 47.

An emphatic 279 run victory for the county side, and with Falkland being the visitors to the Arns next week, Clacks will hope to gain revenge over the Fife side after they lost to them earlier on in the season by 1 wicket and continue in their quest for the Division 3 title.