By Craig Black

Clackmannan County Cricket Club played host to Linlithgow based West Lothian 2nds on Saturday on their first competitive outing in Division 3. West Lothian finished strongly in this division last year so the newly promoted Clackmannan realised they would have a tough first match to deal with. W. Lothian won the toss and opted to bowl on a very sticky grass wicket.
The Cougars opened their innings with Graeme Anderson and Dan Smith whilst 15 year old Gregor Thompson opened the bowling along with Terry Vorster. First blood went to the impressive youngster from W. Lothian when he struck on the second ball of the match, a fantastic catch by his father at slip dismissing Anderson for 0. Craig Black joined Smith at the crease but this partnership didn’t last long as Thompson struck again in the 3rd over to remove Smith (5) with a late swinging Yorker that knocked over the middle peg. W.Lothian were firing on all cylinders and it was left to Black and Neil Ramsay to try and rescue the innings from 13 for 2. Both batsmen decided to take the positive route and play their shots despite the tight bowling and hostile wicket, each batsmen offering several chances along the way.  It was Ramsay (6) who offered one chance too many and was caught at cover off the bowling of Kilpatrick with the score at a slightly more respectable 45 for 3 after 10 overs. First X1 debutant Davie Watkins was the next man to the crease and he opted to get his eye in before playing any rash shots. At the other end Black was finally starting to dust off the winter cobwebs, choosing to bypass the slow outfield and go aerial. Runs began to flow freely off the bat of both batsmen as Clackmannan looked to turn the tide against W. Lothian and a match winning partnership started to develop. The pair took the score to 142 in the 35th over before Watkins (26) was caught behind off the bowling of Vorster whilst trying to up the run rate. Keith Hefer was next to the crease and he immediately set about his business with some lusty blows over the infield. Black was looking imposing at the other end as he latched onto anything wide or short and in the 38th over he brought up his 4th hundred for the club. Hefer and Black (112) departed a few overs later with the score on 192, both falling victims to the bowling of Norris. This was followed by a further flurry of wickets as Alan Oliver, Noor Jhangir and Rizwan Ashraf all failed to trouble the scorers. Gordon Oliver (9) and Kash Ali (1*) set about facing the last 5 overs and they succeeded in pushing the total past the 200 mark before Oliver trod on his own stumps. The pick of the W. Lothian bowlers was B. Kilpatrick with 4-21 and he was ably supported by Thompson 3-57 and Norris 2-36.
Having posted a total of 203 on a lively wicket with a slow outfield, the West L:othian boys knew that the chase was going to be a tough ask and this wasn’t made any easier when Ashraf struck with a double wicket maiden in the 6th over, trapping Whitton (9) LBW and having J.Smith (0) sharply caught behind by Jhangir, to leave W. Lothian on 12 for 2. The opening pace attack of Ashraf and Hefer were bowling with fantastic discipline and it was the former who struck again in the 9th over, having K. Smith (0) caught behind with the score on 16. When the opposing skipper, K. Thompson (7) was run out after some superman-esque fielding by G. Anderson in the covers, Clackmannan knew the final nail in the coffin had been hammered. Ramsay and A.Oliver continued in place of the openers and wickets continued to fall on a regular basis. Ramsay accounted for Ronaldson (3) when a less than impressive ball was smashed straight to Ashraf, who took a cracking catch diving forward. He struck again a few over later with a simple caught and bowled opportunity which sent Norris (7) back to the changing rooms. Oliver had started to settle into a nice routine and was rewarded with the scalps of Neilands (4) who was clean bowled, and Sneddon (1) who was caught by Black at mid off. Ashraf returned to the attack with the hope of picking up a 5’er and this was looking highly plausible when he removed the off stump W. Lothian’s mainstay, Vorster for 17. However A.Oliver bagged his third victim a couple overs later when Smith held onto a great catch at deep mid-on to remove Kilpatrick for 2.
The opposition innings had just never looked liked getting going and hats off to a well disciplined bowling attack, backed up by a near faultless performance in the field, restricting West Lothian to 68 all out after 36 overs, giving Clackmannan a comfortable 136 run victory. Pick of the bowlers Rizwan Ashraf (10-5-9-4) and Alan Oliver (9.4-1-20-3), however it was the 112 run innings of Craig Black which earned him the man of the match performance.