Clackmannan County Cricket Club

By Ken Hutchison

A depleted Clackmannan side travelled through to Riverside Park on Saturday to face Glenrothes 2nd XI and for the first time this season , we were asked to bat first . The sun was shining , a crowd had gathered - the scene was set for a great game of cricket.

Blair Campbell and Ken Hutchison looked to build on their recent good starts and tentatively pushed the score along in the opening overs before the match was briefly interrupted by a male streaker ! This bare faced cheek clearly affected Campbell's focus who was out to a soft caught and bowled to Morris only an over later for 6. Hutchison followed two overs later for 11 to leave Clackmannan perilously placed on 19 for 2. This brought Tipu Sultan and skipper Nick Bryant-Nichols to the wicket and in the space of the next ten overs , the game changed entirely - both players lived up to their big hitting reputations and started to punish any short bowling and take advantage of some indifferent Glenrothes fielding. 50 was reached by 10 overs and a 100 reached by 18 overs - Bryant-Nichols was now swinging like the streaker and brought up his 50 with a massive straight six . Sultan soon followed , taking 18 from one over to cross the 50 mark . At this point Clackmannan were now cruising at 8 an over and with the 150 approaching , Bryant-Nichols' innings was finally ended when he was bowled for 59.

Sultan didn't let the skipper's wicket slow down his approach and with new batsman Mathew Booth , they continued to punish the wayward Glenrothes bowling with Booth bringing a new maturity to his batting with an excellent innings of 21 in the support role. Only Sultan's aliling knee could bring the fun to an end and after some makeshift bandaging and the introduction of a runner , the pair refocused and incredibly picked up the pace ! With the score now approaching 200 , Sultan passed the 100 mark with yet another crunching four . This really was a great exhibition of power hitting and Sultan deserves all the credit for staying in control despite having a damaged knee. His innings finally came to an end when he was caught on the boundary for 117. The crowd fully expected another streak to celebrate but it was not to be. Anyone who thought that this would be the end of the fireworks were proved wrong by Scott Malcolmson, who continued to force the run rate along with the tail , including one audacious reverse sweep for 4 . The 250 mark was passed and the innings finally closed on 260 with Malcolmson not out on 35 and young Alan Deacon making his first runs in senior cricket , ably holding up his end to allow the senior batsman to continue.

After tea , the Glenrothes innings started briskly ,after some indifferent Clackmannan bowling and it looked like Glens were in the mood to take on the challenge. With Clackmannan already a fielder short and Sultan unable to run due to his failed knee , there were holes in the field which the batsmen exploited well and after only 12 overs the 50 mark was reached ... however the lack of boundaries was starting to take its toll on the run rate and soon the Glens batsmen started to make mistakes . Kimmet was first to go , well caught and bowled by Ahmed , before Bryant Nichols then got into the act by bowling firstly Gould for 7 and then Tariq for 0 . By now the run chase was over and only Kaddinaik kept up the a decent scoring rate before being bowled for 45 , again by Bryant Nichols. The lack of Clackmannan fielders was further compounded when Ahmed broke his finger trying to field the ball off his own bowling . This setback meant Ahmed had to leave the field and kindly Glens provided a replacement . Despite this, Alan Deacon showed great character in the field , throwing himself around and chasing down everything ,

The game then settled into a period with Clackmannan pressing for wickets and Glenrothes batting only for bonus points which left the proceedings decidedly less entertaining than earlier . The only highlight being a couple of 'tired and emotional' girls looking to the deep fielder, Graham Fraser for some comfort. After some TLC , the game resumed , finally drawing to a close with Glenrothes finishing on 153 , 107 short of the target . The pick of the Clackmannan bowlers being Bryant Nichols with 3 for 26 .

An outstanding all round team effort from a depleted 10 man side.

Match Report
Clackmannan County 2nd XI V Glenrothes 2
Click here to view scorecard
Date 5/6/2010	Venue Riverside Park	Result Win	Weather Sunny
By Ken Hutchison A depleted Clackmannan side travelled through to Riverside Park on Saturday to face Glenrothes 2nd XI and for the first time this season , we were asked to bat first . The sun was shining , a crowd had gathered - the scene was set for a great game of cricket. Blair Campbell and Ken Hutchison looked to build on their recent good starts and tentatively pushed the score along in the opening overs before the match was briefly interrupted by a male streaker ! This bare faced cheek clearly affected Campbell's focus who was out to a soft caught and bowled to Morris only an over later for 6. Hutchison followed two overs later for 11 to leave Clackmannan perilously placed on 19 for 2. This brought Tipu Sultan and skipper Nick Bryant-Nichols to the wicket and in the space of the next ten overs , the game changed entirely - both players lived up to their big hitting reputations and started to punish any short bowling and take advantage of some indifferent Glenrothes fielding. 50 was reached by 10 overs and a 100 reached by 18 overs - Bryant-Nichols was now swinging like the streaker and brought up his 50 with a massive straight six . Sultan soon followed , taking 18 from one over to cross the 50 mark . At this point Clackmannan were now cruising at 8 an over and with the 150 approaching , Bryant-Nichols' innings was finally ended when he was bowled for 59. Sultan didn't let the skipper's wicket slow down his approach and with new batsman Mathew Booth , they continued to punish the wayward Glenrothes bowling with Booth bringing a new maturity to his batting with an excellent innings of 21 in the support role. Only Sultan's aliling knee could bring the fun to an end and after some makeshift bandaging and the introduction of a runner , the pair refocused and incredibly picked up the pace ! With the score now approaching 200 , Sultan passed the 100 mark with yet another crunching four . This really was a great exhibition of power hitting and Sultan deserves all the credit for staying in control despite having a damaged knee. His innings finally came to an end when he was caught on the boundary for 117. The crowd fully expected another streak to celebrate but it was not to be. Anyone who thought that this would be the end of the fireworks were proved wrong by Scott Malcolmson, who continued to force the run rate along with the tail , including one audacious reverse sweep for 4 . The 250 mark was passed and the innings finally closed on 260 with Malcolmson not out on 35 and young Alan Deacon making his first runs in senior cricket , ably holding up his end to allow the senior batsman to continue. After tea , the Glenrothes innings started briskly ,after some indifferent Clackmannan bowling and it looked like Glens were in the mood to take on the challenge. With Clackmannan already a fielder short and Sultan unable to run due to his failed knee , there were holes in the field which the batsmen exploited well and after only 12 overs the 50 mark was reached ... however the lack of boundaries was starting to take its toll on the run rate and soon the Glens batsmen started to make mistakes . Kimmet was first to go , well caught and bowled by Ahmed , before Bryant Nichols then got into the act by bowling firstly Gould for 7 and then Tariq for 0 . By now the run chase was over and only Kaddinaik kept up the a decent scoring rate before being bowled for 45 , again by Bryant Nichols. The lack of Clackmannan fielders was further compounded when Ahmed broke his finger trying to field the ball off his own bowling . This setback meant Ahmed had to leave the field and kindly Glens provided a replacement . Despite this, Alan Deacon showed great character in the field , throwing himself around and chasing down everything , The game then settled into a period with Clackmannan pressing for wickets and Glenrothes batting only for bonus points which left the proceedings decidedly less entertaining than earlier . The only highlight being a couple of 'tired and emotional' girls looking to the deep fielder, Graham Fraser for some comfort. After some TLC , the game resumed , finally drawing to a close with Glenrothes finishing on 153 , 107 short of the target . The pick of the Clackmannan bowlers being Bryant Nichols with 3 for 26 . An outstanding all round team effort from a depleted 10 man side.