Scorecard

Match Report Clackmannan County played Grange 3 at the Grazings in Doune on Saturday and got the day off to a good start by forgetting the scorebook. Grange batted first on an excellent batting track, this coupled with a very fast outfield made the opportunity of a high scoring game a real prospect. While the Clackmannan opening attack of Matthew Booth and Zahid Hussain got off to a reasonable start the fast outfield and hot and cold fielding of the young side was always going to make holding the score down difficult. This proved to be the case when over the 50 overs Grange amassed some 299 runs for the loss of 6 wickets. Top scorers for Grange being Alistair Croal 102 and Brian Kaczynsky 55. The Clackmannan reply was entrusted in the first instance to Richard Passe and Scott Malcolmson. Passe could only muster 5 before he was bowled, but then Malcolmson was joined by thirteen year old Ross Murray who batted beyond his years to score 16 before being unluckily run out. Murray who had damaged his knee in practice the evening before and could not keep wicket, had been allowed, by the sporting agreement of the Grange captain, to use a runner. However, after batting well despite the added problem of having a runner, he moved out of his ground when a run was being taken and was adjudged run out. He was replaced by his runner Alan Oliver but he was unable to capitalise on his score of last week and was bowled in short order for 6 runs. Neil Ramsay joined his captain who was scoring well and these two began to make the Clackmannan batting look more confident. The partneship was split after Malcolmson was bowled for an excellent 65. Ramsay stayed at the wicket while Zahid Hussain(10), Graham Oliver(11), Matthew Booth(0) and Muktar Ahmed came and went. With the score on 192, Ramsay eventually lifted his head in the air, charged down the track, and was bowled for 50 runs. Ramsay at last showing his ability with the bat for the first team to confirm his position as a useful all-rounder in the side. Young Daniel Love, brought in as a late replacement, was the last wicket to fall, Kash Ali remaining not out, without adding to the final score. Clackmannan 192 all out and 8 bonus points. Grange, with a different team from the one Clackmannan faced at the start of the season, were still to good for the Clackmannan youngsters and deserved to take away the 20 points for the win. With more than a full team of players either injured or unavailable, both Clackmannan sides in the ESCA league are in trouble and nothing short of a miracle is likely to save them from relegation. Next Saturday the 1st team take on Freuchie 2 at Freuchie in a bottom of the table battle.