Scorecard

Match Report The Clackmannan County second team faced Broomhall at the Grazings in Doune on Saturday. Clackmannan skipper Alison Ramsay lost the toss and condemned her side to a hot afternoon in the field. Broomhall opened the batting with Gary Seath and Jamie Bell while for Clackmannan the combination of Muktar Ahmed and Alistair Band began the attack. The two bowlers started well but the Broomhall pair settled to their task soon picking up on any loose deliveries to push the score along. The short fast outfield helped to promote the score steadily so that by the 15th over a score of 50 runs had been reached without loss. Alison Ramsay got the breakthrough in the 51st over bowling Seath for 15 with 55 on the board. The joy of the Clackmannan side was however short lived as they fielded for another 13 overs before the next wicket fell. With the score on 121 Jamie Bell fell LBW to David Henderson for 55, an innings which included nine boundaries. A relief for Henderson, who after two dropped catches off his first over on consecutive deliveries, must have wondered what he had to do to get a wicket. Liam Doherty, who was batting well, was joined by Mike Jones and while the scoring rate dropped, the batsmen looked comfortable. The Clackmannan Captain attempted to tweak her bowling attack, trying young Dan Smith and herself, bowling from the village end, but it was not until she turned to Kash Ali that the partnership was broken. After an excellent knock Doherty, deceived by a ball from Ali, was stumped by wicketkeeper Jeff Thomas for a total of 66, including ten fours and two sixes. Doherty departed, with the score on 170 for 3 and six overs remaining. Stuart Glasgow entered the fray and both he and Jones remained not out, scoring 11 and 27 respectively when the 45 overs had been bowled. The final Broomhall score, 194 for 3 wickets.

The Clackmannan innings opened with David Henderson and Jeff Thomas facing Liam Doherty and Steven McIlroy. McIlroy immediately looked to be a problem, bowling his first two overs as maidens and obtaining more lift from the pitch than had been apparent from any of the Clackmannan bowlers. In his third over, he had Henderson bowled for 2 in what was to be the start of a great spell of bowling. On the final ball of the same over, he had Ian Davies(0) caught behind by Gary Seath. Liam Doherty got into the act next over when he had Mark McAlpine bowled for naught with the score on 6. First ball of the next over, McIlroy struck again, this time Thomas caught in the covers for 3. With the score on 6 in the eighth over and with four wickets down Muktar Ahmed joined young Alistair Band with Clackmannan in real trouble. The two players batted sensibly until Band also fell to McIlroy caught behind by Seath for 1. A useful innings supporting Ahmed and taking the score to 19 in the 14th over and taking some of the panic out of the situation. Skipper Alison Ramsay joined Ahmed and began to put bat to ball. Ahmed was caught at point off McIlroy for 10 runs three overs later, after probably his best batting performance of the year so far. Gordon McNee joined Ramsay and hit a four before, two overs later, being unlucky in not getting his bat down in time and being stumped by Seath. Another wicket for McIlroy. Kash Ali joined Ramsay and the pair began to make the bowling look easier, taking the score to a more respectable 67 before Ramsay was caught at slip by Mike Warren off Doherty. A captains innings of 27 including four fours. Dan Smith arrived at the wicket and the youngster immediately got off the mark with a four. Ali, after hitting the ball well, succumbed to Doherty going for the big hit, caught by Steve Garrett at cover. With the score on 74 Ronnie Stokes joined Smith but with no addition to the score Smith was caught behind by Seath off Doherty. A sensible knock by young Smith, scoring 7 in a manner which indicated hope for the future for the youngster and the club. Steve McIlroy finished with 6 for 26 in 13 overs and Liam Dohery 4 for 28 to add to his 66 with the bat. On the day Clackmannan had no one to match these performances. Performances which gave Broomhall 20 points and their first win over Clackmannan in two years. Clackmannan were restricted to two bowling points, a batting point and the evident need to do more work on fielding. Next week the 2nd team travel to Edinburgh to play Carlton 3.