Scorecard

Match Report In the shadow of Murrayfield Rugby stadium the Clackmannan County 2nd team took on Cramond 2's. Clackmannan County captain Alison Ramsay looked at the green wicket and decided to field. Last minute replacement, the injured Neil Ramsay, surprisingly, opened the bowling along with regular opener Alistair Band. First blood to Clackmannan, in the second over, when Mally was run out by a sharp direct hit on the stumps by Graham Carrol. The next wicket to fall was in the seventeenth over with the score on 85, Karnath caught behind by Jeff Thomas off Alison Ramsay for 35. As is often the way the next wicket fell with only two more runs on the board Rafiq caught and bowled Alison Ramsay for one. D'Souza and Singh steadied the Cramond innings and it was the 29th over before the next wicket fell, D'Souza bowled Alison Ramsay for 35, with the score on 126. Desperate to get in on the act, after having to watch his sister take three wickets, Neil Ramsay had Singh LBW after the batsman had made 50, his controlled innings included four fours and one six. A small consolation to Neil Ramsay who dropped the Cramond top scorer, off his own bowling, when Singh was on "not very much". Alistair Band decided to get in on the act and, overcoming his early problems controling the swing of the ball, dismantled the Cramond lower middle order, taking three wickets. The three batsmen dismissed gained only one run between them. The innings closed with Cramond scoring 217 for 8 wickets in their 45 overs. Cramoand captain Rick Finc, he of the half mast trousers, scoring a useful 26 not out. 64 of the runs scored were given away in extras by the Clackmannan side, making extras, by 16 runs, Cramonds top scorer. The uncontroled swing of the ball being the cause of most of the 44 wides bowled, the number of extra balls bowled gave the Cramond side the addition of almost ten extra overs. A difficult thing for any side to overcome.

Clackmannan opened their innings with opening bowlers Ramsay and Band, however this strange ploy failed to pay off, as first Ramsay then Band fell to Singh for two runs apiece. Two wickets down for ten runs but the more experience Ian Davies anfd Jeff Thomas at the crease. These two took the score to 31 before Ian Davies was caught off Signh for 11 in the 12th over. Young Blair Campbell, who had bowled well but with little luck joined Thomas and batted sensibly helping take the score to 42 before being adjundged LBW off D'Souza for 5. James Couper, flushed with success from his excellent catch at point in the Cramond innings, joined Thomas and helped take the score to 76 before Thomas fell LBW to D'Sousa for a solid 33 runs. Couper was next to leave bowled by Malley for 5. Graham Carroll was playing sensibly while captain Alison Ramsay played her natural game and swung across the line of the ball to be dismissed for a paltry 4 runs, bowled by Malley. Gordon McNee and Carroll showed their captain how she should have played taking the score to 124 before McNee was bowled by Rafiq for 19, an excellent innings at such a late stage in the game. Dan Smith joined Carroll but the young bowler was denied his chance of batting success when Carroll misjudged a ball from Rafiq and was bowled for 15. Since Clackmannan had been forced to play with ten players the Clackmannan innings closed at 128 all out in 34.2 overs. Cramond 20 points Clackmannan 7 points. Take away the gift of 64 runs in extras and the game would have been much more competitive.There were many positive aspects to be taken from the game for Clackmannan, especialy the juniors performance. The club policy of giving home developed junior players the chance to play will benefit the club and Scottish cricket in the long term and hopefully ensure a future for the club that does not depend solely on the expertise of itinerant players. Next weeks game is against Dunbar at home in the Policies, Doune. The game begins at 1.30pm.