Scorecard

Match Report Another "luck white heather" day for Clackmannan county 2nd XI. Not only did they lose the ubiquitous two players to the first team at the last moment, Captain Alison Ramsay booked herself into A & E for an X-ray on Friday night, after being hit at training, and failed to take part in Saturdays game. Ian Davies, back off the holiday plane late Friday night, was thrust into the spotlight of captaincy. Clackmannan fielded first and skipper Ian Davies opened with young Alistair Band and thirteen year Dan Smith and althogh the two juniors aquitted themselves well they could not make the crucial breakthrough. The first wicket fell to Muktar Ahmed who bowled Paul Bailey after Paul had hit 19, inclubing a four and a six. With the Holy Cross total on 44, Kash Ali took the next wicket S Malik LBW for 6. Muktar Ahmed got back in on the act bowling McKay for 26, as the Holy Cross total rose steadily. Captain Davies tried out various combinations of his bowling attack until by the 43rd over, Holy Cross were all out for 154. Muktar Ahmed was the best of the Clackmannan bowlers with 6 wickets for 22 in 13 overs. All of the other young bowlers bowled well, Alisatir Band had 1 for 23, Dan Smith 2 for 13 and Blair Campbell in his debut game, none for thirteen. Kash Ali finished with 2 wickets for 50 and Ronnie Stokes one for 18. The Clackmannan batting opened with Dan Smith and Alistair Band. These two batted well until Smith was bowled by Geddes for 8, then Greig Taylor followed two balls later without adding to the score. Ian Davies collected 3 runs before he too was removed by Geddes. However young Band was playing admirably at the other end and he an Blair Campbell batted sensibly for the next eight overs. With the score on 36 Campbell was caught by Malik off Matthews for 1. A good innings for the youngster and an ideal way to celebrate his inclusion in the under 12 Central District squad. Band was next to go falling LBW to Geddes for a well crafted 17. Unfortunately for Clackmannan this signalled the opening of the flood gates as both Muktar Ahmed and Kash Ali both proceeded to throw their wickets away in the same over. This one over devastated the game for Clackmannan, half the batsmen out for the addition of two runs. Clackmannan 44 runs on the board for 6 wickets down and the game all but a lost cause. Gordon McNee, second top scorer in the last game, fell to Geddes for 2 to be followed in the next Geddes over by Ronnie Stokes bowled for zero. A last minute call up for Ross Hepburn saw the thirteen year old pushed into an impossible batting situation in his first senior game. Hepburn played valiantly for his two runs and can have some consolation that he was only one of two players who did not fall under the Geddes spell. The Holy Cross player finished the game with eight wickets for twenty four runs in ten overs, not a game he is likely to forget. Clackmannan lasted twenty overs, scored 53 runs for the loss of all ten wickets. Only Ben Craven, playing in his first game for Clackmannan, survived to be not out, one, at the end of the game. Next weeks game is away to West Lothian 3, but the venue for the ground has not yet been finalised.