St Andrews University Staff Cricket Club

Match Reports 2006

Our annual foray into the Small Clubs Cup was contested on Sunday, with a fixture away to Kinross. A strong team was selected with ex-captain Tom Owens making a guest appearance and featuring a debut for Tim Greenwood who we hope to see more of in the future. Once again we faced opponents familiar with an Astroturf pitch and with a combination of lush outfield (fielders of diminutive stature were well advised to jump up and down occasionally to ensure we could see them), a strong cross-pitch wind and occasional sharp showers, batting would prove tricky. Having lost the toss, opening batsmen Roy Dilley and Matt Clarke had to work hard to make any headway against brisk and accurate bowling from Kinross's youthful attack of P. Ross and K. Bird. The extended 45 over game provided an opportunity for long innings and Roy and Captain Frankland put on an excellent 50, finding gaps in the field with neat shots but were only able to fashion four scoring shots other than singles, the verdant outfield robbing Roy in particular of several boundaries. Soon after drinks, three wickets fell in four overs and at 68 for four it was time for an Owens cameo - Tom piercing the field in fine style. Kinross stuck to their game plan and bowled a tight off stump line and gave away very little. Their change bowlers took the pace off the ball making scoring hard work although fortunately their catching was rather more error strewn. Needing more runs to make the target a serious one, ever more adventurous shots were attempted, with disastrous effect. Eschewing the butter-fingered fielders, J. Mooney came on as sixth bowler and took career best figures of 3-1-5-4, including a hat trick, applying the simple approach of looping them up slow but straight and waiting for our lower order batsmen to play all the way around it! 98 for 5 had potential - 101 all out tells its own sorry tale.

A quick lunch break was followed by a brisk team talk by Captain/Keeper Stan who pointed out that by bowling the same tight line and holding our catches, Kinross weren't going to have an easy time of it in their run chase. So it proved with a superb opening bowling partnership of Tom and Angus Stewart whose combined figures at the start of the Kinross innings were 15-6-12-1. Angus in particular found an enviable rhythm from the Northern end and was distinctly unlucky to take only one wicket, a questionable caught behind in his last over scant return for a spell which included convincing shouts for lbw and several edges which failed to carry or stick. With Matt Clarke coming on first change and snapping up J. Ross, Tim Greenwood making his first contribution with a neat catch, Kinross were 23 for 3 in the 18th over and a chink of light appeared for the fielding side. However, the support bowlers could not match the accuracy of the openers and one bad ball per over was sufficient to allow Lopez and Mitchell to hit the boundaries needed to reduce the chase to minimal requirements. Mitchell was very well caught at deep backward cow by Tom off Alex Smith, whose bowling was as challenging as ever and K. Bird looked very shaky early on, surviving a sharp chance to slip and lbw shouts in his first two overs, before displaying a voracious appetite for the leg side boundary. The ground fielding held up well with Arnab, Phil, Ewan Cameron and Tim controlling the square but the key break through could not be effected until a slightly bizarre denouement allowed 3 bowlers to take two wickets with the scores tied on 101. Matt Clarke came back for two balls and pulled up with a sore fetlock. Skipper Stan offered to have him put down by the race course vet but opted instead for Ewan to finish the over, with our Aussie recruit inducing Bird to flap one to fine leg for a well struck 26. Ewan's figures of 0.4-0-4-1 were subsequently eclipsed by the President-for-Life bringing himself on for the last rites and bowling Lopez first ball before the victorious single was nudged off his third ball. The Panda needs to come on earlier, methinks!

Another 25 runs would have made this a close contest - although Kinross eased home in the 37th over, the slow pitch meant they always had to take the risky aerial route to score significant runs. The Captain rightly encouraged all concerned to take advantage of the weekly nets to improve on shot selection in the lower order and line and length in the change bowlers. Another shot at glory in the Cup has come to a close but not without the feeling that the Club could progress in future years.