St Andrews University Staff Cricket Club

Match Reports 2006

Our first foray into Wednesday evening cricket this year and Stan’s authoritarian captaincy produced a real first for the staff team – everyone turned up at the meet on time, ready to go! We even had a travelling 12th man, Arnab coming along to take pictures of one of the most picturesque grounds in Fife. Arriving well before the opposition, an extended fielding practice gave debutant Eric Stempels an opportunity to test the wicket keeping gloves – he was to provide an excellent performance behind the stumps and we hope to have his services in many matches to come.

Despite the recent good weather, a strip had not been prepared so we were playing on their astro pitch – making it 3 matches on the trot on artificial wickets. Losing the toss gave an opportunity for our strong (on paper) bowling attack to have first dig at Largo and an encouraging opening partnership of Angus Stewart and Ben Agate had Largo a wicket down in the third over, Yousuf being caught behind Angus’s head by Patrick Jess. Angus was particularly unlucky to see the ball bouncing just over or passing just by the stumps but once the Largo batsmen worked out the bounce of the pitch, they started to lash the bowling around in convincing fashion. An onslaught of boundaries interspersed with well worked singles kept the score board rolling far too fast and despite multiple bowling changes, Largo continued to hit relatively good bowling with impunity. Ed Cackett, playing his first game after a long term injury, bowled well to cause the batsmen a few problems and John Gilmore induced a number of false strokes but nothing produced the breakthrough. On the plus side, the fielding was sharp with few mistakes and the extras count miserly – a big improvement on earlier matches.

Requiring an intimidating 154 to win, new recruit Cameron Hall and Roy Dilley started well, pushing for sharp singles and two’s until Cameron was unlucky in chipping to mid off in the fourth over. Roy was joined by Captain Stan – our last recognised batsman - and they progressed well, rotating the strike and keeping the runs ticking over. The short outfield provided much more value for good shots than we have seen of late and Stan was to unleash a number of lovely boundaries during his stay at the crease. However, a steady tumble of wickets had us at 40 for 4 until John Gilmore’s cameo 15 provided some hope. He was bowled by the wholly unthreatening Smith who managed to take 4 wickets in precisely the same way – using a slight angle of left arm round to induce poor defensive shots from the middle order. With the total far adrift, Alex Smith came in to play some splendid attacking shots, mixed with correct defence which spoke volumes for the hard work he has put in during recent net sessions. He was finally out for 15 leaving Angus to come in and lash 9 off the final three deliveries, leaving Stan a frustrated 40 not out and the team a distant 44 runs short.