RHC LIONS

RHC 1st XI vs Falkland – 25th July – Ones gift title to Fifers

Picture the scene… Shockingly wet week but Cunners and his merry gang (Lambchop, Tysonchop and Arnoldchop) put in a huge effort on the Friday night to get a pitch prepared for further work on the Saturday. After some concrete wet down on the low part of the square on Saturday morning, against all the odds we got on for a 1pm start. Winning the toss we elected to bat (6 heads out of 6 for Brother McLaren just quietly)…. In we went to face Ryan Hepburn and Hammy Sir on a wet slow one.

Unfortunately, despite the effort to get the ground sorted perhaps we had taken our eyes off the prize a little… Batsmen came and went too often. P looked well set as ever but slapped one to Aparajit Singh at gully in the 4th over, leaving us 14 for 1. This seemed to set the tone as several batsmen gave their wickets away. Kev smashed a four and then smashed one to cover to depart for four. Craigie Adams was then bowled for 2 leaving us 28 for 3. By this stage we’d been off for 40 minutes due to wet runs ups… despite Cunners rightly pointing out that Fife toys being dropped from prams left right and centre did not a cricket match make. Matt and Eddie More spent 50 odd minute building, showing the right application at 4 and 5 taking the score to 59 in the 20th over before Matty was caught for 18. Ally then failed to bring his West Lothian form to the table not troubling the scorers. Tim came in; hit one into the gym / swimming pool wall for a big 90 yard six before getting a dodgy lbw to Singh who then galloped through the tail to end up with 2.3 overs, 3 for 2 – all in wides. We finished 81 all out in 30 overs… with 5 players playing poor out shots and 20 of those runs coming in wides.

Again, like our SNCL cup tie, our bowling attack had too little to defend. Try as Gordie, Matty, P and Kev could with a D/L target of 80 to defend, Falkland got them in 31.3 overs for a ten pointer – basically handing the title to Falkland. Too much time assuming the game would not be played? Affected by the run-up argument/ either way, our batting did not fire. Gordie only went at 1.4 an over. Matt at 2 and Kev and P at just over threes. Yes, we missed Paddy but as a team we did not hold together…

Team talk went on and on… and so it should, as the team resolved to work to plans better – discuss their roles more as a game develops out in the middle and a promise to not hand over wickets…

Down to third with 5 weeks to play and dangerous percentages to defend above us…

MAN OF THE MATCH (TEAM CUNNERS)