Bamboozled Saints no match for airmen

A DEPLETED Forres St Lawrence travelled to RAF Lossiemouth on Saturday

Aaron McLean defending the Forres wicket against the bowling of RAF Lossiemouth’s Wolton.

 and came away with just a single point for their efforts.

In the absence of several of the top batsmen, Forres had to call on their second team players to fill the gap.

Asked to bat first, Al Farr and David Durance took to the field, lasting only four overs before Farr missed a straight ball from Boardman and was bowled without scoring.

Derek Ross was sent in at number three and he was able to demonstrate his defence, but the first attacking shot found Crabtree running backwards at mid on and he was out for three.

Captain for the day, Neil McGrath, came in at his usual number four but with only 10 on the board and little else behind him he was on a hiding to nothing. Durance had played well with unaccustomed patience but a change of bowler brought Wolton on to bowl and he soon found his way through the batsman’s defence as Durance was bowled for nine.

Tony Farr was bamboozled by the spin of Crabtree and went to a good catch at point by Boardman. Jon Benn was caught and bowled by Crabtree and, shortly afterwards, McGrath fell to Crabtree too as he tried to get to the pitch of the ball, which spun away and through to the keeper for nine.

The long Forres tail was faced with making a score, which at 25 for 6 seemed unlikely.

Aaron McLean and Arron Roberts defended well but both fell within a run of each other to Wolton, only Ian Roberts managed to put the ball over the boundary before he was bowled by Crabtree.

A gutsy last wicket stand by 13-year-old Robbie Rose and Kirstin McGrath kept the home side on the field a little longer than they expected, but, eventually, Rose was caught and bowled by the returning Boardman and Forres were all out for a paltry 33. Crabtree finished with four for nine off his eight overs.

The home side reply was never going to last long, and although Forres took the wicket of Organ, bowled by Arron Roberts, it took just seven overs for the winning score to be reached. A good bowling effort from Lossiemouth and some valuable experience for some of the Forres players.

Saturday sees Forres at home to Buckie when the home side will hope to have more of their regular first team players available.