THE small crowd who stayed on late to watch the end of the Forres v Fochabers game on Saturday were treated to a nail-biting finish with the home side running out winners - but only just.

Put into bat, Fochabers were in trouble in only the second over when opener Mark Stockwell fell to a sharp caught and bowled from Fraser Merricks off a leading edge. With one in-form batsman out of the way, Fochabers replaced him with Miland Mehta, who joined his son Aditya.

But some tight bowling kept the score down, and even induced mistakes which the fielders were not able to capitalise on.

Before long Mehta senior was on his way back to the pavilion after leaving a Merricks delivery which swung in, caught his pads on the way through, and bowled him for one. Colin Sanders joined the opener and the 10th over passed without another mishap, but just 16 runs on the board.

The visiting batsmen were finding runs hard to come by, not helped by the attacking field and accurate bowling, and in the 15th over, as the score turned 27, Sanders and Mehta felt the pressure, taking a quick single. A direct throw from Arron Roberts at cover found Sanders out of his ground and the third wicket was down.

Sanders was replaced by Adam Stockwell, and Arron Roberts was introduced to the bowling attack.

A couple of loose deliveries from the young bowler got Stockwell off the mark but by the 20th over the score had only crawled to 43, and just two overs later Roberts struck, having Stockwell caught at short leg by Neil McGrath for 15.

Josh Valentine joined Mehta, who was hanging on, but lasted only three balls before he became Gus Farr's first victim. Martin Steel scored two singles then tried a drive off Farr, only to edge the ball into the keeper's gloves.

By the 30th over Fochabers had moved onto 64 for 6, and young Mehta flashed at a short ball from Farr, setting up a catch for Arron Roberts at mid-wicket having made a patient 37. Gavin Griffin and Mike Fox put up some resistance and managed to eke out a few more runs before they fell victim to Gus Farr and Roberts respectively.

Farr swept the last wicket away, finishing with five for nine as Fochabers closed their innings on 82 all out.

The Forres reply should have been a formality but, as so often happens, things did not go according to plan. The fourth ball of the innings saw Fraser Merricks beaten for pace and bowled by Adam Stockwell.

Gus Farr came on and approached matters positively, reaching nine, but was too dashing when he played an aerial shot through mid on, finding the fielder who took a one-handed catch.

Opener Nigel Gerrard now looked to Neil McGrath to build the innings, which would see Forres home safely, and indeed they did look as if they were both there for the duration.

However, with 30 on the board in the 12th over, McGrath took on a wide delivery from Stockwell which snicked through to the keeper and he was on his way, also for nine.

Tony Farr has looked in good form this season, and this sort of situation seemed just right for him.

But even he was having to be watchful as Fochabers rang the changes with their bowling, not letting the batsmen settle.

Eventually the pressure told as the batsmen went for a quick single, but fell to a good throw from A. Mehta. Farr was on his way for 12 having taken a nervous Forres past 50.

So with just 32 runs needed and 20 overs left, David Durance came in to help his skipper but he tried to hit out and holed out at mid on off Sanders.

Al Farr went for a big swipe against A. Mehta and was bowled for obne, which brought Derek Ross to the crease and he proved cool, calm and collected. Ross knew he had time to score the runs but just had to pick the bad ball, which was exactly what he did.

Over by over ticked away and the runs were knocked off, but Fochabers were pressing hard and a series of maidens only increased the tension.

Finally, the 45th over arrived and Forres were level with the visitors' score, then first ball of the over Ross placed the ball through point and it rolled over the boundary for the winning four - a huge cheer came from the pavilion. Ross and Gerrard had finished with 20 each, not out.