Another great win for the Saints

Forres started their 2011 Macallan League Cup campaign against Nairn on Saturday at Grant Park and the win they secured means that their next game in the round robin format against Elgin will decide who goes through to the semi finals.

Winning the toss, the Forres skipper, Nigel Gerrard, asked Nairn to bat first. Nairn opened with their skipper Scot MacDonald and Matt McGlew, facing Derek Ross and Fraser Merricks. The home side struck in just the second over when MacDonald nicked a ball from Merricks to Al Farr at first slip. Mike Annis replaced his captain and he got underway in positive fashion as he swung at the ball, finding the gaps in the field. In the cup format bowlers are restricted to just six overs and there are fielding restrictions allowing few players outside a 20m circle. Annis exploited these restrictions well, whilst McGlew looked slightly out of sorts. Still, McGlew was building an innings with his partner and the pair had a healthy looking 60 on the board by the end of the tenth over. Soon Forres were changing their bowlers, bringing Arron and Ian Roberts into the attack, the latter being particularly miserly with his bowling. Perhaps it was this pressure that made Annis run for a quick single leaving McGlew struggling to make his ground at the non strikers end as the throw came in from Durance and the Nairn batsman was out for 29. The fifteenth over brought the score to 90 for 2 and with this the scoring faltered as Nairn added only 13 runs in the next five overs as well as losing their third wicket as Annis top edged a delivery from Arron Roberts to Durance just backward of square. Annis had played his part well, providing a platform on his way to 58. Adrian Neill and John Duff were now at the crease and whilst Neill was playing a measured innings, Duff tried to hit the cover off every delivery. Needless to say Duff lost his wicket when he was caught on the boundary by Gus Farr off Ian Roberts for just 8 with Nairn 130 for 4 in the 25th over. Neill continued to work the ball for one or two runs but at the other end wickets were falling. Lockhart went for 2 when he was bowled by Gus Farr, Neil Gibson was bowled by Ian Roberts for one and Patrick Gerring was run out as Neill refused a run and left the non striker stranded half way down the pitch. A late flourish from Neill helped the score reach 158 but not before O’Reilly was run out for 2 and Nairn closed with 8 wickets down. Nairn got off to a good start but failed to build on this platform, finishing probably 30 runs short.

In reply Forres opened with Gerrard and Merricks facing Neill and MacDonald. A positive start from Gerrard as he took six from the first over but Merricks fell in the second over when McGlew managed to hold onto a cover drive just by his ankles. This was followed in the next over when Gerrard failed to deal with the in-swing of Neill, knocking over his leg stump for 8. Gus Farr and Neil McGrath found themselves at the crease in just the third over and with plenty of work still to be done. They had a look at the bowling for an over or two before McGrath got his innings underway with a six over long on towards the tower boundary off MacDonald. Two good overs from the Forres pair got them on track and by the tenth they had 47 on the board. The change of bowlers brought Duff and McGlew into play but they didn’t have the penetration to break the Forres partnership as the fifteenth over saw 92 on the board, moving to 125 by over 20. Farr in particular was finding the boundary regularly and even the introduction of Neil Gibson into the attack made no difference. Forres passed the Nairn total in the 24th over as McGrath drove through the covers for four to see his team to an eight wicket victory. Neil McGrath finished with 42 not out and Gus Farr 79 not out.

This Saturday sees a return to league action with a home game against top of the table RAF Lossiemouth.