Forres off to poor start
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Forres St Lawrence had their first outing of the 2014 cricket season, playing away at Buckie on Saturday, making a poor start with the bat although the fielding effort was an improvement.
Asked to bat first, Forres opened with the prolific Pal Dhami and Derek Ross.
Runs were hard to come by as Wilson and Newlands for Buckie kept a tight rein on things.
Ross was removed in the third over by Wilson, missing a straight one, and was replaced by Gus Farr who showed respect to the bowlers but didn’t push the score long.
A change of bowling brought the wicket Buckie wanted when Dhami got a bottom edge and played the ball onto his stumps having scored only 10.
Nigel Gerrard, once again skippering Forres, made an unexpected arrival at number four.
With only 25 on the board after 13 overs Forres needed to up the rate but Farr and Gerrard seemed becalmed.
Finally Farr seemed to be getting a grasp of the bowling, a flurry of scoring shots off Ali but a good catch by Walls at short mid on saw the end of Farr for 19.
Fraser Merricks now joined the ranks of those who couldn’t move the ball off the square, with barely 40 on the board by the 20th over.
But once again, just as the batsmen seemed to be seeing the ball, they made a mistake which cost their wicket. First Merricks followed a Wilson delivery and was caught behind for nine and then Gerrard was bowled by Rijvan for 19.
David Durance went after only five balls, bowled by Corsie and Al Farr after only three, neither adding to the scant total of 76.
Ian Roberts went for a shot and was bowled which left Steve Barron with new recruit Alan Wells. Barron went for boom or bust and was bowled by Corsie for six. Last man Tony Farr helped Wells add another ten runs to the score, bringing Forres to the closing total of 86 all out.
Not a big total to chase but Forres dug in and made Buckie work for their win. Rijvan went in Derek Ross’s first over as he fell to a juggling over the shoulder catch by Gus Farr.
A Ali joined Dan Walls and they seemed to settle into a comfortable groove, taking runs as they could but without putting pressure on themselves. But just as it looked as if this would be straight forward Ross bit back, bowling Ali round leg stump for ten, and next over removing Hart for a duck.
It was good to see Ross back in the hunt again after a couple of seasons with back trouble. Anthony Wilson swung the bat to good effect and whilst he didn’t last long he was in long enough to take Buckie to safety.
He was comprehensively bowled by Gus Farr for 21 and then as Buckie teetered on the brink of winning Walls went for glory only to lose his middle stump when bowled by Durance. Corsie and Newlands got the last runs as Buckie won by five wickets.
This Saturday Forres make their home debut when they take on Nairn at the Grant Park with a 1pm start.
