Forres secure the points and stay on top

RAIN spoiled the result at the Linzee Gordon Park as Forres took on Buckie at the coasters home ground. Despite that, Forres took enough points to keep them top of the table after the weekend’s games.

Winning the toss, Forres St Lawrence opted to bat first with Pritpal Dhami and Derek Ross taking to the crease against Joe Hough and Barry Newlands. Wides were the order of the day from the early Buckie bowlers but the Forres batsmen were kept quiet by the slow pitch which gave variable bounce at one end.

A change of bowling brought Corsie and Wilson into action and it was the steady Wilson who got the breakthrough as he got the ball to seam, getting through Dhami’s defence for 6. Gus Farr was number three and he too struggled with the pace of the wicket as only 42 runs were on the board after 20 overs.

Eventually, the batsmen took on more urgency and Ross started to hit over the top, striking a couple of fours but went for one too many when he was well caught by Corsie off Wilson for 24.

Steve Ryder had the chance to up the pace and with only 58 runs on the board in the 23rd over, Forres were not looking likely to set a challenging total, but good running from the batsmen got things moving and runs started to flow more freely. A rain break took the teams off the field for ten minutes before the batsmen returned to the attack. Runs were coming quickly now and this partnership added 70 in eleven overs. The end came when Ryder was caught behind by Ballantyne off Hart for 26. Next came an innings Buckie won’t forget in a hurry. New to the Forres team, Connor Reed proceeded to smash the ball all round the field, leaving the Buckie players battered and bruised. Farr fell one over into the partnership, at 134, when he came down the track to Wood and was stumped for 51, bringing McGrath in to partner Reed. Confident and attacking, Reed took 66 off just 33 balls and when he left the field Forres had powered onto 210 with just a couple of overs left to bat. Dave Durance helped McGrath to post the last runs with Forres closing on 226 for 5. No one saw a total like that coming but it was going to be touch and go with the weather closing in.

The Buckie reply started badly when Hart was caught by man of the moment Reed off the bowling of Gus Farr in just the first over. Danny Walls and Anthony Wilson stayed positive though and had 48 on the board when the rain came down a-plenty, leaving the field unplayable. The match was abandoned and after the complicated points system was worked out Forres took 11 points from the game, enough to keep them at the top of the table.

Next week comes another challenging match as the saints travel to Strathpeffer to take on third in the table Ross County.