Saints down to earth with a bump
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Forres St Lawrence came down to earth with a bump on Saturday as they looked to carry their winning streak past RAF Lossiemouth, but could only take points for effort rather points for a victory.
The RAF captain, Chris Woodward, won the toss and chose to bat as rain threatened.
He opened with Wolton facing Derek Ross and Arron Roberts, and the home side struck in just the third over when Wolton flashed at a wide delivery from Ross, sending the ball through to Nigel Gerrard behind the sticks.
Sam Crabtree at three did exactly the same, but Gus Farr took the catch at second slip.
Lossiemouth were looking rocky now and the next batsman in, Laidler, had a tough job if he was to stick with his skipper and make a total to defend. But the weather came to the visitors’ aid when the rain started to fall, making the ball difficult to handle, and the Forres bowlers started to struggle.
Woodward played positively, attacking the loose ball, while Laidler stayed put, occupying the crease. The fifty came up in the fifteenth over, by 20 overs eighty was on the board with the century coming up soon after.
The Forres skipper went through his bowling attack, looking for the breakthrough, and while Gus Farr managed to get pace and bounce enough to make the two batsmen change their caps for helmets it wasn’t until Tony Farr was called upon that the next wicket fell.
At 123 in the 27th over, Laidler seemed to panic at a straight ball from Farr, missed it and, as the ball hit his knee, the bowler shouted for an lbw. However, the ball deflected onto the sticks and Laidler was out bowled for 30.
Bundock was next in, but he didn’t last long as he edged the ball to Al Farr at slip to give his dad his second wicket. The next over from Farr saw Woodward capitulate when he mistimed a slow delivery and he presented Durance with a catch at wide mid off. A good innings from Woodward making 87 from the 133 on the board.
With 15 overs still to go, Forres needed to keep things tight and despite taking the wicket of Downey as he was caught at point by Gavin Ross off the bowling of Arron Roberts, Lossiemouth managed to get away.
encouraged
Jakes and Harris hit out, sometimes quite literally, as the bat flew out of Jakes hand towards the square leg umpire. The last five overs saw nearly 50 runs added to the scoreboard, taking the RAF team to 220 for 6 at the close. The rain had almost certainly taken away any chance Forres had of closing the Lossiemouth batsmen down.
After tea, as the skies cleared and the field dried out, Forres opened their innings with Nigel Gerrard and Al Farr facing John Sargeant and Stan Boardman.
Farr looked as if he was up for the fight, but managed to pick Jakes out at deep long on, who took a good catch to dimiss him for ten. Gus Farr now needed to do the business and tried to drive at a ball which wasn’t as straight as he thought, presenting Jakes with a catch at mid off for just three.
Neil McGrath came in much earlier than he would have liked, but looked to take the bowlers on straight away and was soon finding the boundary. Gerrard sat tight as the total moved past fifty and things looked to be going well, but disaster struck as McGrath called Gerrard through for a quick single only for Gerrard to pull up with a thigh injury. He had to be helped from the field, unable to continue even with a runner.
Tony Farr was called into action, but the partnership with McGrath lasted just a couple of balls as McGrath found the ever present Jakes once more at wide long on and he headed to the pavilion having made a promising 41.
With a long tail to bat with and little chance now of getting to the required total, Farr encouraged the rest of the team to get as many batting points as possible. Wolton was bowling long hops which Farr took a liking to and with Derek Ross they approached the century, but the introduction of Harris was the undoing of Ross as he nicked one through to the keeper for his 5.
Durance too stayed around, while Farr scored runs and their partnership of 33 saw the third batting point passed before Durance popped a Harris delivery up to Sargeant at cover. Gavin Ross lost his leg stump to Harris for a duck, and at 134 Farr finally succumbed to the bowling of Wolton as he went to pull the ball but was through the shot too soon, looping the ball to Robson for 39.
Next ball, Ian Roberts was caught behind and all of a sudden Wolton was on a hat-trick, but Arron Roberts saw him off only to be lbw the next ball. Gerrard returned to the crease with a runner in an effort to make the 150 for another point but an Andy Merricks swipe saw the effort in vain as he was bowled by Boardman for two. So Forres closed on 136 in the 41st over, taking 6 points from the game.
Forres travel to Inverness on Saturday to take on Highland in an effort to get back to winning ways.
