Success smiles on Saints

A CRACKING weekend of cricket for Forres St Lawrence as they took on Fort William at Grant Park on Saturday and then went on to the T20 finals day in Elgin on Sunday.

The first game of the weekend saw Forres hosting Fort William where Forres batted first against the visitors. Dhami and Gerrard opened against Ross Lavin and the slow bowling of Kevin O’Meara and as usual the pair took their time to have a look at the bowling. Dhami clearly liked what he saw when a couple of loose deliveries from O’Meara were dispatched to the boundary but then he got his line and bowled a tidy spell. Everything was going according to plan until Gerrard decided to accelerate and he promptly lost his wicket to Lavin when he was bowled for 6. Gus Farr joined Dhami and he started quietly, moving the score along from 43 in the 11th over when the wicket fell and past the century mark in the 23rd over. However, as the 150 mark was on the horizon, Farr caught a leading edge and was caught by Lavin at point off O’Meara for 42. Derek Ross now came to the crease but lasted just a few overs before he was caught behind by Blanchard for 4, again off O’Meara. A four got Steve Barron off the mark first ball and he played a positive innings with Dhami as they accelerated past 200 in the 36th over then a double loss as Dhami was bowled by Spencer for 122 and then Duff was caught behind, again off Spencer, for 0. Barron and Durance kept the runs coming though, including a 6 for Barron before he fell to Spencer for 41. The last few wickets fell cheaply and Forres closed their innings when Durance was run out in the last over for 13, Forres having made 252. Spencer took 5 for 61.

The Fort William reply was gutsy with Colin Jennings taking the lead although his partner, Charlie Luxton, went early when he fell to a classy catch low down behind square leg by Robbie Rose off the bowling of Gus Farr. Kevin O’Meara was in defiant mood and was up for the fight, making boundaries and running the ball with Jenkins. They were up with the Forres scoring rate until O’Meara lost his wicket to a good caught and bowled from Durance for 46. 86 for 2 soon became 93 for 3 when D Duncan was caught by Farr off Durance but Derek Spencer was in the mood to stick around with Jennings and although he didn’t contribute much to the score he helped Fort William past the hundred mark. Jennings was finally winkled out by a slower ball from Tony Farr, caught and bowled for 55 and then, despite a stand by Blanchard who made 14, the Fort William innings drifted to a close on 148. David Durance took 4 for 39.

Next Saturday Forres travel to Keith for their next league match.

Sunday saw an early start for the Saints when they arrived at Cooper Park in Elgin for the semi final of the t20 cup against RAF Lossiemouth. The fast and furious form of the game still allows for good batting and bowling performances and these were certainly on display in this competition. The early loss of Pal Dhami and Fraser Merricks did not daunt Forres as Gus Farr and Neil McGrath took charge in their innings against the service side. McGrath made 20 before being bowled by Raine and 68 from Farr gave the team the base for their innings, with contributions from John Duff and Al Farr, 19 not out, took Forres to 180 at the end of their 20 overs. The reply from the RAF side was going well for them, no early loss of wickets to disrupt building the innings but then another innings breaker from Tony Farr when he tempted Woodward to hit out and he fell to a steady catch by Gus Farr for 22. Rory Harris was the next danger and a string of boundary shots from him needed to be stemmed so the Forres skipper turned to Pal Dhami for some spin magic which did the trick when Harris was bowled for 35. After that no other batsman looked likely to challenge the Forres bowlers and the innings closed on 115, taking Forres through to the final against Elgin who beat Buckie in the next game.

The final was a beautiful batting display by two batsmen who were enjoying playing cricket and it showed. Fraser Merricks went cheaply on 30 bringing Dhami and Gus Farr in together. They played with ease and complete understanding of each others game as well as demonstrating what was needed to bat big in a t20 game. The Elgin bowlers worked hard but they had little luck as the batting pair ran singles, found the boundary, hit sixes and ran hard between the wickets as they pressured the fielders. The score passed the century in the eleventh over, 150 in the 14th and was well on its way to the double hundred when Farr played one shot too many to Patten and was out for an excellent 73. Dhami carried his bat for the next three overs with Neil McGrath, closing the innings on 210 with Dhami on 93 and McGrath 11.

210 is a big total to chase but Elgin started off well, helped by the now steadily falling rain. The bowlers struggled to bowl with the slippery ball and the wides total climbed. Wimble and Parrott exploited the conditions well but once Wimble fell to Merricks Elgin started to wobble. The bowlers got back on track once the rain cleared and they could grip the ball properly. Key wickets fell as Thomas Cameron and Mark Patten went quickly then the only hold up was the Parrott and Andrew Hindes partnership but a nick through to the keeper off Gus Farr saw Parrott on his way off the field for a hard fought 31. Hindes put on 21 as the Elgin tail were blown away by a hat trick from Steve Barron and they were all out for 128. Barron took 3 for 30 whilst Gus Farr took 3 for 7. A great performance from Forres St Lawrence to take the James Kemp Memorial Trophy for 2013.