Tight finish goes Forres's way

Visitors to Grant Park on Saturday were treated to plenty of action with bat and ball as Forres took on Fochabers in a tight game with Forres coming out on top in the last over of the game.

After winning the toss the Fochabers captain elected to bat first, making the Forres bowlers work in the heat of the afternoon. Mark Stockwell and Aditya Mehta opened the batting against the bowling of Gus Farr and Fraser Merricks. With a strong batting line up to bowl against, the Forres bowlers were asked to make an early breakthrough and they obliged when Stockwell played the ball square and found Merricks waiting for a sound catch. Merricks was in on the action next over too as he bowled Mehta for 7. The new pair of Miland Mehta and ryan denyer kept the score board ticking over, seeing 21 on the board after ten overs and shortly afterwards a change in the bowling as Pal Dhami and Aaron Roberts came into the attack. Once again, steady bowling from the homeside kept the batsmen at bay with the fifty mark passed in the 20 over. Fochabers now needed to up the scoring rate and although their next fifty took another eleven overs they never really seemed on top of the bowling. Forres rang the bowling changes again, with Ian Roberts and david durance giving the batsmen something new to think about, but the batsmen upped the pace once more as Fochabers thought about setting 200 as the target. Fours came more freely and Forres almost seemed on the point of losing a grip on the game but the return of Gus Farr to the attack broke the partnership as a bouncer was looped to mid on by Mehta where Durance took the catch and Mehta was on his way for 46. Nigel Tiddy came to the crease with plenty of energy, looking to help Denyer create a big total but he mis-hit the ball to Ian Roberts at mid off and was on his way for 6. The 150 was passed soon after with Denyer now joined by Struan Henderson but the struggle to move the score on brought a wild shot from Denyer as he top edged a slog off Durance to point and Gus Farr was waiting to take the catch. A solid innings of 88 from Denyer who had made the difference in the Fochabers innings and fell in the penultimate over. The Fochabers innings closed on 172 for 5, a challenging total for Forres to chase.

In reply Forres opened their innings with Pal Dhami and Neil McGrath, facing Paul Bijl and Struan Henderson. A slow start to the innings as the batsmen paced themselves, only 20 came off the first ten overs but soon Dhami showed the class he has been missing for the last few weeks as he started to play some sweet shots. In reply the Fochabers skipper changed his bowlers about but this just allowed McGrath to join in the scoring as 69 came off 20 overs. More bowling changes but still Dhami and McGrath batted on, looking in no discomfort at all. Finally Fochabers put on their 8 bowler, Colin Sanders, who bowls nothing short of donkey drops but never fails to light up the eyes of batsmen. McGrath couldn’t believe his luck as the ball floated towards him and he advanced down the track to meet it, nor could he believe his luck as it went past him and into the hands of the keeper who removed the bails and he was stumped for 41. Nor could the rest of his team mates believe it when three balls later Dhami did exactly the same, with the same result. 118 for 0 became 118 for 2 as Dhami gave his wicket away on 71 when a century had been easily on the cards. David Durance and Fraser Merricks had plenty of time to build on what the openers had done but Durance had no luck as he spooned a Bijl delivery to Mehta at mid off for 1. Gus Farr now joined Merricks and they had the dual task of steadying the innings while having to keep it on track for the win. They couldn’t afford maidens so picked off the singles, turning them into two’s through good running. However, when Merricks went to a juggling catch at short mid wicket off Henderson Fochabers smelled the possibility of their own victory as Forres stuttered on 148 in the 38 over. John Duff came and went for 3, while Al Farr added 4 but they had hung on to partner Farr who seemed in no difficulty at all. By the time Ian Roberts had gone to a first ball catch behind Forres were on 167 for 7, needing 6 off ten balls. Tony Farr joined his son at the crease and only one of them was calm. Luckily it was Gus Farr who hit the winning runs with only four balls to spare and brought the close to a very tight but well fought game.

The last game of the season is scheduled for Grant Park on Saturday when Forres play host to Huntly.