Gus Farr's unbeaten 85 fires Forres St Lawrence Cricket Club to T20 victory over neighbours Elgin in their first match at Grant Park since Covid shutdown
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FORRES St Lawrence’s first eleven made a winning return to their Grant Park cricket pitch on Saturday.
In their first match in Forres since the Covid-19 outbreak, Saints took on Elgin in the qualifying stages of the T20 competition.
Elgin put on a challenging total of 149 off their twenty overs, getting off to a good start against the young Forres opening pair of Magnus McGhee and Angus Goldring.
McGhee and Goldring were making their senior bowling debuts and Goldring performed well, removing Elgin opener Fairgrieve who lofted the ball to Ellwood on the square leg boundary.
Rob Quilliam kept the score moving for the visitors, losing Hawkins for 11 from a caught and bowled off Darren Lamb.
Andrew Longstaff added some heavy hitting as Quilliam stepped up and the score rattled along for a while until Longstaff was needlessly run out going for a second run.
In the penultimate over Quilliam was caught on the boundary off Tony Farr for a well timed 73 and the scoring tailed off leaving Forres to chase 150 to win.
Gus Farr and Magnus McGhee opened the batting for Forres, teenager McGhee with lots to learn but plenty of promise.
Farr gave several early chances which Elgin missed and soon he was settled. The scoreboard was ticking over nicely and before long McGhee started to open up, playing some nice shots towards the boundary which increased his confidence.
It was plain sailing for the Forres pair, 97 on the board by the tenth over, with Farr powering three sixes off the eighth over.
The excellent partnership ended when McGhee was bowled by Fairgrieve for 38 with 135 the score, bringing new Forres recruit John Stretch to the crease.
A nice two round the corner followed next over by a six introduced him to North cricket and the game was all over after 17 overs. Farr finished with an unbeaten 85.
The two clubs also met in reserve action in a T20 match on Sunday.
Elgin scored 113 for 3 with Nathan Eldridge unbeaten on 34 and Cameron McCarthy scoring 32 not out in the Cooper Park clash in Elgin.
In response, Forres were bowled out for just 55.
Next up for the Saints reserve team was a match against Nairn.
Forres went into bat first and scored 101, a total which was surpassed by Nairn without the loss of any wickets.
In the other match between Elgin and Nairn, the home side managed a total of 145 for 4 with nairn scoring 131 for 4.
On Saturday, the senior side travel to Strathpeffer to play Ross County, while the reserves will be at home on Sunday against Fort Augustus.
