^{Largo Finish with a Flourish}

Largo 1^st XI finished their very damp season last Saturday with a great win at home to league leaders Fauldhouse Victoria.  After losing 3 matches on the trot to the weather the sun finally shone as the two teams took to the field at East Drive .  Home skipper Duncan won the toss and elected to bat on a track that had been baked by the midweek sunshine and was looking good.  Openers Walker and Sharif came out of the blocks firing on all cylinders as 17 came off the first over.  Runs were coming freely for the Fife men until the visitors rang a few bowling changes and tightened up themselves.  Walker had moved onto a solid 39 before he was adjudged lbw and Largo had lost their first wicket.  Bux arrived at the crease and along with Sharif these two really started to up the tempo.  Fauldhouse, however, stuck to their task well and showed some stubborn resistance in the face of a Largo onslaught, particularly experienced left arm spinner Alan McDonald.  Just as Bux was really about to take the game away from Fauldhouse he was out to a great caught and bowled by Hussain for an aggressive 31. Sharif was still there for Largo and with little cameos coming from Safiyaan, Barclay, who played well for his 21, and Robinson, he was able to keep playing his natural game. He was eventually out, caught off the bowling of Cochrane for an excellent 82.  With the rest of the Largo order not taking too much advantage his innings was of great importance and Largo were eventually all out in the 50^th over for 220, a good effort and a tricky score for the West Lothian men to chase.

Fauldhouse set their stall out early and were determined to get off to the best possible start.  Openers, Derek Allan and Mulligan were going to play aggressively and were not afraid to take on the Largo opening bowlers. Allan, who is the leagues leading run scorer this season, played one aggressive shot too many as he played on to his stumps from a brute of a delivery from Safiyaan , much to the delight of the Largo team.  Safiyaan then removed Mulligan very quickly afterwards and the Fifers had the two quick wickets they were looking for. Then a few overs later Sharif removed Zhahid and Fauldhouse were in all sorts of trouble, their aggressive approach clearly not being the best way to approach their run chase.  David Allan arrived at the crease to try and restore the damage and along with Shahid they added much needed stability to the Fauldhouse innings.  After being “roughed” up by Sharif in his opening spell Shahid was eventually undone by Barclay as a rush of blood led to his downfall and it was left up to David Allan to rescue the league leaders innings.  However, a constant flow of wickets at the other end left him with no option but to try and cut loose himself.  It worked up to a point but he was eventually out to one of the catches of the season from Barclay at midwicket, at full stretch. Allan was gone for 49 and that was game up for Fauldhouse as Bux and Smith cleaned up the rest of the order to leave the league leaders all out for 119.  A great win for the Largo men and the first time they have beaten Fauldhouse.  Largo finished the season 5^th in East League Division 2 and will hope to improve on that next season.