1st Defeat for Largo

Largo ’s 1^st XI suffered their first major setback of the 2008 season as they went down by 5 wickets to Livingston at Livingston .  On a pitch that looked fine but played absolutely dreadfully, skipper Duncan won his first toss of the season and decided to have a bat.  Largo lost opener Walker early as well as Bux and Kinnear and Largo were struggling 26 for 3 and finding runs very hard to come by as the bounce of the pitch was very hard to predict.  Largo ’s best partnership came in the shape of Murdoch and the other opener Stinson, who was playing a very watchful innings as those early wickets fell around him.  Solid running and few useful boundaries from these two helped the Fife men towards a reasonable total, a total they could defend on an unpredictable wicket.  Eventually both Murdoch and Stinson were out having made 34 and 33 respectively but had pushed the Largo total to just over 100.  Mowat, Barclay and Duncan chipped in with some useful runs as the overs were running out but Largo were short of the 150 total they were looking for and were eventually all out in the 50^th over for 138.

 

The Livingston innings began very brightly as the Largo opening bowlers struggled to find an early breakthrough that would have put Livi under pressure from the word go.  The pitch also appeared to be improving, probably due to the airing it was getting from the strong breeze and bright sunshine as the Largo bowlers couldn’t find the demons in the pitch that were their during their innings.  Barclay eventually struck first but the rest of the Largo attack with the exception of Bux and Smith who were managing to slow the run rate down for Livi and made things difficult for them, were bowling too many loose deliveries  After the drinks break Largo had their best spell of the match as they captured a couple of much needed wickets to put the squeeze on the remaining Livingston batsmen.  Their dangerman Crichton was still there however, and was finding good support from Thomson.  These two were edging Livi ever closer, when Smith eventually removed Crichton for 48 it was still game on.  A couple of breaks didn’t go Largo’s way afterwards  which may have turned the game on its head and with 2 overs remaining Livingston passed the Largo total for the loss of 5 wickets.  This week Largo are back at home to newly promoted side Westquarter & Redding and will want to get straight back to winning ways.