1st Back In Form

Largo Cricket Club 1^st XI got back to winning ways on Saturday with a convincing victory at home against newly promoted Westquarter & Redding from Falkirk .  Largo skipper Duncan won the toss and elected to bat on a fantastic batting track and with the sun shining brightly and the temperature rising all the time it was going to be an excellent day’s cricket.  Openers Walker & Stinson put on a fantastic partnership for the first wicket as they racked up 120 plus runs with Stinson reaching his 50 before a rush of blood saw him bowled by Foroqui for 53.  Robinson joined Walker and these two were keeping things on course for the Fife men to reach a good total.  Walker had played majestically and was on 72 when a tired looking shot saw him caught in the deep and a superb innings had come to an end. Foruqui seemed to be the one Westquarter bowler who was causing the East Drive men problems as he bowled a tight line and was making scoring runs difficult as for the first time in the match Largo were becoming bogged down as Robinson and Bux struggled to get the ball away.  Robinson had played well for his 27 before he was caught when trying to push the score on.  Bux was also caught in the same manner.  Kinnear and Murdoch found the gaps in the field well and a couple of neat boundaries released the shackles as the home side were still looking in the region of 250, Kinnear then departed and Largo were still short of 200 with only 8 overs to go.  However, Barclay and Murdoch ran well between the wickets and Murdoch was using his feet well to the slower bowlers as he cracked a few excellent boundaries as well as a huge six and at the end of the 50 overs Largo had reached 231 for the loss of 5 wickets, a great effort particularly from the openers and Murdoch, who finished unbeaten on 37.

 Westquarter began their chase in confident style with Division 2 leading run scorer Mumtaz swinging wildly from the off.  A couple of boundaries were scored before Bentley removed him with a beautiful in-swinger that cleaned him up.  Veteran Robert Sutton hung around for a while before he was out LBW to Barclay.  Skipper Forouqi was out first ball, caught at slip off Bentley and Westquarter where in trouble.  Wickets tumbled at fairly regular intervals but a fighting rearguard innings form S. Sutton gave Westquarter some hope, he was well supported by Hamilton .  Hamilton departed for 28, brilliantly caught by Murdoch off the bowling of Bux.  A few more wickets fell as both Mowat and Smith tightened the screw and captured a wicket each and Bentley was brought back on and did the job as he captured another wicket. Sutton was still there and eventually reached his 50 after a couple of nonchalant 4’s and a couple of six’s but in the 39^th over it was all over for the Falkirk men as Sutton was eventually caught and Westquarter were all out 154. with Bentley probably the pick of the Largo bowlers as he finished with figures of 3 for 33.   Largo maintain there lead at the top of East League 2 and will hope to capture another win as they travel to the capital on Saturday to face Edinburgh CC before they entertain Kilmarnock CC on Sunday in the Lloyds TSB Scottish Small Clubs Cup.