GILLIN STEERS LARGO TO THIRD WIN IN A ROW.

Report by Ian Scott

On Saturday Largo's 1stXI cricketers took the field at East Drive. Upper Largo with confidence running high after last weeks win at Boroughmuir. Captain David Scott having won the toss invited the visitors,Tranent & Preston Village, to make first use of a good batting track confident that his bowlers could limit the visitors to a score which the Largo batsmen could chase down.

The East Lothian side got away to a good start with Lee and Bhadrachala seeing off the Largo opening bowlers Scott and Gillin taking the score to 37 after 8 overs. Change bowlers A. Brown and Eglinton bowled with great pace but edges tended to fly to the boundary rather than to catchers and it wasn't until the sixteenth over that Eglinton finally achieved the breakthrough bowling Lee for 40 and the score on 78. While the wicket lifted Largo spirits it was a controversial "not out" decision for a "caught behind" which would have removed the dangerous Bhadachala which seemed to really enervate the Largo team. Vikram fell LBW to Harney; Russell was "caught and bowled" by a clearly fired-up Eglinton and Hoenigmann was caught by A. Brown from the bowling of Harney collectively adding 4 to the total. With Noor Ali Bhadachala took the score to 116 in the 29th over before being caught in the deep from the bowling of the irrepressible Stevie Warrender for 50. Ali and Mukherjee added 51 before Warrender had Mukherjee caught by wicket keeper Kinnear for 20 and it took a sharp bit of fielding by Wilson to run out Ali for a good 40. Rintoul dominated the final overs of the match dismissing the visiting skipper for 9 and running out Booker for a "duck". Tranent and Preston Village finished on 187 for 9 from their 40 overs. With the par score for East Drive wickets being 200 plus Largo felt confident of chasing this down.

Confidence was somewhat dented when after only 10 overs Barclay(21) and Wilson(0) found themselves back in the pavilion and the score on 36 both falling in the same over to the flighted off-spin of change bowler Vikram. Kinnear as usual remained rock steady and was joined by Hughes Gillin who a month previously had scored his maiden century for the club. The pair gradually started to build a partnership with Gillin clearly growing in confidence as he used his feet well getting to the pitch of the ball and punishing the bowlers including Russell one of the canniest bowlers in the league. By drinks the pair had taken the score to 77 with every chance of pushing on to the target despite the visitors skipper having 5 fielders riding the boundary. While many "fours" were stopped Kinnear and Gillin were content to run quick singles and twos keeping up the run rate and it looked as if Kinnear would bat through the innings until he was caught for 45 from the bowling of Rizwan departing with the score on 149. Rintoul joined Gillin as he pushed on towards his century but he was to fall 11 runs short when Russell bowled him for a very impressive 89( 9 "fours" 1 "six"). Rintoul and Brown saw Largo over the line with 6 wickets and 3 overs in hand.

Gillin and Kinnear were undoubtedly the stars of the show for Largo but in holding the visitors to a below par score decent bowling and sharp fielding also contributed to the win. Next week the "Firsts" are back in Edinburgh hoping to overturn the loss they had to Edinburgh South early in the season.