Largo CC's 1st. XI traveled through to an overcast and blustery Leith Links to play last weekend's visitors Leith FAB. A much changed, stronger Leith team won the toss and asked Largo to bat on what appeared to be a turning wicket. Last week's man of the match Asman Ali opened the batting with Rintoul and the pair put on a fine opening stand of 105 in quick time(17 overs)with Rintoul smashing the ball to the relatively short boundary 11 times in his 68. Both Rintoul and Ali fell in the same over to Heinitz one of six bowlers Leith captain Dicks used in trying to dislodge the pair.
Youngsters Brown and Anderson were moved up the batting order but sadly their partnership never got going when the luckless Anderson was Heinitz's third victim. N.Ali went cheaply but Brown and Rajagopal seemed to be building a decent partnership with Brown's measured strokes and Rajagopal's big hitting when Brown was needlessly run - out responding to a call for a run which was never there.
As if to make up for this a more focused Rajagopal went on to make 52 before he was finally caught miscueing a shot from the bowling of spinner Middleton. As ever the Largo "tail" weighed in with a useful contribution including 24 from Gillin(18 from one over), Bentley - 13, Robertson - 20 n.o. and Scott - 7n.o. Largo finished on 263 for 9.
On a small ground with short boundaries 264 is not as daunting a score as at first might seem and the Leith openers Heinitz and Williams seemed intent on proving this. Heinitz thrashed the ball to all parts particularly taking to the bowling of the usually frugal Bentley but perished at the hands of the impressive Robertson who dismissed him for 38 with Scott taking a steepling catch in the swirling wind. The pacey Gillin and Robertson shared the next two wickets reducing Leith to 64 for 3 after 12 overs and bringing skipper Dicks and Davies together. As he did the previous week at East Drive Dicks anchored his teams innings and by drinks the pair had taken the score to 118 with a win still a possibility.
After the drinks break Largo captain Kinnear adopted a no pace approach employing the off-spin of Anderson and Brown and the slow-medium pace cutters of Scott. The ploy was almost immediately rewarded with Scott bowling Davies(17) Davies having survived a confident run-out call much earlier in his partnership with Dicks. While other Leith batsmen came and went falling to Brown, Anderson and Scott Dicks remained resolute, passing his 50, and taking Leith to 197 before A.Ali took a great catch in the deep from the bowling of Anderson dismissing Dicks for 69. Leith 197 all out in 46.5 overs:
A good win for Largo with impressive bowling figures from Anderson( 3 for 25) , Brown ( 2 for 24), Robertson(2 for 21) and Scott( 2 for 24).Rajagopal made a fine 50 but for his 68 runs which gave Largo a solid foundation to their innings the Largo man.of the match this week was Nicky Rintoul.
Heriots 2 are Saturday's visitors to East Drive with the Fife Cup Final against Glenrothes at Scroggie Park, Falkland Sunday 2:00pm