LARGO 1sts.OUTGUNNED.- Cricket Correspondent - Gordon Kinnear.(Matchball sponsor - JY THOMSON) - Monumental sculptors)

Largo's 1st.XI travelled to Edinburgh on Saturday to play Edinburgh CC at Campbell Park. Winning the toss, the hosts elected to bat and immediately adopted a "big hit" mode with the openers racing to 60 from only 8 overs when Bentley made the breakthough having Hussein caught behind by Kinnear for 31. Ashraf(2) quickly followed, a second Bentley wicket, and smart fielding by Brown ran out the other opener, ul-Haq(29) with a direct hit from the boundary. The score now 71 for 3. S. Hassan joined Farooq and seemed even more belligerent in his approach to the bowling especially taking a liking to that of Gillin hitting 4 "sixes" and reaching his 50 in quick time. Rintoul was brought into the attack and took 2 wickets in his first over, removing Hassan(51) and Sufyan(0) . Farooq continued to accumulate runs with a combination of fine hitting and good luck with several "edges" either falling short of the Largo fielders or looping over their heads. Largo kept taking wickets at the other end with Brown in particular bowling very well. Gillin, coming back into the attack removed Akhter and Haider before Farooq reached his century with another edge just wide of the fielder. Farooq eventually edged one too many and was caught by Macfarlane off Brown's bowling for 104. Edinburgh were finally bowled out for 269 in 43 overs. Brown, Gillin and Rintoul all took 2 wickets with Bentley picking up 3.

Despite the large total, a short boundary and fast outfield meant that the total was chaseable, but the Edinburgh opening bowlers were very tight in their line and length, and the pitch started to break up with many balls keeping low. Asman Ali was first to go bowled for 8 by Aziz with the score on 20. Rintoul(17) and Brown had a good partnership going when Rintoul was well caught by ul-Haq. This sparked a mini-collapse as Nadeem Ali(1) and Rajagopal(3) were both bowled in quick succession. Brown and Macfarlane were keeping things going when Brown was caught off the glove by a delivery that spat off the pitch for 22. Anderson(0) and KInnear(6) soon followed with balls which also kept very low. Batting at number nine Gillin came to the crease and played some lovely shots and with help from Bentley(10) and Robertson(9) saw largo reach 161. Gillin was the last man out, falling 1 short of his maiden 1st.XI half century.