STORM FAILS TO SAVE FIRSTS.

Rarely can a team have been so disadvantaged by a change in weather conditions as Largo CC were on Saturday when they entertained St.Boswells at East Drive.
Batting first in fine dry conditions on a superb batting track the Borders outfit plundered the Largo bowling with the wicket offering nothing in terms of spin or swing to the hard-pressed bowlers.
Gillin however had some early success when he bowled Goodman for 15 but this brought Broom to the crease. One of the league's big hitters Broom was intent on enjoying the fine batting conditions with 6 "fours" and 7 "sixes"flying off his bat each "six" seemingly going further into the adjacent field. With opener Ruthven he added 149 to the St.Boswells score before being caught by Ali from the bowling of spinner Anderson for 80. Overseas amateur Williams joined Ruthven with Ruthven picking up where Broom left off building an innings of 138 and a partnership of 123 before Scott took a good catch to dismiss him from the bowling of Gillin. St. Boswells amassed 309 for 4 from their 50 overs with Williams finishing 69 not out. The Largo bowlers despite the score had stuck to their task with Gillin finishing with the best figures - 3 for 39.
With the tea interval came the first of the showers which were to impact on the remainder of the day's play. With the shower over Largo opened their innings to chase down the mammoth score but they found that conditions had already started to change with the wicket starting to help the bowlers and the outfield which had been lightening fast now slowing the ball up. Rintoul and Ali went cheaply and when Anderson joined Warrender to try to rebuild the innings the heavens opened and the players had to retreat to the pavilion with only 9 overs bowled. With rain pouring down for the next hour it was time to get the rule books out and find out how Largo might manage to prevent what was looking like certain defeat if they had to bat again. The rain unfortunately for the home team relented and the players went back out to increasingly bowler friendly conditions. Largo's slim hope was that the rain would return before sufficient overs had been bowled to constitute a match. It did come back in huge quantities but 5 overs too late with Largo going down by 144 runs based on an elctronic calculation.
While Largo would have found it difficult to chase down the runs required the change in the weather robbed them of any chance to do so in similar conditions to those of the opposition. Such is cricket!!!