TIMED OUT? Heriots 2 v. Largo 16/08/14

At Goldenacre, Edinburgh on Saturday Largo CC's 1st.XI hopes of Division 1 survival vanished just like the fine view of Edinburgh Castle as the mist and rain swept in curtailing the Largo run-chase. Winning the toss Largo captain Gordon Kinnear asked Heriots 2 to bat in the blustery conditions with youngsters Gillin and Brown leading the Largo attack. Heriots made good headway with Adams and Thomson putting on 64 for the first wicket in 13 overs when Thomson was bowled by Gillin for 32. This appeared to be the breakthrough Largo needed as the next three Heriots wickets fell for 25 runs thanks especially to a fine spell of spin bowling by Anderson who trapped his namesake Anderson LBW(2) and caught and bowled McLaren(2). Adams however then formed a partnership with 'keeper Penman and the two took the score to 134 before Scott had Penman(33) caught by Getti from the third ball of his spell. Adams was at this point on 58 ; he was eventually bowled by Brown for 108 having formed a partnership with Ali which saw Heriots progress to 186. Remarkably in the partnership Adams accounted for all 52 runs while Ali scored 0 from 24 balls faced. Heriots innings closed on 211 for 8 Gillin, Anderson and Scott all picked up 2 wickets while Brown took one.
With regular opening batsmen A.Ali and Warrender unavailable Rintoul and Ben Coates opened the batting in the deteriorating weather conditions. At 18 for 2 after 7 overs with Rintoul and Dom Coates back in the pavilion, both falling to Durani, Largo's position looked as bleak as the weather. B. Coates and Anderson however showed great determination and no little skill as they built a solid partnership of 68 taking Largo to 86 before B.Coates was narrowly run out for a fine 40. Getti survived only 8 balls before Singh had him plumb LBW bringing Kinnear to the crease with Largo on 93 for 4. A further 4 runs were added taking Largo to 97 for 4 after 30 overs before the players finally had to come off as the horizontal rain swept across the ground and the covers were put on. As the Castle reappeared from the mirk conditions improved but it was deemed too late to restart the match and Largo lost by 19 runs on the "rain calculator".
While chances of surviving relegation were slim it was very disappointing not to have had the chance to play out the match especially with a well-set batsman(Anderson 35no), 20 overs left and wickets in hand. Despite the defeat this was a very good effort by a team in which four , regular, key players were missing and in which seven players were 20 years old or younger
Largo have one match left before the end of the league season - away to Musselburgh.