LARGO PILE ON THE RUNS IN LATE SURGE.

Broomhall CC were the visitors to East Drive, Upper Largo on Saturday where Largo's 1st.XI cricketers hoped to bounce back from the previous weekend's disappointing result at Clackmannan. In the bright blustery conditions Largo were invited to make first use of what appeared to be a decent batting wicket by the Broomhall skipper.This decision seemed to be vindicated when Grant bowled D. Coates for a "duck" with the second ball of the second over. In the face of tidy Broomhall bowling the Largo batsmen struggled with Kinnear(7)and F.Khan(5) joining Coates back in the pavilion before the mid-session drinks interval. With Largo scoring at less than 3 runs per over and with 3 wickets down it looked at this point as if anything in excess of 100 would be a good score.

Largo wickets continued to fall when.Anderson, who looked well set, was caught by Goodchild from the bowling of Smith for 11 and Largo skipper Rintoul departed for 1 caught Overton,bowled Doherty. While wickets fell around him opening batsman A.Warrender remained resolute anchoring the Largo innings scoring a very fine 52 before being caught by Hoefling from the bowling of Chalmers.

Warrenders departure brought together Gillin and M. Khan who in a display of power-hitting not seen from a pair of Largo batsmen recently rocketed the run-rate of less than 3 per over to almost 5 Their partnership of 106 seemed over in a flash as both batsmen dispatched the ball for "fours" and "sixes" to all parts of the pitch, adjacent garden and field to the delight of the home support. Although he gave several chances to the opposition Gillin, who has opened the batting for Largo in recent weeks, played not only with power but with elegance for his top-scoring 66 before being caught by Smith from the bowling of T.Lucas. Khan's 66 not out clearly demonstarted what a destructive lower-order batsman he can be turning a modest total into a much more challenging competitive one. Largo finished on 218 for 7 from their 45 overs

Initially the Broomhall reply very much mirrored the Largo innings with Broomhall also struggling to a modest total at the midway mark with 3 wickets down. This was thanks to some accurate Largo bowling where F.Khan again set the benchmark taking 2 wickets for 19 runs in his 9 over spell. After drinks however Broomhall were unable to accelerate in the way Largo had done and were all out fro 95 runs in 37 overs. S. Warrender was again in the wickets taking 2 for 27 including that of Broomhall top-scorer J Grant for 34. Scott and Gillin also claimed 2 wickets each while Anderson picked up one thanks to a good catch by Coates. The other wicket fell to a runout by M. Khan.

This win by 123 runs will no doubt give the Largo squad confidence for Saturday when they travel over the Forth to play Livingston who currently have a 3 wins from 3 matches record.