The 2nd XI with stand in captain Keith Flannigan at the helm crossed the forth on Saturday as they looked to launch their season with a win after being defeated on the opening day at Holy Cross.

 

The beautiful East Drive awaited the visitors as seconds looked to overcome a Largo side who had dispatched Edinburgh 2s on the opening day.

 

Winning the toss Flannigan decided he wanted ‘a look at the oppo’ and gave Largo first go on what has to be one of the best tracks in the East of Scotland.

 

With Guns Legget choosing the bowlers fancied church end to start it was left to Learmonth to head up the hill from the forth end and it was the Kiwi turned Scot who struck the first blow bowling the opener off his pads.

 

Leggs shortly joined the party removing the no.3′s leg stump with the game evenly poised in the early stages.

 

With Learmonth struggling for consistency at the bowlers least favoured end the President had the briefest of unsuccessful spells before the reliable Fleming was added to the attack to provide some stability whilst Legget who had picked up another scalp was replaced by Richard Crosby.

 

With the pitch offering pace and bounce Crosby struck twice in as many balls inducing a catch behind before trapping the next man in front a ball later and as he bowled an impressive 10 over spell finishing with 3-26 whilst Fleming (1-33) and Vijay Saisubramanian (1 wicket) both kept the batsman in check from the forth end. Learmonth and Legget returned to close the innings with Leggs finishing with highly impressive figures of 3-15 as ‘Sonians kept Largo to a very gettable 171 on a pitch that the bowlers at this stage described as a road.

 

With tea taken at the church Flannigan & Learmonth headed to the middle to start ‘Sonians response. Whilst Learmonth was beaten by the opening bowler from the church end in the early overs Flanners immediately found him self at ease with his trademark drive providing early runs. It was Flannigan scoring freely who dominated the opening partnership and when he departed bowled by an off cutter for a well constructed 46 Learmonth was still on 17no when Ben Fox joined him at the crease.

 

Learmonth soon opened up though and with him and Fox mixing some powerful hitting with good running between the wickets as the pair closed in on the target. Learmonth was first to his 50 and was joined by Fox at the half century mark off what turned out to be the penultimate ball of the innings. An excellent partnership had seen ‘Sonians home to a nine wicket win with 12 overs to spare with Learmonth finishing 69* and Foxy 51*.

 

It had turned out to be a quiet day for a number of the ‘Sonians squad but none the less everyone played a part with good contributions in the field. You may not see the names of Harding, Williamson & Yellowlees mentioned but games are only won when everyone plays at there best and in truth this win was set up by a professional performance in the field with the gloss added by those headline stealing batsman!

 

Many thanks to Largo for their hospitality, the weather was glorious and the setting was truly stunning. The highest praise must go to the Largo groundsman though who produced a brilliant wicket for batting, talk of Flannigan remortgaging his house to purchase the track and move it to Edinburgh was heard as we wound are way back to Myreside.

 

Scorecard to appear later this week.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 10th, 2010 at 7:41 am and is filed under Second XI. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.