Watsonian club records* were broken on a scorching hot day in Fife as the ‘Sonians 2nd XI travelled to take on Glenrothes at Riverside Park.

 

Whilst skipper Breach may not have been too pleased at first to have lost the toss there was certainly some delight amongst the ‘Sonians team who wanted to top up their tans as Glenrothes chose to insert visitors on a decent looking deck.

 

Keith Flannigan & George Cairns opened the batting and set the tone for the day piercing the field early with regular boundaries whilst running well between the wickets to ensure the run rate stayed at over six for the opening overs. It was Flannigan who was the first to fall for a well constructed 25, undone by a straight full delivery that he failed to get in line with as he was bowled.

 

Euan Robertson joined Cairns at the crease as skipper Breach decided to shuffle the batting order to keep attacking the Glens bowlers, Robbo looked in fine touch powering boundaries straight back past the bowler however his brief cameo of 22 from 12 balls was ended as he failed to get hold of a drive and gave a straight forward catch to mid off.

 

The demise of Robertson brought Richard Crosby to the crease and it was his partnership with opener George Cairns that not only laid the platform for victory but also broke at least one, if not more club records in the process.

 

The partnership was a display of intelligent and powerful hitting, brilliant stroke play, great placement, immense stamina and extreme composure, it was a pleasure for the rest of the team to watch as the ball was worked to every part of the field.

 

Crosby played catch up to Cairns the whole innings, with Cairns beating Crosby to 100 and then just pipping him to their individual 150 marks. With 2 balls of the innings to go Crosby launched another shot towards the boundary only for the Glenrothes fielder (who was clearly asleep for a lot of the time the ball was in the air) to juggle the ball a dozen times before claiming the catch ensuring Crosby had his own round of applause from the spectators when leaving the field after plundering 159 runs.

 

With a ball to go there was still time for Vijay Saisubramanian who had sat in the sun padded up for 35 overs to join Cairns in the middle and a no ball offered Cairns another run before Vijay added a final 2 runs to the total.

 

During the innings ‘Sonians had reached at 186-2 at the 30 over mark, 265-2 from 40 overs before amassing at the end of 50 overs a whopping and club record 383-3, the previous club record total was 365 for 3 also by the 2nd XI against Heriot’s in 1996. Whilst the scorebook is being scrutinised for accuracy it is possible that the record partnership for any wicket may well have fallen to the Crosby & Cairns show, it currently stands at an unbroken 259 for the first wicket in a 1^st XI game against Glasgow Accies also, coincidentally, in 1996. More soon on the site for this and more records* although initially the partnership is believed to be around 284 which would be a new club record.

 

Cairns carried his bat to finish on 161no from 140 balls with Crosby out for 159 from 110 balls.

 

Less important but still worthy of a mention from Captain Breach were the efforts of the innings umpires Brooks, Robertson & Flannigan who clocked up 75 overs of umpiring between them and also to Ali Fleming who managed a solid 50 overs of topless sunbathing in preparation for a stint in Ibiza later this week.

 

Following a healthy amount of tea for the sides and an extra bottle of powerade for Cairns, ‘Sonians took to the field looking to secure their third win on the trot, the new ball was thrown to the opening pair from George Watsons College 1st XI, Fraser Sands and Chris MacFarlane (making his 2nd team debut) who would also later be followed by another school boy again on 2s debut Euan Flannigan.

 

Sands took a wicket with his sixth ball bowling Walker for nought and picked up another couple leaving Glens at 9-3, Fraggle bowled his 10 overs straight through for a rewarding 3-22, it could have been 4 however Fraggle managed to hit the top of middle stump at full pelt without removing either bail much to the disbelief of those who witnessed it. Chris MacFarlane also picked up a wicket bowling another Glens batsman.

 

Resistance came in the form of Farooq Khan who took a particular liking to hitting some full tosses from Vijay into the trees, one of Vijay’s overs disappeared for 24 runs but it was Vijay who of course had plenty of runs to play with the persuaded Khan to sky one to Robbo who took a brilliant tumbling catch right out of the sun as Khan departed for 48.

 

With 8 bowlers used it was no surprise given the day they had that both Cairns (1-11) and Crosby (2-15) finished with wickets to their name as they fought it out for the MOM award. Crosby finished it off bowling no.11 batsman Muir just a few moments after Euan Flannigan had removed Hutchison as Glens were dismissed for 163 a mere 220 runs adrift.

 

In truth this was a day that nearly everything went right for ‘Sonians, whilst hours of preparation and practice will clearly help keep up the standards the side have set themselves the 2nd XI do need to guard against complacency in games over the coming weeks and continue to work as a team to achieve the 20 point haul every Saturday. The side on the pitch on Saturday have ensured that all players who were not available will really have to earn their place in the line up as the 2s look to continue their good form.

 

Proud Captain David Breach dedicated the win to his late father in law whose passed away in the week leading up to the match, Geoff Mosson had become a keen follower of Watsonian Cricket from a distance during his last three years and travelled from South Yorkshire last year to witness our Presidents Trophy win. Geoff was a very keen cricketer for Woodsetts and one whose enthusiasm and cricket sense made up for being less technically gifted than others, some would say he was an elder version of the skipper himself!

 

* Records will be checked and updated soon on this site

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