shawholm v irvine

match report from poloc's website

welcome back drooper!

ra parsons [ed: hereinafter to be referred to as "judas"] and his new irvine teammates were the visitors to shawholm in the western union on saturday. and when all was said and done the 'holmboys had seen off drooper and his new pals in a game interrupted by rain on more than one occasion.

the 'holmboys batted first on a soft-ish deck with nomy and kash' up top. sadly for this column the breakthrough, when it came, saw judas nip out nomy as the latter nicked one to slip. 14 for 1. baby batting at three fared little better as he was trapped leg-before by j iscariot too after hitting only a couple of singles. mr p's return to paradise was getting off to just too good a start it appeared. kash' then perished, cleaned up by morrison, and things really were a tad dodgy: 36 for 3 no less. shak', tho'. restored a little bit of order to proceedings in his partnership with mohsin, both chipping in with useful contributions (19 and 27 respectively).

and rafay carried on the good work from the 'holmboys' middle order with a brisk 47 that included five 4s and a maximum - not the day's only big 'uns tho', mohsin having smacked a couple in his knock. then, with zahid continuing his useful form with the blade (27), and rahan chipping in with 12 on his return to 'holmboy colours, the guys managed to post almost 200 - 194 to be precise.

195 to win would be a stiff test of judas & co. and, with play heading into the evening murkiness, batting wouldn't be easy. and so it proved.....eventually. the run chase started really well for irvine with opener stewart playing fluently. 68 was on the 'board before the first wicket fell - mcphee caught by rafay of mohsin's bowling [ed: remember that combo'!]. then, after number three hughes had been trapped lbw by sabir, it was entry ra parsons. drooper's scored a number of memorable big scores on the hallowed ground but no-one watching on saturday wanted him to get another one! and, when he'd reached 14, it happened: "caught a ashraf, bowled m ali" - thank you and good-night vienna. drooper had holed out to extra cover where rafay had held the catch.

from this point - 125 for 4 - it was all downhill. the irvine batting collapsed as a number of the youngsters had one eye on the 18th birthday/disco just starting in the clubhouse! 125 for 4 became 155 all out as kash' and rahid ran thru' the middle order and tail. kash' finished with 3 for 4, whilst rahid notched up 4 for 44.