Win or bust for Irvine and it's........

a WIN!

Irvine Cricket Club preserved their Division One future on Saturday when they beat basement rivals Galloway with a battling team performance at Marress.

Irvine knew only a win would be good enough to give them a chance of staying in the top division and got off to a grim start when Robbie Stewart was out early. Pakastani professional Mohammed Nawaz dug deep to overcome the difficult batting conditions to make the top score of the match with 58. Solid contributions came from Drew Parsons, Graham Owens and Mike Ingram who all scored twenty apiece to guide the home side to a decent total of 160 for 7. Crucially the Irvine men batted with discipline to match their skill to ensure that Galloway could only collect 4 bowling points of the 6 they needed to ensure automatically staying above the home side. A good decision by the "brains trust" of McCallum and Parsons, selflessly executed by the team.

For Galloway avoiding defeat would preserve their league status and the indecision whether to go all out for victory or keep wickets in hand to ensure a draw seemed to adversley effect the performance of their batsman. Irvine were also delighted to see that Galloway decided to hold back their batting goliath, professional Choudry, until three wickets had fallen.

Irvine took full advantage and the usual aggressive and accurate start by Parsons secured two quick wickets, one with a full length dive by the Scotland man for a spectacular caught and bowled dismissal. Derek Neil bowled in his usual dependable manner to provide the perfect foil in an accurante opening spell and soon Galloway were struggling.

It was the unheralded Mike Ingram who made the decisive contribution with 3 wickets in a 5 over spell. chaitanya mudunuri taking two terrific catches to help his 2nd XI captain claim the dismissals.

When Nawaz dismissed the oppositon captain and then followed up to bowl Chouudry, Irvine were on the brink of victory. Parsons sealed it by bowling some unplayable spin and a stunned Galloway side were bowled out for only 57 runs and themselves plunged towards the bottom of the league. (Results elsewhere may still keep them up however, so pack the Andrex for next season GHL)

"A difficult season ruined by rain has at least seen some progress off the field with several youngsters coming through to take places in the first eleven under the guidance of coach Drew Parsons. We need to keep that progress going to improve things for next season and our next objective has to be getting more youngsters playing the game." Was the opinion of captain Stuart McCallum reflecting on a narrow escape and looking ahead to 2008.

The season is not quite over yet for the relieved Marres men as they travel to Freuchie again next Sunday for the 3rd attempt at playing their Scottish Trophy final against Huntly.