1st XI v Riley House

Order was restored today when the 1^st XI recorded a convincing win against Riley House, at Strathallan.   With rain driving across the pitch, the Belhaven Hill captain won the toss and elected to bat, mush to the dismay of the Riley fielders who did not welcome the prospect of a wet start to their afternoon. Fortunately the rain didn’t last long; unfortunately, neither did our experimental opener – Riley, out for a duck. Farr and Harley steadied the ship and looked set to start scoring at will before O. Farr played his favourite and least successful shot, the leg glance, and was caught off a leading edge. That shot brought his brother to the middle where he stood back and left a ball that crashed into his middle and off stumps. This left the team on 3 for 21.   Younger was next in and he and Harley scored freely for a while. Harley played some fantastic drives and looked very much at ease. Younger began to struggle to run between the wickets and a runner was introduced. This caused some confusion until Younger lashed at a ball and missed, allowing it to skittle his wickets. Plowden marched in boldly enough and he stuck around for a bit while Harley continued to hammer the ball around the park, reaching his half century with a single. Plowden ended up being caught on three which brought Brooks to the crease for the final few overs. He did well to stay in but struggled to get the ball away. In the penultimate over, Harley eventually fell and Gordon Cumming joined the proceedings for a couple of ball. The innings ended with Belhaven Hill on 118 for 7 after 25 overs.   It was an innings of some poor shot selection by some and some super batting by others. Harley’s excellent fifty brought the season’s total of half centuries to four – quite impressive after just five games.   And so to bowling. O. Farr and Gordon Cumming opened for Belhaven Hill and Farr struck in the first over when he bowled his man. His delight turned to horror as the next man in smashed his next two balls over the boundary. Gordon Cumming collected a wicket in each of his next two overs, one caught and one bowled. In his fourth over, Farr struck again, and again, and again and again. Four wickets in one over! This over broke the back of any Riley resistance, allowed the team to relax a bit and afforded us the opportunity to give some boys who do not usually get a chance to do so, a bowl. Brooks bowled two tidy enough overs. W. Younger had one over and bowled his man. Pooley had one over and saw his man stumped by Riley (off a wide delivery). J. Farr came on to see if he could complete a hat trick (he had taken two wickets in his final two balls in the previous match) and bowled a cracking first ball which just avoided the stumps. A few other boys had an over or so before Plowden eventually got their final wicket with a neat caught and bowled.   Some fine bowling by O. Farr and Gordon Cumming at the start of the innings set up this convincing win for the Belhaven Hill team. I was also very pleased with the obvious delight that met the successes of all the bowlers, not only the frontline attack. Well done boys, this was another good performance.       Result   Match won by 31 runs.   Man of the match: Angus (Author: William Townshend)

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