Falkland Go Top By Destroying Uni Staff

In the sun, underneath Arthurs Seat, on a lovely batting deck and a rapid outfield. The scene was perfect for a good game of cricket.

Falkland arrived at Peffermill playing fields eager to take revenge on Edinburgh Uni Staff, after they hit 16 off the last over at Scroggie, earlier in the season.

After walking the 6 miles from changing rooms to playing field, Mike W was again true to form and continued his phenomenal losing streak. Yes folks the toss was lost once again. Edinburgh Uni staff choose to bat first, which in all honesty we were happy with.

Geordie and "the grumpiest man in the world" opened the bowling. It became apparent early doors that if the ball got past the in field then it was likely to be a boundary. So the fielding needed to be of a high intensity. Mike and Geordie were bowling well and their fielders were supporting them well. The break through came when Callum Bell got underneath a skier at short fine leg. Amazingly, with the ball spinning furiously after a big top edge Callum managed to pluck the ball clean from the air. Never in doubt..... Edinburgh uni were one down and the second wicket fell when yours truly caught the dangerous Vijay Nagarajan with a superb clean catch at slip!!!
We were now well on top and the run rate was staying remarkabley slow due to the good fielding and tight bowling. The pressure was starting to tell and this led to the uni staff batsmen taking risky runs. Eventually we got a run out when Danny had a quick pick up and throw and the boffin's were now three down.
Craig and Wayne came on to bowl and with the pace taken from the ball the Edinburgh boffin's continued to struggle to score runs. More Wickets fell and by the time drinks had been and gone Edinburgh Uni were toiling on around 120 for 6 with 10 overs to go. We had a real chance of skittling them for under 150.
When Dale got wicket number 7 our tails were up and we could smell blood. There number 9 tried to smash Scuba over cow corner for six only to top edge it towards Geordie at fly slip. All Geordie needed to do was walk 5 steps forward and wait on the ball dropping into his hands. A cry from backward point got everyone's attention. Wayne wanted this catch.... As he attempted to sprint and throw himself at the ball, it dropped and ended up on the grass roughly about 10 yards from Wayne and 5 from Geordie. Number 9 went onto score 39 ugly runs. Infact he was the last one to fall. It was young Dale Wilkie who cleaned up the the tail. Dale cleaned bowled the remaining four wickets. And after a few baseball shots and thick edges the boffin's ended up on 194 all out. Probably 40-50 more than they should have got but 194 was still well short of a decent total on that batting track and the speedy outfield.

Into the second innings and looking to build on our impressive 120 partnership from last week, myself and Wayne opened up. It was a fairly slow start with only 13 runs scored off the first 8 overs. Edinburgh Uni staff opening bowlers were bowling with good accuracy. Eventually the runs started to come when there was a change of bowling. Infact runs were been picked up fairly easy. The 50 Partnership came and went, Sulli's half century came and went, the hundred partnership came and went, my 50 came and went and still the runs flowed. We got to 150 and still there was no wickets. Wayne and I even started talking about a 10 wicket victory... Then I played a rash shot, caught at point for 65. Geordie came to the crease and the runs dried up slightly. All Geordie needed to do was support Wayne. And this is what he did. Geordie started playing some nice shots of his own and finished up on 22 not out. However the highlight of the day came in the 43rd over when Wayne scored his 100. It was a truly superb and flawless ton from Wayne who didn't offer the opposition one chance. Wayne hit the winning runs and finished up on 102 not out. Superb effort....

So we are now top of the league. Lets continue the good form and take this momentum into the next game.

And yes revenge is sweet.....