Falkland Lose Out to Rain and Arbroath

Falkland (0) : 144 all out in 47.1 overs.
(S Sharif 31, C Ramsay 4 for 26, J Waller 2 for 23)

D/L par score 98 in 21 overs.

Arbroath United (10) : 125 for 6 in 21.4 overs.
(M Petrie 74, B Strachan 3 for 30, A Ruhode 2 for 27)

Arbroath United beat Falkland by 4 wkts (D/L)

Falkland lost again on Saturday, this time to Arbroath at Lochlands, but there was an element of bad luck about the way that the game was decided on the Duckworth Lewis method, for Falkland had removed the dangerous Petrie and Willemse, and who knows what might have happened if they had had a chance to bowl at the tail?

Stuart Campbell won the toss and decided to bat on a fine day. Falkland batted well and at one stage, Falkland were 56 for 1 with Michael Morris scoring 28 largely because of some bizarre fielding positioning by Arbroath which Michael took full advantage of. But wickets began to fall, until Safyaan Sharif and Grant Doig came together to take the score from 57 to 115. But then Sharif misread a slower ball from Waller and was caught in the outfield. Falkland then began one of their all too familiar collapses, although the last two Stuart Campbell and Alan Hamilton nurdled to good effect and made the total an almost respectable 144.

The conditions had changed by the time that Arbroath came out to bat, and clearly Mark Petrie feared the rain might arrive at any minute, hitting a marvellous 74, and being severe on all Falkland's bowlers. But Strachan bowled well for 3 for 30, and with Petrie falling to Ruhode for 74, the game looked interesting, although Arbroath were ahead on Duckworth Lewis. Four times the game stopped and started again, but eventually conditions got so wet that the captains and Umpires agreed that things could not continue.This was a shame, for Falkland needed only 4 wickets when the teams came off at 5.30.

David Potter