June Match Reports

Ross County CC v Nairn CC - Saturday 14th June

It was a record breaking afternoon at Castle Leod on Saturday as Ross County amassed 384 runs in their innings against Nairn (including 44 fours and 7 sixes) and going on to win the game by a huge 166 run margin.

Skipper Graham Watson had no hesitation in batting when he won the toss and although opener Bishop departed early after playing back to a straight one, the home side were soon putting a weak Nairn attack to the sword.

The captain joined Dave Smart to add a club record 185 runs for the second wicket in just 25 overs. Smart unleashed a series of vicious drives and pulls and looked well set for a second century of the season when on 93 he mis-timed a shot to give Bowie his second victim. As often happens, his partner was out shortly afterwards courtesy of a sharp caught and bowled. Watsonís innings of 99 contained 13 fours and 2 huge sixes scored mainly square of the wicket.

Any thoughts that Nairn had that the onslaught may be over were quickly dispelled as Mark Watson (41), Dave Skipsey (76), Drew Cole (23 not out) and Harry Tolliday (10 not out) continued to plunder runs at will off a tiring Nairn attack, and the scoring rate actually increased with 120 runs coming off the last 10 overs.

The Nairn skipper held a closed-door team talk at tea time, and in fairness to the visitors they put up a much better performance with the bat, albeit aided by some dreadful catching by the home side.

Cole made a deserved breakthrough when he removed Huxtableís middle stump with the score on 20 in the fifth over, but not before a chance had already been missed in the slips off the same bowler. However, the home side had to wait a further 19 overs for the next wicket as Gibson, who made 51, and Strain (82) rode their luck to add nearly 100 for the second wicket.

Ross County contrived to spill a total of 8 catches in the Nairn innings, and the second wicket was delayed until the luckless Magnus Monaghan (a victim of no less than 6 of these drops) finally decided the only way he was going to record his first senior wicket was to catch it himself! With the partnership broken wickets then fell at regular intervals and Monaghan completed his 12 over spell with 4 wickets (about half of what he deserved!).

With so many runs to play with the home captain rested his more experienced bowlers to give the ëfringeí players an opportunity to shine. Of these Monaghan was the obvious stand-out, but the evergreen Renato Belli also returned a tidy 7 overs 1 for 18 spell. However the other bowlers struggled to find a consistent line and length and were unable to take the final Nairn wicket and so their innings petered out 166 runs from their victory target!

This was a superb batting performance by Ross County, but the limitations of the outfielding were all too evident and will need to be addressed if the team are to be successful in the harder games to come.

Ross County 384 for 5 (G. Watson 99, D. Smart 93, D. Skipsey 76, M. Watson 41)

Nairn 218 for 8 (S. Strain 82, N. Gibson 51, M. Monaghan 4 for 66, H. Tolliday 2 for 47)

Saturdayís match ball was kindly sponsored by Sigma Business Systems Ltd, Dornoch.

In what will undoubtedly be a sterner test than the past couple of weeks, Ross County play hosts to league leaders RAF Lossiemouth in a 35 over Macallan League Cup fixture next Saturday starting at 1.00 p.m..