Greenock sparkle in the sunshine against Poloc
Greenock 1st XI v Poloc
CSL Western First Division
Saturday 8th June 2013
| Greenock 1st XI | 253 for 8 | FJ Colson 95, ND Flack 72; EC Sheridan 4 for 58 |
| Poloc | 183 | A Azlam 41; JPC Hempsey 5 for 41, FJ Colson 3 for 39 |
Greenock gained a fine 70 run victory over Poloc on the warmest and sunniest Saturday afternoon of the season so far. With temperatures in the high 20s, and Glenpark in quite magnificent shape, a large crowd enjoyed a sparkling performance from Greenock which brought their second win out of three league outings to date.
Stand-in captain Jonathan Hempsey won the toss and chose to bat with the warm, sunny conditions and the beautifully prepared and presented Glenpark ground offering the opportunity for batsmen to enjoy their time in the middle.
The partnership of Chris Hempsey and Neil Flack, who opened at Prestwick the previous Saturday, was once again chosen to lead the batting line-up, and the pair made a brisk start with Hempsey in particular keen to score quickly. Three boundaries from Russell Lauder’s first nine deliveries looked to be a good confidence booster for the opener but Lauder got the breakthrough when Hempsey edged a delivery and was caught by Matthew Coyle for 12.
In-form Fraser Colson joined Neil Flack and these two set about building what was to become the match winning partnership for Greenock. To begin with it was Colson who was the dominant partner, but as Flack gained time at the middle, and the overs went by, he gained confidence to play his shots and eventually was almost matching his New Zealand batting partner in what became a run fest.
Their partnership of 180 runs in just over two hours eventually came to an end when Neil Flack was run out having hesitated mid way down the wicket. He had scored 72 runs, with ten boundaries, in an innings which demonstrated a real coming of age, at this level, for the Under-15 Scottish internationalist.
Neil Flack - an emerging force for Greenock
The loss of Flack may just have disturbed Fraser Colson’s concentration as, with just four more runs having been added to the score, Greenock found themselves 199 for 3 after 39 overs. Opening bowler Syed Aslam, returning for his second spell, trapped Colson LBW just five runs short of what would have been his first century in Scotland. The New Zealander’s 95 runs came off just 67 balls and included fifteen boundaries.
With two new batsmen out in the middle, and eleven overs of the Greenock innings remaining, Poloc looked to try and limit what seemed likely to be a very high score from the home team. Captain for the day Jonathan Hempsey and Ben Peterson kept up the good scoring rate taking the total to 226 in the 44th over before Peterson was adjudged LBW to Euan Sheridan for 10. This dismissal signalled a bit of a collapse in the Greenock middle/lower order as they sought to score runs by big hitting rather than picking off the visitors bowling with more thoughtful shot-making.
Waleed Jamal, scorer of a quick fire 30 runs in midweek at Ferguslie in a West League Cup match, was stumped by Paul Flannigan for just 2 runs as attempted to blast the bowling of Euan Sheridan out of the ground. Jonathan Hempsey (21) then returned a catch to bowler Michael Allcock and Tom Batters provided a comfortable catch to Brian Spence to put the Glenparkers on 232 for 7. Euan Sheridan then picked up his fourth wicket of the afternoon when he bowled Aidan Forrest for just one run.
That however was to be Poloc’s final wicket as Greg McDougall and Sam Sanghera added a further 14 runs before the close of the Greenock innings after fifty overs with 253 runs on the scoreboard for the loss of eight wickets. The highlight of the mini partnership between McDougall and Sanghera was the latter’s mighty six into Fox Street off the very first ball he received. McDougall was not out 11 and Sanghera not out 7.
Poloc made use of no fewer than eight bowlers, with Euan Sheridan’s 4 wickets for 58 runs from 11 overs, easily the best figures of the visitors' bowling line-up.
A sound start to the Poloc innings signalled that a win was not going to be easily achieved by Greenock. The visitors' opening batsmen Brian Spence and Syed Aslam had accumulated forty four runs from the first twelve overs before change bowler Jonathan Hempsey had Spence caught at first slip by Fraser Colson for 10.
Revenge was perhaps sweet for Colson when he gained an LBW decision to remove Aslam for 41 just as the opener looked likely to build a very good innings. The Poloc player had earlier in the match trapped Colson LBW. Two wickets down for 76, the Glasgow side were unable to build a partnership as good as their openers provided and regularly wickets fell just when it seemed something might develop for them.
Poloc’s dangerous South African, now playing out of New Zealand, professional Carl Huyser became the first of a remarkable four more wickets for Jonathan Hempsey. Huyser got an edge and was caught behind by Jonathan’s brother Chris for just 8 runs and the duo repeated this to dismiss Euan Sheridan (7), Michael Allcock (27) and Sandun Jayaratne (4).
Stand-in skipper Jonathan Hempsey
The loss of Flack may just have disturbed Fraser Colson’s concentration as, with just four more runs having been added to the score, Greenock found themselves 199 for 3 after 39 overs. Opening bowler Syed Aslam, returning for his second spell, trapped Colson LBW just five runs short of what would have been his first century in Scotland. The New Zealander’s 95 runs came off just 67 balls and included fifteen boundaries.
In amongst these wickets Greg McDougall bowled number three batsman Craig Young for 28 and Fraser Colson picked up two further wickets for himself with Matthew Coyle bowled for 18 and Paul Flannigan LBW for 3.
The Poloc innings was finished off when Tom Batters returned for a second spell and got a well deserved reward on his 22nd birthday weekend. He clean bowled Nick Lafferty (4) with the third ball of his ninth over to end the Poloc innings on 183 in the 45th over. Jonathan Hempsey returned fine figures of 5 for 41 from 12 overs and Fraser Colson 3 for 39 from 10 overs.
Greenock Cricket Club is grateful to acknowledge that Saturday’s 1st XI match versus Poloc was kindly sponsored by Clyde Carriers.
