Glasgow Accies U18 42 all out lost to XL Club 84 all out by 42 runs.
Match played at New Anniesland, Glasgow on Wednesday 8th August 2012 at 12:00.
Friendly, 40 overs-a-side.
Toss won by XL Club, who elected to bat.
Umpire: AE Marsden.
This is only the second time since 2007 that this fixture has been completed and even this match was in doubt until Robert managed to perform a miracle on the square. On the first decent summer's day since late May the XL Club batted on a damp. drying pitch and the Accies youngsters immediately found conditions to their liking. Against a strong batting XL line up tight lines and persistence backed up by some excellent catches saw the XL's struggle and at 47 for 8 after only 22 overs they were in dire straits. A ninth wicket partnership of 26 between Richard Bond [Hillhead] and our own Ali Ferguson, an XL debutant for the day, proved decisive in the end. Wickets were spread between Cammy Russell [4], David Gibson [2], Arman Khan [2] and Ben Mazzucco [2].
The match timing was 6pm plus 20 overs which effectively left the U18's with 223 minutes to score the required 85 to win. Although the surface of the pitch was drying fast the Accies' youngsters' innings began to wither under the pace of Richard Bond and the cunning guile of John Cameron [West]. The XL's, with a bit of inside information from Dobs and Ali Ferg, had decided that Ben Mazzucco and Cammy Russell were the prime targets and danger men. Ben began in his usual manner hitting the ball hard but couldn't deal with 007's pace. Cammy Russell resisted for a while playing his usual style but again fell to a ripper from 007.
Arman Khan came in with the score on 24 for 4 in the eighth over and immediately looked comfortable against both bowlers. Eventually he succumbed to John Cameron having scored 5 runs from 73 balls but crucially he had showed, with some obdurate assistance from Simran Singh and Leon Hay, that ealier patience might have produced better results.
The U18's were eventually all out for 42. This was probably one of the best XL bowling performances that I have seen for many a match played with them with 007 and John Cameron picking 8 scalps between them for only 30 runs. The lads will not have had the luxury of just short of 4 hours of batting time before and probably won't again for some considerable time.
Many thanks to Robert for his miracle in getting the pitch ready at all and to Euan Dowers for organising his squad and clearing up after the match.