On Saturday, Gala 1st XI travelled up to Grange Loan to take on city side Carlton 2nd XI in the hope of making it two wins from two. Unfortunately for the border side, things did not go their way after a great start with the bat with the foxes falling short by 30 runs.
Losing the toss and bowling first, Gala did well to take regular wickets throughout the innings restricting the Carlton batsmen on a pitch favourable for batting. Carlton’s Khan batted well to reach his half century before pulling a ball to Rutherford at square leg off the bowling of Rhode. Allardice also played his part coming in at 9 and scoring a vital 32 for the hosts setting Gala a target of 174. Tharanga continued his great form with the ball picking up 4 wickets with Halls picking up 3 and 2 for Rhode. A special mention goes out to youngster Liam Skeldon as well on championship debut who picked up the other Gala wicket.
In reply Gala got off to a rapid start putting on 63 for the first wicket where Siddhu was trapped LBW for a very well made 44 by Simpson. Simpson then ripped through the Gala line-up collecting 5 wickets for just the 7 runs from his allotted overs claiming the key wicket of Irvine who played himself in for 22 before chipping the ball up to Simpson to be caught. Wickets continued to fall for Gala who were sitting ahead of the required run rate but also running out of batters. Crooks and Scott Paterson made 21 and 17 respectively before the former was bowled by Stronach finishing the game 30 runs short of the target. The pick of the Carlton bowlers was Simpson picking up a fifer with Stronach, Everett, Allardice, MacPherson and Khan all picking up 1 each.
Overall, the Gala side will be disappointed with their performance however with positives to take from the game, the Meigle Park outfit return home next week to test themselves against the visit of Edinburgh Accies.
| H Laing | Caught J Irvine | b D Tharanga | 4 | ||
| G Murray | LBW | b D Tharanga | 15 | ||
| S Khan | Caught F Rutherford | b A Rhode | 50 | ||
| * | P Deakin | Bowled | b J Halls | 19 | |
| W Hardie | Caught S Paterson | b J Halls | 11 | ||
| R Macpherson | Ct. & Bld. | b J Halls | 0 | ||
| + | B D’ulisse | Bowled | b A Rhode | 10 | |
| H Simpson | LBW | b D Tharanga | 16 | ||
| R Allardice | LBW | b D Tharanga | 32 | ||
| Ca Everett | Caught S Ponneri | b L Skeldon | 5 | ||
| C Stronach | Not Out | 0 | |||
| Extras | 5b 1lb 3w 3nb | 12 | |||
| TOTAL | All Out (43.4 ovs) | 174 |
| Bowler O M R W A Rhode 9.0 0 51 2 D Tharanga 8.4 1 24 4 S Paterson 6.0 1 30 0 J Halls 10.0 0 22 3 S Ponneri 5.0 0 14 0 J Irvine 3.0 0 14 0 L Skeldon 2.0 0 13 1 | Fall of Wickets 1 – 8 H Laing 2 – 27 G Murray 3 – 55 P Deakin 4 – 83 W Hardie 5 – 89 R Macpherson 6 – 105 S Khan 7 – 108 B D’ulisse 8 – 153 H Simpson 9 – 167 Ca Everett 10 – 174 R Allardice |
Innings of Gala
| S Ponneri | LBW | b H Simpson | 45 | ||
| F Rutherford | Bowled | b R Allardice | 13 | ||
| G Ormiston | Stumped B D’ulisse | b H Simpson | 1 | ||
| * | J Irvine | Ct. & Bld. | b H Simpson | 22 | |
| A Rhode | LBW | b H Simpson | 0 | ||
| J Halls | LBW | b H Simpson | 0 | ||
| D Tharanga | LBW | b R Macpherson | 8 | ||
| J Crooks | Bowled | b C Stronach | 21 | ||
| + | M Hastings | Bowled | b Ca Everett | 1 | |
| S Paterson | Caught Ca Everett | b S Khan | 16 | ||
| L Skeldon | Not Out | 0 | |||
| Extras | 5b 7lb 3w 2nb | 17 | |||
| TOTAL | All Out (40.4 ovs) | 144 |
| Bowler O M R W C Stronach 5.4 0 24 1 Ca Everett 8.0 1 36 1 R Allardice 10.0 2 33 1 H Simpson 10.0 5 7 5 R Macpherson 5.0 0 24 1 S Khan 2.0 0 8 1 | Fall of Wickets 1 – 63 S Ponneri 2 – 67 F Rutherford 3 – 71 G Ormiston 4 – 81 J Irvine 5 – 85 A Rhode 6 – 94 G Ormiston 7 – 106 D Tharanga 8 – 113 M Hastings 9 – 135 J Crooks 10 – 144 S Paterson |