Match drawn between the Western Academy and Southern Stars

Day 1:
For the fifth time in a row, Fraser Conn, the Academy captain called the toss wrong and the Southern Stars captain had no hesitation in deciding to bat on a very flat, batter friendly Dumfries CC pitch. The format chosen for this game was six two hour sessions over two days.

The decision to bat looked like a good call as in the first two hour session the Stars raced through to lunch reaching 166 for the loss of two wickets in 32 overs. Two excellent outfield catches by Conn and English were the highlights of the first session for the Academy, who struggled against a very good batting side.  The afternoon session was a very different story with the Stars still scoring freely, but losing wickets frequently.

With a mixture of good bowling and some sharp fielding the academy bowled out the stars for 323 off 60 overs, the top scorer for the stars being Noble with a very hard hitting 70, with most of the Stars batsmen contributing twenties or thirties. With the vast majority of the overs bowled by the academy being spin, pick of the Academy bowlers was Umeed with a very creditable 5 for 48. 

The Academy had the whole of the after tea session to bat and started brightly with Young and English putting on a brisk 31 before English was adjudged lbw in the 8th over. By the time the score had reached 81 in the 18th over the academy had lost four wickets. Young departing with a hard hitting 37, Umeed adjudged caught behind and Darroch caught and bowled.

A solid partnership was required, and with Conn and Hill batting steadily, the Academy at the close of play on the first day reached 173 for 4 with Conn 64 not out and Hill 29 not out. It is hoped that the rain forecast for the second day will go away, so that this fairly evenly contested game can be completed.

Day 2:
Under cloudy skies, and with both batting and fielding conditions difficult, the second day began with the Academy losing four quick wickets including both the overnight not out batsmen, with little addition to their scores.
With the academy score on 197 for 8, and in danger of following on, two solid partnerships involving Scott, Stewart and E Spiers the academy innings closed on a respectable 243 all out in 55 overs.

The Stars began their second innings with a flourish of hard hit boundaries by Berry, who rapidly reached 55 before bring run out by excellent fielding by the academy. The Stars continued to score runs quickly, but with good bowling from Hill (2 for 30), Young (2 for 36) and Chitnis (2 for 33), and enthusiastic fielding, the Stars were restricted to 141 for 7, at which point they decided to declare.
 It was felt amongst the watching spectators that this was quite a generous declaration, with the Academy requiring 223 to win off a probable 48 overs.

At 2:30pm, however with just two balls bowled of the academy’s second innings, the forecast rain arrived. After just twenty minutes, where an early tea was taken, the innings of the academy resumed, but within fourteen overs the academy had been reduced to 80 for 4, with all the batsmen reaching double figures, but no significant contributions.

 With the loss of Umeed and Chitnis, and the run chase below 100, a solid and quick scoring partnership between English (31 not out) and Stewart (7 not out) took the academy score to 124 for 6 with 18 overs to play.

With the game delicately balanced, the rain arrived, and stayed unfortunately, and the game was called off at 5:00pm. Both sides were a credit to the spirit of the game of cricket, and produced an excellent game of cricket with many fluctuations of fortunes during a hard fought game. A draw was probably a very fair outcome of this match.”

Henry Conn