Northern Counties roll on with Nairn win
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Northern Counties continued in their role as the early pace-setters in the North of Scotland cricket Senior League, beating Nairn County by 94 runs.
There threatened to be an upset early in Counties’ innings though, as the top order of Alex Green, Shaun Thomas and David Dugdale were all back in the pavilion with the team only having scored 25 runs.
At that stage Nairn may have been feeling optimistic of picking up their first win of the year, but that was the point the momentum shifted.
Richard Smith, in imperious form over recent matches, once again contributed a hugely valuable knock, scoring 70 before getting stumped off Iain Macleod’s bowling.
Mark Tucker provided more resistance, batting with Smith to accumulate 38 runs himself, backed up by 27 more from skipper Will Ford, who was unbeaten when the innings drew to a close.
Counties had set Nairn a target of 180 for victory, but they never looked like coming close.
Chris Woodward, himself in fine form, tried to drag his side towards victory, but it was too much for him to do on his own despite scoring 54.
The next best contribution to Nairn’s run chase came from Macleod, who was the only other player to get into double figures, as Nairn were bowled out for 85.
Lewis Pacey caused the most damage to the Nairn line-up, taking four wickets for the loss of just 13 runs – including three in one over – while Thomas claimed 3–20, Luke Johnson 1–16 and a returning Shannon Thorp picking up 2–11.
Other results last weekend suggest it will be the same three teams vying for the league title as last year.
Ross County defeated Fort Augustus by 27 runs, with Duncan Scott (84) proving a key batter while Charlie Thornton and Nilesh Pote picked up three wickets apiece for Fort, who also saw Ross Lavin fall a single run short of his half century.
Defending champions Forres will also be in contention again, and they thrashed Elgin by eight wickets.
