On Saturday Linlithgow travelled to Penicuik for their first away fixture of the season. The visitors won the toss and invited their hosts to bat first on a wicket that had received little preparation during the previous week because of the inclement weather. Nevertheless, the wicket would be the same for both sides!

Penicuik started strongly and scored 23 runs from the first four overs before Linlithgow got to grips with the conditions and began to tighten things up. Clinton Dixon bowled a brilliant spell and ended with figures of 6 wickets for just 13 runs. Meanwhile, Grant Blackwell and Andrew Wallace took 2 wickets apiece as Linlithgow restricted the hosts to 84 runs from only 24 overs. Disappointingly for Linlithgow, that total could have been between 10 and 20 runs less but for a combination of overthrows and extras conceded early in the innings.

Linlithgow’s reply got off to a disastrous start. After 10 over they were sitting at 16 for the loss of four key wickets. Frustratingly, three of these wickets came from contentious decisions made by the ‘neutral’ match umpires. Both sides suffered at the hands of the umpires’ apparent eagerness to be ‘star of the show’, so ultimately neither side benefitted.

Wickets continued to tumble after this terrible start and at 27 for the loss of 7 wickets from 14 overs, the match seemed to be heading in one direction. Clinton Dixon and debutant Duncan Heslop put together the first partnership of any note in the innings as they took the score along to 45 before Heslop was well caught behind square. Grant Raven joined Clinton and the pair took the score to 60 before Clinton was caught behind trying to clear the ropes one too many times. Andrew Wallace and Grant Raven batted well together and gave the visitors hope until Wallace was brilliantly caught near the boundary edge thanks to a wonderful diving effort by the Penicuik fielder.

Penicuik won the match by 8 runs as Linlithgow were all out for just 76. Penicuik collected the maximum 20 points for the win, with Linlithgow gaining 5 bowling points.

Next weekend the visitors to Boghall are Drummond Trinity in a match that is due to start at 1pm.

Harpo