On Saturday Linlithgow faced the prospect of a Musselburgh double, with the first and second eleven’s both playing the same opponents in their respective league encounters.

Musselburgh 1st XI won the toss and asked Linlithgow 1st XI to bat first at Boghall on a muggy afternoon and a wicket that looked like it would offer the prospect of a fair contest between bat and ball.

Linlithgow’s innings began disastrously as they lost three 3 important wickets for just 18 runs. Rory Saunders and Gregor Thomson set about the process of rebuilding with positive intent and slowly swung the pendulum back into the home side’s favour. Rory Saunders was the main aggressor as he walked down the wicket to meet the ball early and, in most cases, dispatched it to the boundary. Saunders was eventually out leg before wicket for 41 in an innings that had the crowd on their feet on several occasions. Gregor Thomson was then joined by Duncan Heslop (22 runs) and the pair continued in similar fashion pushing the score along to 94 before Thomson was out for 30.

Linlithgow chipped away at the Musselburgh bowling attack and took advantage of a few loose deliveries which helped them to a position of relative comfort given their poor start to the innings. Chris Whitton came in at the end of the batting line up and hit what would prove to be a critical 17 quickfire runs for the home side as they finished with a respectable total of 155 all out in exactly 39 overs.

The Musselburgh reply began steadily with the openers not looking to take many risks and hoping to see off the threat of new ball bowlers Gregor Thomson and the irrepressible Duncan Heslop. Linlithgow made the breakthrough with the score on 26 runs and then followed this by taking two further quick wickets. However, this was to be followed to a frustrating stand of 47 between R. Tufail and J. Lydon who batted well to consolidate the visitors’ innings. Paul Brookes bowled a very accurate spell and finished with fine figures of 9 overs, 2 wickets for just 14 runs.

Home skipper Grant Raven eventually had R. Tufail adjudged leg before wicket for 22 runs which left the visitors sitting at 79 for 4 wickets with 16 overs remaining. Then, two run outs, one executed by Raven and the other by Thomson removed the last real hope Musselburgh had of chasing down the required score.

Gregor Thomson finished the match in fine style when he took a superb running catch with a full-length dive which sparked wild scenes of celebration among the Linlithgow players and spectators. Linlithgow won the match by 20 runs and collected the maximum 20 points with Musselburgh picking up 8 bonus points.

Next Saturday Linlithgow make the short trip to Livingston for a match scheduled to start at 1pm.