Clackmannan CCC were left frustrated as they crashed to a seven wicket defeat to Fruichie cricket club in their ESCA Division One encounter at the Arns last weekend.

After losing the toss Clacks were offered to bat on a good looking track, the game was delayed because of the showers overnight however the weather was very decent for a cricket match .

Clacks opened their batting with Tariq and Keith, in their first over the wicket surprised the batsmen with uneven bounce and put doubts in the minds.

The hosts lost their first wicket, Keith Hefer, in the second over when Kelly bowled a half tracker and it hardly bounced to surprise the batsman and bowl him whilst striking the middle of the stump and bails were flying all over, not a start that clacks wanted , this brought G Anderson to the crease who was looking positive after the last weeks start , but on the other end in the third over Clacks lost their second wicket Tariq when he tried to cut a short pitched delivery to third man and it was caught brilliantly by wicket keeper tis point Clacks were 2 down for 2 runs on board.

Craig Dolan was the next batsman and clacks were hoping him to perform and steer the ship out of trouble but he did not last longer and was bowled out when he tried to play a straight drive with 11 runs for 3 on board.

The next batsman was Ashfaq Rasul, who has the tendency to play according to the situation and often gets Clacks out of trouble with his resilient temperament and once again he quickly adjusted to play the the defensive shorts, but again on the other end, Anderson played a terrible short and was caught in the point region.

It was another shock to the clacks score board 27 runs for 4 wickets down. Next in was Oliver who did his best to occupy the crease and built a small partnership with a Rasul, but the latter was soon caught on mid on.

The next man in to bat was Graham, but he too was run out after scoring just two runs leaving the home side at 42 runs with 7 wickets down. Alamgir was the next man in looking to stop the rot, but he was given lbw trying to pull a good length bowl. A poor decision by the batsman, but to be fair that was the case with the most of his team mates batting too. Sultan was the next batsman in and he played a decent innings of 38 runs, but when all other incoming bats man did not last long enough to score a defend-able total of around 150 runs, Clacks were all out on 88 runs.

The low total on the board encouraged Freuchie CCC to skip the teas and they were on the field to take on the strong bowling of Clackmannan CCC.

The home side knew that the opposition were going to play aggressive to chase down a low total.

Hefer and Ashaf open the bowling for Clacks, Hefer bowled a maiden first over, while Ashraf was hit for two 4s by D Stonebridge as the visitors showed their intend to finish the game quickly. This meant the bowlers were in need of a change to their line and this worked in third over when Hefer bowled Birrell out for just two runs, but the second over from Ashraf did not start on as high a note as the aggressive Stonebrige hit another four runs. Ashraf did bowl an outstanding swinging ball to Stonebridge, but although he edged it to first slip, unfortunately it was dropped by Rasul.

On the other end, Hefer continued good bowling and created another chance, but again Stonebridge was dropped in square leg area by Sultan.

Clacks got their second wicket in the tenth over as Horsburgh went, but this brought on Gourly with the visitors needing only 16 runs. He played well along side Stonebridge to his side to brink of victory. Stonebridge was finally caught by Hefer on his own bowling, but the Stonebridge total of 53 runs was damaging.

Birell scored the final five runs to chase down the low total posed by Clacks and seal the seven wickets win for the visitors.

Next week, Clackmannan are away to take on Morton CCC in Edinburgh and hoping to re-discover their winning form.

Parkside driving school man of the match was awarded to T Sultan for his 38 runs.

Also huge thanks to FES Group for match ball sponsor and Total Logistics Ltd Clackmannan CCC Sponsor.