Saints fall short despite Farr’s batting effort

Forres St Lawrence travelled to Nairn on Saturday in the senior league, hoping to get their second win of the season but came away with only points for their efforts despite pushing the home side to the end.

Nairn batted first, making use of the hard ground and the glorious sunshine.

They got off to a rapid start, losing opener Chris Woodward early on, and by the fall of the second wicket at 69 only 12 overs had been bowled.

Number three and four, Graham Dowall and Matt Millward, were the pair that did the damage. They dug in and took the attack to the bowlers, scoring feely as they hurtled past the hundred mark, only faltering when Millward was caught off Karthikeyan Selvagurusamy for 26.

Dowall rode his luck a few times but made the Forres bowlers suffer as he passed his personal century and it took a good ball from Gus Farr to remove him, caught behind for 122.

With 248 on the board at this point Nairn lost a few quick wickets and finished their innings on 261 for 6. Pick of the Forres bowlers were opener Fraser Merricks, 1 for 27, and Gus Farr, 2 for 39 with a mention for Magnus McGhee, 1 for 36.

Forres needed a big reply but the loss of early wickets did not help. McGhee (12) and Amit Chowdhary (11) fell early on whilst Derek Ross backed up Al Farr as he punched a quick 21 before being bowled by Daniel Whitehorn.

G. Farr and Merricks came together on 60 for 4 and it looked as if this pair would have to do all the work if an unlikely win was to be achieved.

Playing sensibly, they kept the board ticking over but the huge Nairn total was still a long way off. Just after the hundred had been posted, Millward came on to bowl and his first delivery trapped Merricks in front, LBW for 17.

Farr was joined by Ram Pavan, one of a trio of new players to the club and still working out his talents.

Farr decided he had little to lose so he upped the tempo and was pleasantly surprised to find Pavan was up to the challenge. The score rattled along, helped by some mediocre Nairn bowling and the home side started to look slightly worried as the fielding changes became more frequent along with lots of arm waving on the field.

Farr cashed in with boundaries whilst Pavan played his part too, some very nice shots on display, but despite the best efforts of the batters the overs were running out.

Just after the board posted the 200, Farr played a tired shot, lofting the ball behind for the keeper to take the running catch as he departed for 88.

When Pavan was out for 33 the innings was almost at a close, and the final few deliveries saw Forres finish on 223 for 8.

A good effort with some positives to take despite losing the game, which had been played in good spirits.

Next week Forres head to Elgin for an early start in the T20 at Cooper Park.

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