In their penultimate game of the season, Largo’s 2nd XI travelled to Broomhall on Saturday looking to stop the late season losing run they have been on as of late. Brent Bentley was back as the Largo captain and after losing the toss his side were asked to field first.

Largo opened the bowling with MacDonald and Ahmad who was playing his last game before departing for studies elsewhere in the next few years. The pair though couldn’t find a breakthrough in their opening spells with the home side showing the local knowledge to get their runs finding the short boundary taking the aerial route to good effect to cut out the long outfield conditions.

Smith and Sandhu would come in to the attack though and both would take wickets with Robertson (13) and Lucas (19) both providing chances to MacDonald at square leg who caught both with great composure as the home side moved to 75/2 at drinks. After the break G.Miles would bowl very well providing a few edges and was very unlucky not to get a wicket but after a well executed run out by young Murdo Duncan the rest of the innings came down to if Largo could dismiss opposition captain Ieuan Ward.

Apart from giving one difficult chance, Ward was showing that he was a class above anyone else on the day and moved past 50 playing shots all around the wicket leaving Bentley trying different combinations of bowlers to try and find the breakthrough, but all to no avail. Ahmad would return to take one final wicket for the club and with Ally Duncan also providing a great diving catch in the covers to provide Sandhu with a 2nd dismissal, it all came down to how many the home side would score in the final overs.

In the end Broomhall would make it to 188/5 off their 40 overs with Ward’s late innings hitting including a 6 off the final ball leaving hm agonisingly short of a well deserved hundred on 98* in what was a brilliant innings all around for the Broomhall captain.

In reply Bentley opened with himself and Tooze but both struggled to find any scoring form with value for shots along the ground not there on the day. Tooze was bowled for 3 by a perfect inswinger from Ramsey before a frustrated Bentley was caught on the boundary for 9 by a very well judged catch by I.Ward throwing the ball back over the boundary when overbalanced to take the fair catch.

G.Miles and A.Duncan both fought determinedly to move to double figures and take the Largo score towards 50 before Miles fell to P.Ward for 20 followed soon after by the same bowler dismissing Sandhu for 9 just after launching the ball in to the trees the ball before.

Largo would move to 119/6 in the end of their innings as Broomhall rung the changes in the bowling with Dorey making 17 including an impressive 6 to the long off boundary followed by a late order partnership between MacDonald (14*) and Murdo Duncan (9*) that showed promise but all was in vain on the day with Ward’s innings proving the difference between the sides.

Largo 2s finish their season next weekend against Glenrothes 2s at Gilvenbank as they look to finish the 2024 season on a high.