Dan's the Man - Twos Snooze but don't Lose.

On a lovely afternoon, our skipper won the toss and opted to bat - only having seven players at the toss can change the lifelong prejudices even of a Smith.

We posted 195 for 8, partly thanks to a dogged but streaky innings from Jon Bates (39) and a coruscating one from Fraser Buchanan (27 - first three balls 4,4,6), but mostly because of a fine maiden HX 50 from Dan Welsh that was full of well-timed punches and drives through the covers.

This was our best total of the season by far, but it was very difficult to judge how good it really was. On the one hand the pitch was fairly quick and the outfield decidedly so. On the other the Boroughmuir bowlers had extracted both spin and movement off the seam from the track, with fine bowling performances from Docherty, Singh, Skidmore, Venkatamaran and the luckless Perry.

Andy Killey and Smudger opened up well and the first 10 overs yielded barely 20 runs, but also only a single tricky chance. That miss cost us as Docherty and Dickson built an initially patient but increasingly fluent first wicket partnership of 118, making the most of some real dross from the change bowlers and offering no further clearcut chances until Docherty was surprisingly run out.

This, coupled with the reintroduction of Killey (who removed Dickson for 65 but deserved far more than a single wicket) and Smudge, ultimately proved decisive as wickets fell regularly, mostly to Welsh who ended up with 4 for 50. Nonetheless with 8 down and three overs to go 'Muir only needed 18 to win. Cue the reintroduction of Bates and Tom Jordan, playing his first HX game for 17 years. Both, particularly Bates, had been expensive earlier, but they managed to close out the game for a two run win.

A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon - sunshine and a competitive game of cricket played in a good spirit throughout. We look forward to the return.

One last observation. We started late, partly through our unfamiliarity with the "new" Meggetland set-up, but partly through familiar HX failings. We need to do better if we are not to try the patience of our opponents and even a bunch as hospitable and sporting as Boroughmuir were beginning to get impatient on Saturday - not without cause.