Fort Augustus put first Nosca Senior Legaue win on the board as cricket club sees off Nairn County by seven wickets
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Fort Augustus Cricket Club secured their first win in the Nosca Senior League as they beat Nairn County by seven wickets.
Charlie Thornton, one of the club's new recruits ahead of the 2022 season, led the way with the ball in hand by taking personal best figures of 6–16.
Dave Wolton was dismissed early, leaving only Chris Woodward to pass 50 with the bat for Nairn, who set a target of 141 for The Abbey outfit to win.
Fort Augustus' top order threatened to make starts without capitalising, as Ross Lavin and Nilesh Pote were caught on 26 and 11 respectively, before Thornton was bowled for 14.
Then it was up to Ash Anjum and Oswald Crasto to get their side closer to victory, which they did expertly – getting over the line with personal totals of 46 not out and 20 not out.
"We were delighted," Fort Augustus skipper Kevin O'Meara said.
"Nairn County came down, and originally they didn't think they were going to have 11, which wasn't ideal, but they still have some very good batsmen with Dave Wolton and Chris Woodward.
"We were lucky to get Dave out early with a caught and bowled off Ross Lavin, and Chris got 52 before we caught him on the boundary once our spinner Charlie Thornton came on.
"Charlie is top of the bowling averages at the moment and he has also fifth in the batting.
"He's actually not done as well as he hoped, I think he thinks he can do a lot better still – he's gone from bowling medium pace to spin to adapt to the conditions up here, which has benefitted him by getting his best ever bowling figures at the weekend.
"It was a comfortable win in the end, but Nairn lacking depth in their bowling made the game look comfier than it actually was."
Getting that first win on the board in Fort Augustus' maiden campaign in the Senior League could prove to be a big moment for the club.
They will have the opportunity to follow it up away from home over the next couple of weekends at Ross County and Elgin, but O'Meara hopes it could provide a boost to the whole squad ahead of some long days.
"It's something that we wanted to get early in the season, because we don't want people to get too downhearted too soon," he added.
"Nairn unfortunately have had two defeats on the trot, and that's when people start looking at doing other things on the weekend instead of playing cricket.
"It's a full on day playing cricket. We have to leave at 9.30am to get to Castle Leod in time for the start because we're going to have traffic on the 120-mile round trip.
"To get the win last weekend was good, and to get people batting and bowling well was good too.
"The fielding was very good at the weekend. We took our catches, and that made a big difference."
