The Villagers travelled to Musselburgh on Saturday, missing several key batsmen, and were greeted with a very soft, wet and slow wicket.
On winning the toss St Boswells opted to bat first and got off to a disastrous start when both openers were dismissed without a single run being scored. Young was caught behind off Curtly Ambrose lookalike Collins, while Aussie Mark Williams popped a catch back to bowler Robertson – a period of adjustment is required to get used to the slow Scottish wickets.
Stephen Broom, Ross Graham, Craig Patterson and Rory Elms all had brief moments of success to get the scoreboard moving.
Broom played the wrong line to be bowled for 24, Graham popped a catch back exactly the same as Williams had done earlier for 8, and Patterson went LBW for 14, albeit after responding superbly to sledging by West Indies star Collins by smashing him back over his forehead for four. Overall, no one looked like they were going to hang around for the duration and everyone else failed to get out of single figures, with Verma the best bowler, taking 5 for 15, to snuff out the St Boswells innings for 67.
Even on such a slow and difficult track, 67 was unlikely to be enough, although the visitors were aware Musselburgh had fallen themselves the previous week to a similar score.
Whereas the batting performance was horrible, the bowling was much better. Opening due to the conditions with the non-pacey Young, he quickly had Gartner trapped LBW for 3. Scott Marshall came on and bowled superbly to claim three more scalps, with James Gillan, Patterson and Graham taking good catches. However, despite periods of hope, the home team surpassed the total after 23 overs.