ANOTHER dismal batting display, with the exception of Bryan Fuller, combined with another rather inept fielding performance, when another six catches were put down, resulted in 2nd Ellon Gordon suffering defeat - this time at the hands of Academy by 35 runs.

Ellon at least won the toss and on doing so sent the opposition into bat against their usaul opening attack of Duncan and Owen.

Unusually, they didn't make an early breakthrough as opening bat Singh was scoring freely and could have been extremely dangerous and made Ellon pay for two dropped catches but fortunatley he was out lbw to Owen mid way through the sixth over.

Things progressed rather pedestrianly after this for a while before Duncan struck in the space of four deliveries to remove first Chaitu and then Aftab. It could have been so much better if the early chance offered by Kessell had been held because after that he and his skipper Derrett were making steady progress until a rush of blood by Kessell saw Derret ran out quite comfortably.

Kessell then with a serious of partners and dropped catches, when the total was in the high 80s, carried the Academy total up into three figures before he was out bowled by Duncan with the third ball of his second spell. After which Duncan quickly captured a further two wickets before Owen trapped the last man lbw to bring the innings to a close.

Duncan was Ellon's most successful bowler claiming five wickets while fellow opener Owen chipped in with two. Due to their bad fielding Ellon had to rely on four lbw decisions and a run out for half the wickets taken.

After a lengthier tea break than nornal, due to the fact the urn hadn't been switched on nor had the foodstufs been collected from the Station Hotel, Ellon set about the task of overhauling the Academy total to get them back into a winning mould.

Davidson and Duncan opened the innings and they were moving the score along satisfactorily before Duncan was out caught as a result of a mistimed shot. Fuller was next in and along with Davidson appeared to be coping well with the bowling until Davidson was stumped off the bowling of Aftab in the 11th over.

Rintoul and Hutcheson both went soon after without giving Fuller much support. It wasn't until Beetge arrived at the wicket that things began to look as though Ellon were beginnig to get a grip of the game only for Beetge to be out caught at long off from the bowling of Kumar.

Owen replaced him at the crease and with some quick running and singles pinching pulled the score up into the 80s before one attempted quick single too many cost Fuller his wicket closely followed by that of Owen, lbw to Derret.

Still requiring 51 runs for victory, Ellon were left with two juniors and an "old warhorse" to see them through.

They did succeed in taking the score up into three figures, thus gaining Ellon at least another batting point. To bat out the remaining 16 overs for a draw was probably asking too much although they did succeed in using up six of them.

So for the second week running Brian Fuller was Ellon's top scorer with 41 in a well controlled innings.

Second top was 28 extras which sums up the performance of the rest. Some of Brian's shots deserved more but for some reason Ellon didn't enjoy the same success as Academy in reaching the boundary as most of Brian's shots were along the ground whilst Academy's had gone by the aerial route. Academy also only dropped one catch as far as we can recall.

Academy 136 all out. R. Kessell 40; S. Singh 19; Aftab 17. I. Duncan 5 for 39; H. Owen 2 for 27; E. Davidson 1 for 25.
2nd Ellon Gordon 101 all out. B. Fuller 41. S. Derrett 3 for 15; S. Kumar 2 for 10; Aftab 2 for 29; S. Sing 1 for 29.

This Saturday, 2nd Ellon play hosts to 2nd Gordonians, who have been puting together some rather useful performances but hopefully Ellon will get back into a winning vein at their expense.

On Sunday 2nd Ellon were due to start the defence of the Reid Cup they won last year and they are through to the next round without bowling a ball because Academy informed that at the end of last Saturday's game that they would be unable to field a side.