‘Make-or-break’ for Lichties survival bid

Top-flight survival is the name of the game for Arbroath for the remainder of the cricket season. Skipper Bryce Carnegie is under no illusions about the size of the task facing his team.

Without a win to their name all season, the Lochlands side need a major change of fortune – starting with today’s Eastern Premier home clash with Carlton.

The captain said: “It’s make-or-break for us now – if we want to stay up we need to start winning, and now.

“So we have trained hard all week and we’ve had great input from (South African professional) Wihan Lubbe on where we can improve so I’m very confident in the lads for the coming weeks.”

Along with such optimism, Carnegie points to a bright future following the recent appearance of two of the club’s brightest prospects, Gregor Fraser and Pranav Saravanan, in the Scotland U17 team.

He added: “It’s a great achievement for the two of them – they have worked really hard to get into that squad and we are excited to see what the future holds for them.”

Arbroath are boosted by the return of opening batter and off-spinner Ross McLean who missed last week’s defeat at Heriot’s.

Falkland are still seeking their second win of the campaign, although they came as close as possible last week when their match at Carlton ended in a tie.

Needing two runs from the final delivery, the Fifers managed just a single, and ahead of today’s clash with Stoneywood-Dyce at Scroggie Park, captain Lyle Robertson said: “We obviously had mixed emotions after the game but the boys can be proud of the way we’ve started the turn of the season.

“Everyone is up for the challenge ahead and we are all very confident on how we are shaping up for the rest of the season.”

Falkland can certainly entertain hopes of victory against a Stoneywood-Dyce outfit who have been beaten in their last four games. The most recent of these was against Forfarshire who today make the trip to the capital to face Stewart’s Melville.

Scott Cameron’s team are aiming for a fourth straight victory but they will have to do it without Scotland star Michael Leask who is preparing for tomorrow’s World Cup League 2 clash with Namibia.

Fergus Duncan replaces Leask who averages an impressive 90 in his six innings for the Forthill club this season.