Larne v Holywood - Saturday 24th April 2004 |
|
Larne Cricket Club 1st XI, who are sponsored by the Curran Court, kicked off the 2004 cricket season with a comfortable 7 wicket victory over Holywood in Section 2 of the Ulster Bank League. Holywood had beaten Larne twice last season so this result was a great confidence booster for the Larne side.
With Holywood reduced to 29 for 5, Dempsey decided that the time was ripe for some spin bowling and he turned to Larne's overseas professional Douglas Griebenouw. Bowling his mixture of leg spin and googlies he had the opposition batsmen bamboozled and scoring off him was more a matter of luck than judgement. Gareth Gaw had come into the attack as well and in his fourth over he had P. Maxwell well caught behind by Dempsey for 11, to make up for the two dropped catches Gaw had spilt off his own bowling. It wasn't long before Griebenouw picked up his first wicket when Steven Gorman took a fine catch near the square leg boundary. Griebenouw then finished off the tail thanks to good catches by Hill and McClean and Holywood had been bowled out for 60. Griebenouw finished with 4 for 10 from 9.1 overs. McClean had figures of 2 for 8 from 4 overs and all the other bowlers used picked up 1 wicket each.
Larne won the game by 7 wickets, the winning run coming in the 20th over. Match Summary:- Holywood 60 all out (D. Cardy 18, R. McClean 2-8, D. Griebenouw 4-10) Innings
of Holywood |
Larne's skipper, Trevor Dempsey, won the toss and decided to field first. After a nervous opening over from Robert McClean it was Craig who achieved the breakthrough in his first over when he bowled M. Tracey for a duck with his third delivery. McClean then responded with two wickets in his second over as he first had N. Andrews LBW for 0 and followed this up by bowling C. Dunwoody for another duck. Holywood had collapsed to 6 for 3 in the 3rd over.
After 8 overs Dempsey rang the changes as he introduced Ian Hill into the attack. Hill, who was born in Tasmania but whose mother was born in Ballyclare, has moved to the Larne area along with his brother Greg and started off his Larne career by picking up the wicket of the dangerous S. Sharkey in his first over, bowled for 10. Paul Ramsay replaced Craig into the wind and after three tidy overs he picked up the wicket of M. Shannon for another duck.
So a fine display in the field needed to be followed up by some sensible batting but almost immediately the watching Larne spectators were on the edge of their seats as the experienced bowling pair of ex-Irish international Michael Shannon and Darren Cardy bowled very tightly and denied Larne easy runs. (In fact Shannon didn't concede a run off his bowling until the last ball of his 7th over!). Cardy made the initial breakthrough in his 3rd over when he bowled Gareth Alexander for 3 and followed this up by bowling local
restauranteur
Shah Ali Murad for 1. Larne at this stage were 12 for 2 and it became 13 for 3 when Greg Hill was run out for 1.
Steven Gorman joined Griebenouw at the crease and used all his experience to take the sting out of the Holywood attack as he played each ball on its merits. This pair saw off the opening attack and started to slowly put together a match winning partnership. As their confidence grew they played more aggressive shots. Griebenouw stroked several over pitched deliveries to the long off and long on boundaries, whilst Gorman's trademark square cuts started to flow as he cracked two fours in successive overs to the point boundary. A partnership of 37 took the scores level and Griebenouw fortuitously scored the winning run when he was dropped at deep extra cover by Sharkey and the batsmen jogged through for the one run needed for victory.