Woodvale v Larne - Saturday 22nd May 2004 |
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Larne travelled to Ballygomartin Road on Saturday to take on Woodvale and in a remarkable game, the Curran Court sponsored team went down by 7 wickets. Larne skipper Trevor Dempsey won the toss and had no hesitation in electing to bat first on a terrific pitch which looked sure to produce a high scoring game. Gareth Alexander and Keith Aiston opened the innings and it was Aiston who got the innings off to a flying start as he took the opening bowlers apart. He displayed a vast array of strokes and brought up his half century in only the 15 th over. It was a great pity when he top edged an attempted pull shot when on 60 but it was an innings of the highest quality. Alexander meanwhile had played more of a subdued innings and soon followed Aiston back to the pavilion, but this signalled the start of a 100 run partnership between Douggie Griebenouw and Ian Hill. From a score of 91-2 at drinks, Larne managed to add another 180 runs to finish with an impressive 271 runs on the board for the loss of 5 wickets. Griebenouw's innings was again full of class and contained strokes to all parts of the ground and he was just beginning to open up when he was caught in the deep for 69. Hill too played a gem of an innings, driving and cutting the ball beautifully and brought up his first 50 for the club with a towering 6 over long on – he went on to finish unbeaten on 71. The fireworks at the end of the innings were provided by Graeme Leitch and Jonathan Craig who had licence to swing their arms and didn't disappoint. Leitch scored 18 off only 10 balls before Craig scored 28 including 2 sixes which cleared a row of houses outside the ground. Although satisfied with a great batting effort Larne knew that Woodvale's strength was in their batting and this was soon confirmed as the passed the Larne total for the loss of only 3 wickets with an over to spare. They got off to a flying start and never looked back as they scored at around 6 runs an over for the duration of the innings. Only Eddie Hunter and Paul Ramsay were able to exert any sort of control and they conceded only 80 runs from their 20 overs. Hunter was rewarded with a wicket when Aiston took a fine catch in the deep and Gareth Gaw also struck when he had opener stumped by Dempsey. This however was to be Larne's only joy until it was too late as Kirkpatrick and former Ireland player Rutherford guided the home team to the brink of victory. Both batted extremely well but were helped by some wayward bowling and below par fielding as Larne were unable to prevent the flow of runs. Kirkpatrick eventually fell to the spin of Griebenouw for 87 and it was left to Rutherford to guide his team home with an unbeaten 66. Although the Larne team were extremely disappointed to have lost, the Woodvale officials were quick to praise the visitors on what had been a fantastic game of cricket. This Saturday sees Larne travel to Ballymena and they will host Armagh on Sunday. Scorecard:- |
