Larne Cricket Club

After three weeks of inactivity Larne 1 st XI, who are sponsored by The Curran Court, had a busy weekend when they played Muckamore at Sandy Bay and travelled to Sullivan Upper School to play Holywood. It was not to be a wasted weekend as they came away with two league victories that will almost certainly maintain their Section 2 status for another season.

On Saturday Larne skipper Trevor Dempsey won the toss and decided to bat first. Openers Murad and Griebenouw started the Larne innings and by the 3 rd over they had put on 18 runs before Griebenouw chanced his arm once to often and was caught by Henderson. Keith Aiston joined Murad and sensible batting saw the Larne score move on to 36 before Murad was caught by Thompson for 12. Former skipper Jonathan Craig strode to the crease and was to play probably his most responsible innings so far for Larne.

This pair added 35 runs before Aiston was out just before the drinks break caught and bowled by Breet for 26. David Tweed joined Craig and played second fiddle to Craig as the pair added another 36 runs for the 4 th wicket. Craig chose his shots carefully and kept the lofted shots in his locker until the latter stages of the innings. Tweed was out for 7 runs when the score had reached 107 in the 36 th over. The new batsman, Ian Hill and Craig consolidated their position and by the 40 th over Larne had reached 121 for 4 and a score of around 180 looked to be the best they could hope for.

Just as Muckamore had thought they had gotten a grip on the game, Craig and Hill upped the tempo and from the last ten overs they scored 98 runs as Craig started to reel off his trademark lofted drives, 3 of which cleared the boundaries for sixes. Not to be outdone Hill then started to find the boundary and their unbroken partnership of 112 runs saw Larne finish on 219 for 4 in 50 overs. The 49 th over bowled by Neil Gill proved very costly for Muckamore as he conceded 24 runs off it.

Muckamore were very confident of chasing Larne’s total when they went out to bat and maybe over confidence got the better of them as by the 8 th over they had been reduced to 24 for 4 by superb new ball bowling from Robert McClean and Greg Hill. McClean picked up two of the wickets, the second courtesy of a superb catch by Aiston in the covers (the first of three he would take in the innings). Hill also picked up two wickets early on and he made things worse for Muckamore as he then picked up two more in his 6 th and 7 th over to leave Muckamore reeling on 31 for 6 and only one team looking like winning the match.

Jonathan Craig had replaced McClean but he went wicketless in his opening 4 overs. Greg Hill bowled 9 overs straight and was only taken out of the attack due to exhaustion but he did finish with 4 for 31 in those 9 overs.

Spinners Aiston and Gareth Gaw bowled together and gave nothing away with Gaw adding two wickets to his seasons total and Aiston picked up one wicket. Only Neil Gill showed any resistance as he put together an innings of 45 but it was too little to late and the return of McClean accounted for his wicket and Muckamore had been bowled out for 118 at the end of the 39 th over. McClean finished with 3 for 30 in 9 overs

Scorecard:-

Larne 219-4 (J Craig 84no, I Hill 49no)
Muckamore 118 all out (N Gill 45, R McClean 3-30, G Hill 4-31, G Gaw 2-15)