Larne Cricket Club

On Saturday at Sandy Bay in a match kindly sponsored by The Viking Lodge, Larne entertained CIYMS from Belfast in the 2 nd round of the Intermediate Cup and were to come away comfortable winners by a margin of 8 wickets.

Sandy Bay looked a treat in the continuous glorious weather and it was no surprise when home skipper was asked to field after his counterpart won the toss. A flat wicket and a baked hard outfield had the makings for a feast of runs. So it would turn out to be and sadly for CI it was for the home side.

Johnny McIlhennie and Jonathan King opened the bowling for Larne and served up the first 8 overs between them, McIlhennie bowling only of a few paces due to a back injury. King struggled a little up the hill but did find reward in his 4 th over courtesy of a thin edge well claimed by wicket keeper Darren Stanton. Both bowlers however were to find that anything short at all would be harshly dealt with.

Veteran seam bowler Paddy Heggarty and club PRO Johnny Baxter with his variable off spinners took over the bowling and within a few overs both found success, both care of smart catching by Stanton, who is beginning to impress behind the stumps. In between a sharp piece of fielding by Dean Hodge would reduce the visitors to 40 for 4. Larne were now well on top.

Heggars and JB would toil away for 20 overs unbroken with no further reward however the accuracy of their bowling would restrict the batsmen to just 38 runs from their combined 20 overs.

Old timers Tony Anderson and Kenneth McKinley would replace this pair and the score did start to increase as the batsmen had to get on with it. Anderson however was to be rewarded in his 5 th over care of an excellent catch in the deep by Baxter. CI now 92/5 in the 38 th over would then go on to a total of 170 for 8 as King returned to snap up a further 2 wickets, one in particular a well judged catch by skipper Gary Moore on the long on boundary.

For CI S Harper made a determined 72 but somehow managed to evade being caught out with numerous strikes falling between fielders. 170 was never likely to enough and Larne's fielding in this match was much better than the previous weeks effort with Hodge and Alan McKee in particular performing well.

Larne's openers Murad and Hodge started in spectacular fashion with 50 up in 9 overs. Both hitting flowing drives and late cuts. Hodge though went when he had made 20, McKee joining Murad at the wicket. as the spectators were then treated to a wonderful inners by the the little maestro as he went on to make a superb 84 which included 4 big 6's and 9 4's. He ruined most of the bowlers figures and was ably supported by McKee who would contribute 54 unbeaten runs, happy to play 2 nd fiddle to Murad and then take the lead role when Murad was dismissed. His dismissal was a tame affair as he lobbed a simple catch to a CI fielder. The applause from both teams merited his performance and his own disappointment at not making the magic 3 figs was there to be seen. McKee would finish the game off with an excellent cover drive and Larne were home with 16 unused overs.

This Saturday the team are at home in a top of the table clash with Cooke Collegians followed with an away fixture in the next round of the cup.

Match summary.

CIYMS: 170/8 ( S Harper 72; J McIlhennie 6-1-23-1; J King 8-0-47-3; P Heggarty 10-4-16-1; J Baxter 10-1-22-1; K McKinley 9-2-34-0; T Anderson 7-1-24-1

Larne 173/2 ( S Murad 84; A McKee 54no; D Hodge 20)

Larne won by 8 wkts.