Larne Cricket Club

On Saturday 7th August, Larne Second XI, sponsored by lost to Laurelvale II by 18 runs in the final of the Intermediate Cup.

Larne’s sequence of losing the toss continued into the Cup Final where they again were asked to bowl first on what looked like an excellent wicket. New ball pair Eddie Hunter and Stephen McDonald bowled beautifully and got an instant reward when Hunter struck in the second over of the day. A dangerous partnership then started to develop between Thornberry and Weir but an excellent piece of fielding from Darren Stanton saw the departure of Thornberry as he threw off his wicket keeping gloves to hit the stumps with the batsman well short of his crease. After 12 overs Johnny Baxter and Dean Hodge were introduced to the attack and both bowled superbly as Larne created real pressure on the Laurelvale batting. The Larne fielding matched the standards set by the bowlers with Stephen McDonald and Dean Hodge holding onto some excellent catchs. The 20 over spell resulted in 4 wickets at a cost of less than 50 runs and had Larne in total control of the match with Laurelvale struggling at 86 for 6. Paddy Hegarty was the next man to make his mark as his first over saw 2 more wickets tumble to leave Larne with the chance of restricting the score to less than 100. Unfortunately the experienced Joe Conn had other ideas as he dominated the strike, batting a further 14 overs and helping to add 36 runs to the Laurelvale total to leave a target of 130 for Larne to lift the trophy.

Eddie Hunter and Shah Ali Murad were given the responsibility of seeing off the new ball and both played their roles to perfection, putting together an opening stand of 59 runs, before Murad mis-timed a high full toss to deep mid-wicket. With the score almost half the total required it didn’t seem to be that important a blow as Larne had 9 wickets in hand and plenty of in-form batsmen to see the job done, however the wicket sparked 2 more quick dismissals from which Larne never really recovered. Alan McKee was out first ball to an excellent delivery from Sinton, and was followed shortly afterwards by Johnny Baxter adjudged LBW and suddenly Laurelvale had renewed hope. The bowling improved and runs became harder to get and the nerves of the Larne batsmen became a major factor as nobody was prepared to take the game back to Laurelvale. As the pressure mounted the wickets continued to fall and not one more batsman made it into double figures. Larne were left 18 runs short with 4 overs still to be bowled.