Larne Cricket Club

ROUTINE VICTORY FOR FOURTH'S

Larne's fourth eleven moved serenely into the quarter-finals of the Minor Qualifying cup with a comfortable seven-wicket victory over Dunmurry on Saturday.  The match was played at Eden in Carrick, with Larne winning the toss and electing to field.  Proceedings did not get under way until well past two o'clock, which was a very late start for a fifty-over match.  Larne's opening bowlers were Andy Semple and Jeff Russell, and they combined good pace with an accurate line and length to put pressure on Dunmurry right from the start.  The Eden ground was in good condition, but there was an extremely short boundary on one side of the ground.

Semple made the first breakthrough when he clean bowled the opening batsmen, and Larne could have had several more wickets as the ball tantalizingly popped up and landed between fielders with frustrating regularity.  However, luck was on their side when the change bowlers came on, with captain Michael Lyle grabbing two wickets in his first two overs.  His second ball was miss-cued to mid-wicket, where Semple judged the catch to perfection right in front of the short boundary to remove the dangerous Dunmurry number three.  At the other end the young off-spinner Eddie Wilson, who was returning from a serous arm-injury, bowled an extremely tight spell and he managed to pick up one wicket when wicket-keeper Craig Smith took a good catch.

The loss of these early wickets put Dunmurry on the back foot, and their response was to block everything for the next twenty overs.  Lyle, who finished with 2-8 off his ten overs and Wilson conceded just 31 runs in their combined 20 overs, bowling seven maidens between them.  The pace of the match was more reminiscent of 1950's test match than a 21st-century one-day game, and the few spectators present were soon either sleeping or leaving to find a more enjoyable way of spending their afternoon, such as visiting elderly relatives.  Time and rime
again the ball was allowed to pass harmlessly by off stump or was met with the most resolute of forward-defensive shots.

There were flashes of controversy though to enliven proceedings, particularly between the two captains Lyle and Hawthorn.  They maintained a lively dialogue through the medium of their team-mates, exchanging increasingly caustic remarks about one another until Burke brokered a temporary truce between the innings.  By then Dunmurry had been dismissed for 107 off 47 overs.  Cameron Ruys picked up two wickets toward the end of the innings, bowling a superb line and length and teasing the batsmen with some late movement.  He was helped by some good fielding, as Russell clasped a tricky catch at slip and Craig Smith effected an excellent stumping to end the innings. 

CONFIDENT REPLY

Larne made a good start with Esler Burke and Jimmy Hunter comfortably seeing off the opening bowlers.  Hunter was eventually dismissed for ten though, and Smith and Russell soon followed to leave Larne on 34-3 and in a spot of difficulty.  Young batsman Jonathon Graham emerged at number five, and was promptly crowded by Dunmurry, who obviously felt they could intimidate the new batsmen.  Their pressure field lasted for all of two balls though, as Graham confidently got off the mark with a firmly struck two to mid-wicket, and he never looked back as he creamed 28 runs in no time at all.

At the other end Esler Burke was continuing his splendid batting form. Like a fine wine, he seems to be getting better with each year that
passes, and it is no exaggeration to say that the veteran opening-batsman is in the best form of his life.  He has scored runs for the 2nds, 3rds 4ths and 5ths this season, and on Saturday he produced a chance-less fifty to ease Larne to victory.  He began in his usual quiet fashion, but as the match headed toward its conclusion, he picked up speed and began peppering the short boundary from both ends.  He was able to cut the fast bowlers for four and then repeatedly sweep the spinners for clinically placed fours.  Even with two men on the square-leg boundary, Dunmurry were unable to stem his scoring, and it was entirely appropriate when he finished the match and brought up his fifty with the last scoring shot of the day. 

Larne won by seven wickets in the 35th over, and they would surely have scored over 200 had they batted first.

The match was kindly sponsored by Robert Brown's.  Larne will now play Carrick in the quarter-finals of the cup on June 20th, in a re-match of last year's semi-final.  Carrick won an extremely close match last year, and Larne will be hoping that they can reverse that result and go all the way to this year's final.