On Saturday Larne, who are sponsored by the Curran Court Hotel, played their first game of the season. Larne The new cricket season got under way at the weekend in glorious weather but for Larne, the weather was the only good point as the Curran Court Hotel sponsored team crashed to a 100 run defeat at the hands of Academy.

Larne captain Trevor Dempsey won the toss and elected to bowl first and was quickly rewarded as opening bowlers Eddie Hunter and Jonathon King removed the openers for ducks. Hunter then trapped the dangerous Greenlees LBW in a terrific opening spell to leave the visitors in trouble on 17-3. The innings was rescued by Kelso and Wix as they put together the partnership which was to prove crucial. Kelso was just getting into his stride when he hit a Gareth Gaw full toss straight to Gareth Alexander, the 1st of 3 victims for Gaw who returned the fine figures of 3-20 in his 10 overs. Wix had survived a couple of early chances but soon found his form and crashed 2 huge 6s in his 71 before he was dismissed by a great catch from Brian Spence off the bowling of King. King then removed 2 of the tail-end batsmen to finish with 4 wickets as the innings closed on 158.

On a pitch offering little to the bowlers, Larne were confident of chasing down the score but what followed was one of the most inept batting performances seen in recent years. Only Spence made any sort of impact when he scored 22 as the team were bowled out for a measly 58 to complete a 100 run defeat. The Academy bowling was very accurate but few Larne batsmen could claim that they didn’t contribute to their own downfall. The pick of the bowlers were Hermon who took 4-15 and Greenlees who took 4-20.  

This weekend Larne will travel to Laurelvale in the 1st round of the senior cup and a vast improvement will be required to avoid a similar outcome.

Match Scorecard