It was a tired and depleted Larne outfit, who are sponsored by the Curran Court Hotel, which left the Fair Hill on Sunday morning on a journey to take on the league favourites Saintfield and in a game too far they were defeated by 95 runs.

After having the Saturday off the home side elected to bat first on a superb pitch and made a good start through openers Owens and Clegg. Despite their weary limbs opening bowlers Eddie Hunter and Jonathan King bowled excellent opening spells but had no luck in the first 10 overs. The breakthrough was made by Rab McClean when a slower ball out foxed Owens and he was caught by Gary Moore and this was quickly followed by a superb run out by Stewart McIlwaine.

Gareth Gaw then had Clegg caught by Andy King, his 100th wicket for the 1sts, and Larne were back in the game at 90-3. However, the game was taken away from them by Indian professional David who smashed 97 off just 44 balls as the short boundaries were peppered. He was eventually dismissed by Dean Hodge who grabbed 2 more wickets as Saintfield amassed 289-9 in their 50 overs. The Larne bowling and fielding remained excellent throughout the innings and without Davids innings they may have been able to keep Saintfield to a more manageable total.

For the 3rd game in a row Larne lost 3 early wickets but Saintfield were given a scare by Dean Hodge and Andy King who counter attacked in magnificent fashion. The ball was flying to all parts of the ground and they took Larne over the 100 mark as Saintfield began to get a little edgy. King smashed 4 sixes and Hodge 1 before 2 pieces of bad luck threw the game back in Saintfields favour.

Hodge drilled a ball straight to the only fielder on the boundary for a fine 38 and the ball after completing a well deserved fifty, King top edged a waist high full toss and was caught. Stewart McIlwaine and Rab McClean were next in and kept up the good work as Larne got to 150 in the 30th over but McClean played on for 23 and McIlwaine was caught on the boundary for 18 – an excellent effort by the 15 year old which included a 6 off the professional – and Larne were eventually dismissed for 194.

The despite the defeat, Larne will take a lot of positives from the game as a side which was missing 4 regular players gave the league leaders a competitive match. They now have 4 league wins from 6 games and take a well deserved break this week.