Larne triumph in close match
 
Larne's Third eleven travelled to Lurgan on Saturday and recorded a two-wicket victory in a tense game.  The league match was reduced to 30 overs a side due to the inclement weather and the fact that Larne once again got hideously lost in the labyrinth of Lurgan. The home side won the toss and surprisingly electing to bat on a damp wicket. Larne's opening bowler David McIlwaine soon had them in trouble during a superb hostile opening spell of bowling.  He finished with figures of 1-16 off his allotted six overs, but could have had several more wickets as he bowled with great accuracy and pace. 
 
Michael Lyle also bowled economically, but the best bowling performances of the day came from Ken Mckinley and his daughter Joanne. They both conceded just 17 runs from their six overs with Joanne taking one and Ken two wickets during tremendous spells of swing and seam bowling.   The pair gave the batsmen nothing to hit whilst moving the ball both ways off the pitch, and Lurgan were unable to find the boundary with any regularity.  Cuttle scored a useful 48 for the home side, but he was eventually dismissed thanks to a superbly judged catch on the boundary by Robert McKinley off the left arm spin of Chris Dempsey.
 
Dempsey had began the day behind the stumps, and he performed admirably against the fastest of Larne's bowlers.  McIlwaine then took the gloves himself, and he did a superb job, especially considering that he had just opened the bowling.  The pitch remained helpful to the seam bowlers throughout the day, but anything short or off line gave the batsmen an easy chance to score.  There were an unusual number of spectators at the ground, with several of them busy photographing much of the action.  
 
Some of the images appeared on the Lurgan website on Monday morning, and are probably still available. I was one of the Larne players who raced on to the site to check out these images, and suffice to say that neither of them will make it into my personal album. One of them has me playing a shot that only a crab could consider elegant, while the other one has caught me sticking out my belly and scratching my genitals...I look like an ape in pilfered whites.
 
Tony Anderson was the pick of the fielders, with Houston Saunderson and Gary Knox also performing well.  Lurgan eventually finished on 118 from their 30 overs. Anderson boosted the scoring rate but was soon dismissed for 18 as Larne struggled to 23-3 against some accurate opening bowling.  It took a brilliant unbeaten fifty from Ken McKinley to bring Larne back into contention for victory.  He struck five boundaries and ran fantastically between the wickets during an almost perfect innings.  McKinley used his experience to cleverly place the ball and dominate the strike while adding crucial runs in partnership with both Joanne and son Robert.  However they were both dismissed as Larne closed in on victory, and a middle order collapse left the side in some trouble at 88 for 7 from 25 overs.
 
They required 30 from the final five overs, but one great over of batting by Stuart Johnston calmed Larne's nerves. Johnston took 15 from one over including a massive six over mid-wicket. Johnston was eventually dismissed with just 5 needed for victory, and Ken was joined at the wicket by his nephew Jordan McKinley as Larne entered the final over needing just one run to win. He easily placed the first ball through the covers to fittingly score the winning runs.  Larne eventually won by two wickets, meaning they have now won two of their three league games.
 
The closest McKinley came to being dismissed was when he gave a difficult chance to second slip when on 22. There was also a moment of madness when Ken instinctively thrust out his bat to stop a wayward looking throw. Although he was was probably in and the throw was probably wide of the mark the fact is that on a strict interpretation of the rules he could rightly have been dismissed for obstructing the field. It was not clear from the boundaries edge if there was even an appeal, and the incident was the only blight on an otherwise pleasant day's play. It seems highly probable he would have been the first batsman in the club's history to be dismissed in that fashion. (Ed: Obstructing the field HAS occurred in an LCC First XI game - the batsman was Liam McAllister and we were playing Victoria). I personally was extremely glad I was not umpiring; had they appealed to me I would have shot him out without a second thought. 

The match was kindly sponsored by the Curran Court.