Larne finish their season in winning style

It was a memorable day for Trevor Dempsey and Wylie McKinty, each playing his 300th game for the first team.

Larne skipper Gareth Gaw won the toss and decided to bowl first on a slightly moist pitch. Jonathan King opened the bowling with Paul Ramsay and both bowled with great control and it was King who made the breakthrough when he bowled Andy McCrea for five.

Chris Dempsey and Rab McClean came into the attack and McClean picked up two wickets when he dismissed Richard Brown and Artie Campbell, courtesy of fine catches by King and Gaw. Chris remained wicketless in this occasion but has had a fine season with the ball.

A good partnership followed between Ricky Greer and Jay Hunter and Templepatrick looked set for a total in excess of 200 but good bowling at the end by Gaw and Ramsay restricted them to 188.

Gaw trapped Greer lbw for 32 and when he also trapped Mark Thompson lbw he claimed his 200th wicket for the first team. He got his thirrd wicket courtesy of a stumping by Michael Waterman to finish with 3-30.

Ramsay also returned to claim three wickets for just 24 runs. He bowled Hunter for 33, Chris Busby for 13 and then he too benefited from a fine stumping by Waterman to remove Niall Dalton for 8.

After tea, Chris Dempsey opened the batting with Alexander and was timing the ball superbly before a rush of blood saw him well caught by Campbell off the bowling of Brown for 12.

Dean McDonagh was next in and he and Alexander got themselves well set and took the score up to almost 100 before a mix-up saw McDonagh run out for 31.

Gaw was next man in and he signalled his intent with a four and a massive six out of the ground as Larne began to up the run rate.

lexander had looked in no trouble all day, but Busby tempted him to hit over the top and he was caught for 41, with 50 runs still needed.

Trevor Dempsey joined Gaw and hit a couple of nice shots before he was well yorked by Brown and the game was still very much in the balance when King joined Gaw at the crease. There were no more alarms, however, as the skipper and vice-skipper took the team home with nine balls remaining.

Gaw played superbly, hitting boundaries to push the field back and then taking all the singles when they were on offer while King smashed a huge six and a couple of 4s to finish with an unbeaten 19.

With just a couple of runs required, Gaw skied one and it looked like McKinty might get the chance to hit the winning runs, but the catch was spilled, bringing up a well-deserved 50 for Gaw.

This was a good victory to finish off the season and meant that the team finished comfortably mid-table with nine wins and nine defeats. The match ball was kindly sponsored by McKeens butchers.

Templepatrick 188-9 (P Ramsay 3-24, G Gaw 3-30)

Larne 192-4 (G Gaw 50no, G Alexander 41, D McDonagh 31)