Larne lose out to title-chasing Millpark side

Skipper Gareth Gaw won the toss and chose to bowl first when it became very clear that the length of the grass on the outfield would make scoring runs very difficult for both sides.

The new ball was shared by Jonathan and Darren King and it was King who made early in-roads with a superb spell of bowling. He dismissed both openers, thanks to good catches by Chris Dempsey and Murad, and it was the last ball of his fifth over before he conceded a run during a spell of 2-7 off 7 overs.

Dempsey and Gareth Alexander then took over the bowling, with Dempsey extracting some extravagant turn and Alexander swinging the ball in the air and it was Alexander who got his rewards when he got three wickets, including that of Kidd for 20.

Gaw replaced Dempsey and soon struck three times to finish with 3-16 from his 10 overs, while Paul Ramsay also bowled taking 1-13 off 7 as the Millpark innings closed on 125-9 after their 50 overs.

The Larne bowling and fielding was good, but the big disappointment was the 39 wides which were bowled – twice as many as the highest run scorer – and there was a nagging feeling at tea that this might prove to be significant.

This turned out to be the case as Larne were dismissed for 95, so losing the game by 30 runs after Millpark bowled just eight wides.

Alexander and Murad got the team off to a decent start, but when they were dismissed two more quickly followed and the team were in trouble on 24-4.

Chris Dempsey looked in good touch before he was caught and bowled for 12 and Gaw played the main innings of the day before he was last man out for 32. He received good support from Rab McClean and Jonathan King and at times it looked like they might get very close to the total, but the Millpark bowling was extremely accurate and they were fairly comfortable winners in the end.

Larne now have just two home games left this season, starting with Cooke Collegians on Saturday. The match ball was kindly sponsored by Mainway Transport.

Millpark 125 (G Gaw 3-16, G Alexander 3-28, D King 2-7)

Larne 95 (G Gaw 32)