Youngsters stumped on last ball

Larne’s opening bowler Richard Hood took two wickets in his first over.

Aaron McFaul opened from the other end and he also found a good line and length, being well supported by some excellent work in the field from Gary Jamison and Andrew Beatty.

Hood repeated his feat in the second over, leaving the home team on 16 for 4 after three overs.

Ballymena opener Bashford looked in great form and Larne realised that his would be the prize wicket. Weatherhead replaced McFaul, but he was unable to remove the stubborn opener.

Richard Hood secured his first five-wicket haul when he removed Kirk for one run in his third over. His spell finished with excellent figures, conceding just 15 runs off his allotted four overs.

Ballymena rallied, with Bashford and Reynolds putting on 42 runs for the sixth wicket before Weatherhead struck to get rid of Reynolds.

Michael Wilson and Jithin Kuriakose were the next change bowlers and Kuriakose took the seventh wicket when wicket-keeper Mark McAlister helped get rid of his namesake, taking a great catch, with the score on 110.

David Fitzsimons got a well-deserved wicket , dismissing Bashford, who had scored more than half the Ballymena runs. He was clean bowled for 56 and, with just one ball left, Ballymena took a chance and the ninth wicket was a run-out, following some excellent work from Adam Ringland, with the home team’s score on 121 after their 20 overs.

Larne set about chasing down the total, disappointed that after such a good start they allowed Ballymena to score so many runs. This was largely due to some slack fielding and this will be something they will have to work on over the coming weeks. However, disaster struck in the first over when Christopher Lough was clean bowled by, who else, but Bashford!

Mark McAlister came in at three and he too was soon removed, leaving Richard Hood to come in at four. Larne knew that this was a key partnership and, despite scoring slowly, this pair put on 40 runs before more misfortune befell the Larne team. Taking a comfortable two, the Larne batsmen almost ran into each other and this left just enough time for the fielder to hit the stumps with a direct throw from the boundary. Hood had to walk dejectedly back to the hutch, out for just 12.

Weatherhead took this as his cue to increase the run rate and, in an excellent display of power hitting, was finding the boundary regularly. Ably supported by Aaron McFaul, Weatherhead moved the score on 103 after 18 overs.

With just two overs left, Larne needed 19 to win. McFaul and Weatherhead scored eight off the 19th over,leaving 11 from the final six balls. Two singles, followed by three well run twos left the Larne team needing two to tie and three to win from the last ball of the match. Weatherhead was on strike and confidence was high, but an excellent delivery from McCallister was full and straight and Weatherhead could only watch helplessly as his stumps were reorganised. There was little he could do and, although out, had played the innings of the match, and indeed the season, being out for 64.

The Under 15s’ next scheduled match is at home to Templepatrick U15 on July 16.

The match ball was kindly sponsored by Ladybird Nurseries.

Thirds lose

As so many of the under 15 team had performed well, Esler Burke and John Hood took most of them to Laurelvale on Saturday to take on the local club’s Third XI in an NCU Division 3 Section III league fixture. The Larne team was Burke (c); Hood; Richard Hood; Kristian Humphries; Mark McAlister; Gary Jamison; Aaron McKinley; David Fitzsimons; Andrew Beatty and Jithin Kuriakose.

Unfortunately, it was one of those days when they came up against a much stronger team and the young Larne hopefuls were all out for just 32 runs. Laurelvale soon knocked off the target, with the only consolation being that the Larne team was home in good time for Saturday evening tea.

The Thirds’ next scheduled match is away to Armagh III next Thursday (July 15).