3rds efforts go unrewarded in weekend double defeat

Report by Martin Pickett

1st team round up

Echo KO Friday 16th July

There was less joy at Brook Lane were rain stopped play after 4.5 overs of Ormskirk's innings with them having scored 26-0 in chasing a target of 102 set by Bootle. Bootle had scored 101-8 with  Simon Kerrigan taking 3-24. After the pitch was deemed playable at approximately 8.20pm David Snellgrove successfully argued there would not be enough time to conclude the game due to light and to the disappointment of 100+ supporters the game was called off. A somewhat frustrating, unbelievable and disappointing decision for the home side. The date for a replay has yet to be agreed.

Lytham away Saturday 17th July

Ormskirk appeared rejuvenated on Friday and this they took with them to Lytham; Lytham took the not difficult decision away from Robinson and invited Ormskirk to Bat. Soon the familiar trail of Batsmen to and from the Pavilion took place but with one exception, a superb knock of 64 by Johnny Armstrong on a difficult track against quality bowling gave Ormskirk an outside chance. Disappointingly a couple of the Ormskirk players had got in and lost their wickets with some injudicious shots. However on a green track Ormskirk posted 106; 20 or 30 short of a winning target or so we spectators thought.

With a new spirit about the team; Caunce and Griffiths took the new ball and made inroads with 3 vital early wickets.  With Kerrigan coming in to the attack and his determination being evident things were not going to be easy. Lytham pulled away slighty to 70 for 6 but with Caunce back into the attack from the Railway end momentum started to swing Ormskirk's way. No Balls were a problem for Caunce ( popping crease variety) but together with his Lancashire colleague the pair cleaned up the tail of Lytham.  Their figures were  Caunce 5-43 and Kerrigan 4-14 . A superb game of cricket to watch and hopefully the start of more wins as this game marked the second half of the season. Ormskirk won by 9 runs adding 21 valuable points.

Premier League Table

Scorecard ( when available)

Cup capitulation spoils crucial league win

By James Illingworth

Ormskirk ended their run of three league defeats with a convincing 70 run win against second placed Highfield on Saturday at Brook Lane.

Half-centuries from Glayzer brothers Matt (53) and Ian (58) helped Ian Robinson’s side post 210 before six wickets from Nicky Caunce and three for Gavin Griffiths sealed a 24 point victory.

However, Ormskirk’s batting demons returned on Sunday as a disastrous start to their innings meant Northern skittled the home side out for a dismal 76 in the ECB National Knockout Trophy area final.

Having reached last year’s quarter-finals the manner of Ormskirk’s capitulation came as a shock to everyone at Brook Lane as Northern knocked off the runs with ease to claim a nine wicket victory.

Saturday’s result leaves Ormskirk in sixth place in the Liverpool and District Premier League table although with every other match ending in a draw, Ian Robinson’s men narrowed the gap between themselves and the teams above.

Following on from their batting collapses in recent weeks, openers Matt Glayzer and John Armstrong made a cautious start to the innings after Highfield skipper Michael Farrell had decided to bowl.

With Glayzer curtailing his natural attacking instincts and appearing set on providing an anchor role for his side, Armstrong scored the majority of the pair’s 39 run opening stand before he was dismissed for 31.

Skipper Robinson (26) picked up where Armstrong left off, scoring three driven boundaries from his first three balls although his enterprising 20 ball knock came to an end when Scott Cornish trapped the right-hander leg before.

Simon Kerrigan (2) soon followed, bowled by Highfield’s South African professional Hillroy Paulse, pairing Matt with older brother Ian at the crease.

The two brothers shared 58 for the fourth wicket with left-hander Matt emerging from his defensive shell to strike eight boundaries and one sweetly struck slog-sweep which sailed over the long-on boundary.

After Matt’s watchful 133-ball knock was brought to an end for 53, Ian was paired with little brother Jonny (25) and they fell two short of a second Glayzer 50 wicket stand of the day when Ian hit a return catch back to James Taylor.

Ian’s 58 runs came from 67 balls with 11 boundaries, confirming his position as Ormskirk’s in-form batsman in 2010.

In reply, Highfield’s top order were blown away by Caunce and Griffiths with only two of the top seven registering double figures and Michael Farrell’s 36 the only meaningful resistance.

From 79 for eight, a rearguard action from Chris Liptrot (28) and Oliver Jump (12) took the visitors past 100 although Caunce sealed the win for Ormskirk with five overs remaining.

All but one of Caunce’s six wickets were caught behind the wicket as the Lancashire seamer produced a disciplined spell of line and length bowling, finding exaggerated bounce from the St Helens Road end of the ground.

But whereas the extra bounce in the pitch aided Ormskirk on Saturday it proved to be their downfall on Sunday against Northern. Matt Glayzer gloved the first ball of the match off Richard Stanyon to wicketkeeper James Cole while brothers Ian and Jonny were undone by Michael Jones deliveries which bounced excessively.

John Armstrong was trapped leg before first ball and James Illingworth and David Abraham will wish to forget their shot selections as every Ormskirk batsman failed to reach double figures apart from skipper Robinson, who was left stranded on 37.

Seamer Jones finished with superb figures of five for 19 and despite Chris Tipper (9) stepping onto his stumps off a Caunce delivery at the start of the Northern innings, the visitors eased their way to victory with Adrian Fraser finishing 31 not out.

Elsewhere the 2^nd XI remain bottom of the table after a five wicket defeat away at Orrell Red Triangle on Saturday (Ormskirk 203/9 dec. – Scott Meredith 45, Orrell RT 205/5 – Shaun Brocken 3-58) while the 3^rd XI drew away at Maghull (Ormskirk 182/8 dec. Ashley Baldwin 60, Aaron Cheung 59 – Maghull 131/8, Gary Taylor 4/41).

This week Ormskirk face a crucial weekend of cricket with Bootle visiting Brook Lane on Friday evening in the quarter-final of the Echo Cup Twenty20 before travelling to league leaders Lytham on Saturday.

WEEKEND OF MIXED FORTUNE

For the second week running the 1^st XI were left to look back on a weekend of mixed fortune. More to the point they were to rue a poor batting performance on Saturday for the third week in a row.

Following totals of 86 against New Brighton and 100 against Hightown they travelled to Colwyn Bay looking for a big improvement. Unfortunately it didn’t transpire! After winning the toss and batting Ormskirk got off to a steady start reaching 60-2 with Matt Glayzer and Sam Illingworth the men dismissed. A partnership of 35 between Simon Kerrigan and Ian Robinson (32) got us into a decent position until two moments of misfortune started a dramatic batting collapse. In the scorecard Simon and Robinson will be down as ‘caught Jones, bowled Cross.’ That doesn’t quite tell the full story! Firstly Robinson was caught down the leg side off a Gareth Cross delivery which somehow ended up in wicket keeper Jones’ left glove. Minutes later Simon was given out caught behind when it appeared quite clearly that his bat had touched nothing but the surface.

Those two incidents sparked the collapse which ended up leaving us on the brink at 65-8. David Abraham (35) and Gavin Griffiths batted sensibly and gave something of a chance by posting a total of 114 all out. This was never going to be enough however and Colwyn reached their victory target 4 wickets down. Simon was the main contributor with ball dismissing Sion Morris, Will Hantam and Lancashire colleague Gareth Cross.

Like the week before the 1^st team were given an immediate opportunity to put things right against S&B on Sunday. Having won the toss and inserted the opposition, nervous Ormskirk supporters may have worried about chasing down Southport’s competitive total of 174-9. They need not have worried however as the total was comfortably chased down in just over 23 overs after an opening partnership of 154 between Matt Glayzer (67) and captain Ian Robinson (87) set up an 8 wicket victory. Martyn Farrell was the pick of the Ormskirk bowlers finishing with figures of 9-1-10-1. The win over S&B sets up a quarter final tie at home to Rainhill on 25^th July.

Up & coming fixtures

Thursday 24^th June – Echo Ko v Liverpool (a)

Sunday  27^th June – National KO v St. Anne’s (h)

Sunday 4^th July – Cockspur T20 v New Brighton (h) 5:00pm start

Sunday 11^th July –  League KO play off v S&B (h) (WORLD CUP FINAL DAY) possibly 3^rd team game on main ground starting at approximately  11:00