For the second week running the 1st 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 1st 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 25th July.