Orrell’s first team welcomed reigning Lancashire Knockout champions Ormskirk to Winstanley Road on Saturday looking to bounce back from their opening day loss at Formby in a high-scoring thriller. Returning captain Sam Heeley won the toss and elected to bat first on what looked to be a good batting track.
Orrell knew that the task in hand would be a tough one as, having lost on both visits to Winstanley Road since Orrell’s entry into the ECB Liverpool Competition Premier league, a significantly strengthened Ormskirk team (including Lancashire first team players Tom Hartley and George Lavelle as well as Afghan international spinner Zahir Shehzad) would be determined to win on this occasion.
The Orrell innings did not get off to a good start with the early dismissal of last weeks centurion Andy Baybutt to leave the score 6-1. Ammer Mirza and Richard Everett looked to be building a strong second wicket partnership until Mirza, having once again got a start, was dismissed with 23 by Hartley to leave the score 38-2. The returning Everett looked to anchor the innings and Matthew Wareing continued his fine form of the previous week as he took the attack back to the Ormskirk spin bowlers. However, when Everett was adjudged leg before wicket for 23 and then Heeley was adjudged caught behind soon after, Orrell were in trouble at 81-5.The sixth wicket partnership between Wareing and Chris Riley began promisingly before a crazy run out saw Riley back in the pavilion and Orrell 94-6. When Wareing was caught in the covers for 38, Orrell then collapsed to 102-9. However, Dileepa Jayalath and David Naylor went about batting with great intelligence to thwart the Ormskirk onslaught and give Orrell a semblance of a chance of winning the game. Jayalath was eventually out for 48 as Orrell finished on 163 all out in 62.1 overs. Naylor finishing unbeaten on 19.
Whilst the Orrell bowlers could not be faulted for their efforts, the Ormskirk opening batters, Robert and Alex Rankin, batted with great maturity and chances were few and far between on a good batting track and with chasing such a low total- the main chance being a difficult dropped catch in the deep off the bowling of Jayalath that really needs to be taken at this level. Heeley eventually dismissed Robert Rankin with the score on 65, but the incoming Lavelle showed his Lancashire and England Under 19 class as the scoreboard kept ticking along. When Alex Rankin was run out to make the score 120-2, there was also the hint of rain approaching. This was the cue for the Ormskirk batting line-up to up the pace with the security of wickets in hand and they cruised to an eight wicket victory with 10 overs of the days play left.
A difficult day at the office for Orrell against an admittedly very strong and impressive team. Whilst the Orrell batting line up underperformed and should have posted a score in excess of 200 in batting friendly conditions, the range and depth of the Ormskirk bowling options highlighted starkly the issues that Orrell currently have with their bowling due to last-minute unavailability of frontline bowlers.
Orrell second team made a return visit to Ormskirk to face a very strong Ormskirk second team- a reflection of the hosts impressive strength in depth this season. The hosts won the toss and elected to bat first. They racked up 201-6 declared in 37.4 overs against an Orrell bowling attack that bowled fairly well.Terry Leaford finished with figures of 2-29, Phil Taberner 1-46, Gareth Houghton 1-43 and Logan Pallett 1-36.In reply, Orrell were all out for 102 in 37.3 overs as first team bowler Martyn Farrell showed his continued class to take six wickets. Houghton top scored with an unbeaten 28 and only Ben Mahoney (16) and Matthew Kirby (20) reach double figures also.
Alan Moore’s Saturday third team had no game this weekend due to an uneven number of teams in the league.