Orrell’s first team were thwarted by New Brighton in their victory quest as they sought their first win of the league season. Home skipper Sam Heeley won the toss and elected to bat in conditions that had been freshened up by the rain on Friday and overnight into Saturday and might offer a little more assistance to the bowlers.
Orrell soon found themselves in a spot of bother at 18-2 and were looking to Andy Baybutt and Mark Waddington to steady the ship. This they did until Baybutt was dismissed for 22. At 56-4, the Orrell innings needed another partnership to get it back on track. This came in the form of Waddington and Heeley until Heeley was dismissed for 15 to leave the score 122-5.Waddington by now was anchoring the innings and looked to be in fine form with a number of elegant fours complemented by some crashing sixes. Unfortunately, on the brink of a century in only his third league game back after an almost 10 year absence, he was dismissed for 96 to leave the Orrell innings in trouble on 160-7- a total that would be insufficient against a New Brighton batting line up of some depth. Orrell were then rescued by an eight wicket partnership between the experienced Chris Riley and 15 year old Dominic Hayes. With effective running between the wickets and controlled boundary hitting they put on an unbeaten partnership of 50 which allowed Heeley to declare on 210-7 from 59 overs.
In reply, the visitors were in all sorts of trouble at 6-3 as Hayes took two early wickets and Heeley one. Symptomatic of the way that the season has gone so far, whilst further wickets did fall the Orrell bowling attack was not able to capitalise sufficiently on the early successes and maintain the required pressure. At 138-7, Heeley knew that he had runs to play with as he looked to take the final three wickets as victory for the visitors looked to be an increasingly unlikely prospect. This allowed Heeley to set attacking fields so, whilst runs did come, Orrell didn’t look like losing the match. Unfortunately, the visitors finished on 190-9 to draw the match and deny Orrell victory- the final wicket only falling on the last ball of the match to make an Orrell victory seem closer than it actually was.
Heeley took 4-64 from 16 overs, Hayes 2-21 from seven overs, Alfie Clarke 2-29 from six overs and Dileepa Jayalath 1-66 from 16 hours. An ultimately disappointing outcome for Heeley and his team given the position they found themselves in but they can take comfort from their batting display.
On Saturday an understrength second team made the trip to Lytham. Batting first Orrell made 144 all out in 44.1 overs. David Cheetham top scored with 48 whilst Matthew Hayes (32) and Logan Pallett (19) were the only other significant contributions. Lytham won by four wickets as they finished 150-6 in 32.2 overs. Terry Leaford took 1-36 from 10 overs, Matthew Kirby 2-24 from seven overs, Pallett 1-24 and Hayes 2-22.Captain Steve Unsworth will be looking forward to welcoming back some much-needed experience next week to complement the promising youth in the team.
Also on Saturday, Alan Moore’s third team were in action as they welcomed Liverpool Super Kings to the temporary home base of Ormskirk CC. Batting first, Orrell made an inadequate 97 all out in 39.1 overs. Only the skipper himself with an unbeaten 32 made a significant contribution. The visitors won by three wickets as they finished 98-7 in 31.1 overs. James Edgington took 1-13, Thomas Wilkinson 1-6, Arthur Moore 1-28, David Haslam 2-13 whilst the skipper took 2-26.
On Sunday there were two games. Mark Crumpton’s Sunday Premier league team made the trip to Northern CC to play against South Liverpool Cricket Club as they looked to continue their promising start to the season. Winning the toss and choosing to bat, Orrell made 178-4 declared in 45 overs on the back of 34 from George Mushahwar, Dominic Hayes 55 retired not out whilst Logan Pallet top scored with 64. In reply, the young Orrell bowling attack had the hosts in significant trouble until late order resistance threatened for a while to derail the Orrell victory charge. However, perseverance from Orrell saw the hosts bowled out for 120 as the last 3 wickets fell quickly. George Berry was the most successful bowler with 5-41, James Edgington and Tom Wilkinson both with 1-21, Alan Moore 2-30 and Pallett 1-5.
Alfie Clarke’s Sunday Development team welcomed Southport Trinity to Winstanley Road on Sunday with two under 13’s Charlie Sarath and Thomas Turner making their senior debuts. Batting first, Orrell made 159 all out. The captain top scored with 35 not out whilst Geof Burrows (20) and James Hine (24) also made a significant contribution. The visitors won comfortably in the end by six wickets. For the young Orrell bowling attack, there was one wicket apiece four Alfie Berry, James Such, Thomas Turner and Zach Abbott