Orrell’s first team made the short trip to Leigh on Saturday as they looked to build on last week’s performance against New Brighton.Skipper Sam Heeley won the toss and elected to field on a warm day- an unusual decision in the conditions but one that reflected recent struggles to bowl teams out allied to the teams depth in batting.
A disciplined opening spell from both Dominic Hayes and Heeley was not rewarded with an early wicket but meant that the Leigh run rate was kept in check. The more pressing concern for Orrell was an injury to wicket-keeper David Naylor who dislocated a finger and had to go to hospital meaning that Richard Everett took over the keeping duties with Tom Jones stepping in as substitute fielder.
Heeley was eventually rewarded for his efforts when Sam Dorsey edged behind to Everett to leave the score 72-1 and then struck again soon after to remove the other Leigh opening Tom Grundy as Leigh reached 79-2. The Leigh third wicket partnership of Derbyshire County Cricketer Matthew McKiernan and Lancashire second team player Matthew Hurst mounted a strong riposte to the Orrell inroads as the home team looked to increase the scoring rate.
McKiernan in particular was showing the form that saw him score a century in the County Championship Division Two recently.The reintroduction of Hayes saw the partnership broken when he had Hurst caught by Terry Leaford to make the score 152-3. McKiernan was then dropped as Dileepa Jayalath failed to hold onto a steepling catch from his own bowling as Leigh homed in on the maximum batting points through reaching 220 runs within 55 overs. McKiernan was eventually dismissed for 76 by Terry Leaford via a catch by Hayes at deep mid on. Two more wickets fell before Leigh declared on 220-6 from 54 overs. Heeley finished with figures of 2-62 from 16 overs, Hayes 1-54 from 14 overs, Jayalath 2-85 from 21 overs and Leaford 1-14 from 3 overs.
The Orrell reply got off to a decent start as openers Andy Baybutt and Ammer Mirza overcame a probing spell from the Leigh opening bowlers take the score beyond 40 for the loss of no wicket. This should have been the platform for an Orrell victory chase but unfortunately did not materialise as a number of the top six gave their wickets away through poor shot selection as well as a calamitous run out. Without detracting from the quality of the Leigh bowling, it could be argued that five of the Orrell top six had gotten themselves out.
Disappointingly, the focus had turned from chasing victory to achieving as many batting points as possible as well as denying the hosts victory. When Jayalath was bowled by McKiernan to leave the score 114-7, it looked like the game might be up for Orrell. However, young batting pair Hayes and Alfie Clarke showed great resilience in the face of a very vocal Leigh team as they not only denied the hosts victory but achieved another batting point in the final over of the game. Orrell finished on 130-7 from 49 overs with the game ending in a draw. Baybutt top scored with 27, Mirza 25 and Everett 23. That these top three batters all got starts and none of them went on to achieve a big score tells the tale of the Orrell innings.
Also on Saturday Steve Unsworth’s second team welcomed Newton Le Willows cricket club to Winstanley Road. Winning the toss and choosing to bat first Unsworth saw his team amass 203-7 declared from 44 overs. The second wicket partnership of Matthew Hayes and Stuart Craig formed the backbone of this effort as a joint top scored with 53 each. The captain himself also scored 25. In reply, the visitors were skittled out for 46 in only 17.4 overs. Gareth Houghton took 5-19 from 8.4 overs whilst his opening bowling partner Phil Taberner took 3-27 from nine overs. A welcome first win of the season for Unsworth’s team and one they will look to build on with a hopefully more settled side in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Alan Moore’s third team made the trip to Sefton Park. The hosts won the toss and elected to field. Orrell made 215-5 declared from 45 overs with contributions from a number of batters in the top six- George Mushahwar (35) Ben Connor (40) the captain himself (28) Arthur Moore (36) and James Leyland (32 not out). Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the Orrell bowling attack, the game finished a draw with Sefton Park 115-8 from 43 overs. The captain was the pick of the bowlers with 3-17 from eight overs, Gregg Lea 1-17 from 9 overs, George Berry 2-24 from nine overs and Tom Wilkinson 1-15 from six overs.
On Sunday there were two fixtures. Mark Crumpton’s team made the trip to Sefton Park. The hosts batted first and were dismissed for 152 in 36.5 overs. On the face of it, this looks to be a good effort from the young Orrell bowling attack. However some excellent catching masks an overall inconsistent bowling display with too many four balls provided to the hosts. Arthur Moore was the pick of the bowlers with 5-49, Logan Pallet 2-43, Harrison Hurst 1-14 and Alan Moore 2-15.
In reply, Orrell started slowly in the face of some disciplined Sefton Park bowling which proved to be a good test for the young Orrell batting line up. Scoreboard pressure eventually told as both openers (Mark Crumpton and Ben Connor) were back in the pavilion as Orrell crawled to 17-2 after 14 overs. Pallett and Dominic Hayes then batted with great maturity and discipline as the scoreboard started to tick over. Both batters provided a template to the rest of the Orrell batting line up in how to play the high quality left-arm spin from the bottom end and negated his threat whilst also scoring off him. Disaster struck when Hayes got a leading edge and was caught at mid-on to leave the 62-3 after 25 overs. Three quick wickets fell to leave the score 66-6 and the game very much looked to be up for Orrell as it looked like Pallett would run out of partners. However, Phil Lawrence came to the crease and started to provide the support for Pallett that was required. -When the scoreboard reached 100 and with 20 overs of the days play left it looked like Orrell could achieve victory if Pallet and Lawrence could stay together as a run rate was only a fraction over 2.5 per over. Unfortunately, Lawrence was bowled for 13 and then Pallett (running out of partners) was out for an excellent 48. Orrell were eventually bowled out for 108 in 42.5 overs as the Sefton slow left arm bowler took 8-33 from 21 overs- bowling unchanged throughout the innings which is unusual for Sunday Cricket.
Also on Sunday, Alfie Clarke’s Sunday development team welcomed Northern CC to Winstanley Road. There were two senior debutants in Georgia Warburton and Thomas Capstick. The visitors batted first and made 174-7 from 45 overs. Emily James was the pick of the bowlers with 1-20 from 10 overs, Charlie Sarath2-39 from 10 overs and Joe Whiteley 2-10 from 2 overs. In reply, Clarke’s team sauntered to a five wicket victory in 33.3 overs with Tom Such making his first senior 50- top scoring with 59.Stefan Holmes also made a strong contribution with 37 as Clarke’s team picked up their first victory of the season.