Report and photo: Peter Rogan

Ormskirk won the toss and elected to bat with the expectation of running up a big score for Formby to chase. The script, however, did not go according to plan as Formby bowled well and the Ormskirk batting was, to put it mildly, pedestrian.

The very first ball of the innings saw opener Andy Baybut (0) lose his wicket to a catch behind off what was, to be fair, a brute of a ball that kept low and would have beaten any batsman unlucky enough to receive it.

The loss of this wicket brought Josh Bohannon into the fray and he immediately made his mark scoring 8 quick runs. His partner John Armstrong (2) did not fare so well as his wicket was uprooted with the score on 10. It was not the best of openings but worse was to come.

In the space of a few overs the score plummeted to 25-5 with George Lavelle (3), Gary Knight (3) and Alex Rankin (0) following each other back in procession to the Pavilion.

There was some respite as 29 runs were added before the 6th wicket fell when Ryan Maddock (17) was trapped lbw by left arm spinner Stephen Parry.

While Josh Bohannon was still at the wicket there was still a chance that the situation could be rescued but it was not to be. Tom Hartley (4) kept Josh company while 18 runs were added but he was out when he was caught by Karl Brown off the bowling of Stephen Parry.

When the score was on 78 -7, Josh Bohannon, Ormskirk’s main hope of reaching a respectable total, was brilliantly caught on the boundary having made 46 well earned runs.

With eight wickets down, and the Formby bowlers ‘cock-a-hoop’ with success, it needed the tail end batsmen, Nicky Caunce, Alex Mason and Josh Thompson to perform heroics. There were, however, no heroics and the innings came to a close on 94 after 46 overs, with only Josh Thompson (11) of the final three batsmen reaching double figures.

The Ormskirk batsmen, with the exception of Josh Bohannon, had, unfortunately, failed to give their bowlers a fighting chance of dismissing a strong Formby batting line up to register a win, and so it turned out to be.

A glimmer of hope was offered when Ryan Maddock and Nicky Caunce took two cheap early wickets but Formby coasted home to win by 8 wickets in just 24 overs.

It was a comprehensive victory for Formby, so much so that Ormskirk supporters were left wondering when they last saw their team bowled out for less than 100 runs in a Premier League fixture. The answer is that it was eight years ago in an away game to Wallasey when they were bowled out for 90.

They would like to think that it will be another eight years before it happens again!