Headline, report and photos by Peter Rogan

Ormskirk won the toss against Northern and elected to bat on a good wicket and a fast outfield.

Andy Baybutt and Michael Jones opened the batting but initially things did not go according to plan when Michael (5) fell to a catch at mid wicket. This brought in Josh Bohannon to join Andy in a partnership which yielded 59 runs. It was broken when Josh (31) was caught behind. He had played well and lost his wicket to a particularly good delivery from Philip Lees.

John Armstrong joined Andy and between them they took the score along to 130 when John (33) as caught in the deep. Andy (59), now in partnership with Gary Knight, had reached his half century during his partnership with John and was looking comfortable. However, when the score had reached 144 he lost his wicket, and the team’s fourth, to a catch off the bowling of spinner Tom Sephton.

The next two wickets went in rapid succession with Matt Glayzer (9) being trapped lbw and Gary (20) caught and bowled while trying to force the pace. With the loss of these two wickets things were not looking quite as rosy as they had been and a period of stability was needed. It was provided by Ian Robinson and Simon Kerrigan who struck up a strong partnership which took the score along to 228 when Ian (34) advanced down the wicket to try and hit his fourth 6. However, he ventured a step too far, missed the ball and was promptly stumped.

With Ian back in the pavilion Simon (28*) was joined by Nicky Caunce for the shortest of partnership of the innings that lasted just one ball. In his own unique style Nicky hit the first ball he received with enormous power but straight into the hands of Chris Lake who was fielding on the boundary. With the score on 228-8 Matt Glayzer declared the innings and an early tea was taken.

The game resumed with Nicky Caunce and Scott Lees opening the bowling. There were 26 runs on the board before the first wicket was taken, courtesy of Nicky who unceremoniously uprooted the stumps of opener Liam Grey (11). Two runs later he struck again to dismiss Chris Laker (2) when he had the batsman caught behind the stumps by Gary Knight.

With score on 31 things were looking optimistic for Ormskirk but that optimism slowly turned into frustration as the bowlers failed to make any further inroads. It needed someone special to pick up the momentum and that special person came by way of Tom Hartley who was introduced as a spin partner to Simon Kerrigan.

Tom rose to the occasion to bowl magnificently and turned the game on its head by claiming 6 wickets in nine devastating overs. The batsmen simply could not handle him.

First he broke the stubborn 75 run fourth wicket partnership and followed that up by taking two further quick wickets, the second one of these being the prize wicket of top scorer Jack Boardman (65). He was firing on all four cylinders and polished off the tail end three wickets to see the innings close on 179 and him with a tally of 6 wickets for 43 runs off 9.2 overs. He left the field to the warm applause of players and spectators. It was a truly match winning performance which made the job of picking him out as “Man of the Match “ very easy.

This was a fine win by 49 runs yielding a maximum 25 points to take OCC ever closer to winning the League Championship.