Report and photos by Peter Rogan

For the last game of the season, a young Ormskirk side travelled to the picturesque surroundings of Birkenhead Park to play a team already relegated from the Premier League.

It was a game Ormskirk expected to win - and they lived up to that expectation.

They won the toss and elected to bat; Andy Baybutt and Michael Jones opened with Baybutt opening his account with a four off the first ball and followed up with a second 4 on the third ball of the over. It was a good start for him but was short lived when he offered a catch back to the bowler Meehan, having scored 11 to leave the score on 11-1.



Jones was joined by Josh Bohannon (above) and the fireworks started to fly! Jones held up one end, steadily pushing his score along while Bohannon pressed the accelerator with some flamboyant stroke play which has been a feature of his season’s performances. They were separated when Jones (34) was given out lbw to leave the score at 107-2.

Bohannon was joined by George Lavelle and the two put on 72 runs, with Bohannon passing the 800 Premier League runs for the season during his innings before he was bowled out by Pallyaguruge with a personal tally of 87 and the score on 179-3.

Skipper Matt Glayzer (1) replaced Bohannon but had faced only six balls when he was to be replaced by teenager Alex Rankin, playing his debut match in the First XI. Lavelle was looking to be in ominously good form and Rankin was content to take a back seat and let him take the lead. He lost his wicket when bowled by Nevin but those first glimpses of him gave cause for optimism for the future. The score had progressed to 205-5 with Lavelle having passed the half century mark.

The experienced Jack Snowdon now joined Lavelle and played to allow the youngster to get the strike at every opportunity. The score passed the 220 mark when normally it would be expected to make a declaration. The Ormskirk skipper, however, resisted the temptation to declare the innings to give Lavelle a chance to attain his first Premier League century.

The tension rose as he got into the 90s and when he reached the magic ton the joy on George’s face, in contrast to the deep concentration in making the decisive shot, as he leapt in celebration was for him, his team mates and spectators a memorable moment. As soon as the congratulations ended so did the innings with Glayzer declaring with the score on 254 -5.





Nicky Caunce and Scott Lees opened the reply for Ormskirk and Caunce soon met with success. In an exhilarating opening spell he took 4 wickets and, before they knew it, Birkenhead Park were in deep trouble with the score on 31-4.

The writing was on the wall that the chances of getting anywhere near the huge total they were asked to chase down was going to be difficult if not impossible. And so it proved to be the case.

Tom Hartley stepped in to help himself to three wickets, Jamie Barnes and Jack Snowdon took one each and Nicky Caunce came back to take his fifth wicket with the final ball of the game and of the season.

In the final analysis Ormskirk finished in third place in the Premier League behind Leigh and Formby giving a feeling of great optimism for next season’s campaign.

Match officials: umpires - Peter Freeman and John Searle, scorers - Craig Kell and Mike Dixon