Report and photos: Peter Rogan

ORMSKIRK v WALLASEY

Wallasey won the toss and elected to bat - it seemed a good decision as the opening pair of Danny Beaver and Harry Meehan made a solid start putting on 40 runs before Tom Hartley took the first of his six wickets of a marathon bowling spell when he bowled Meehan (25).

Once the first wicket partnership was broken the pace bowlers had their say with Nicky Caunce (2-28), Ryan Maddock (1-26) and Scott Lees (1-40) but it was Tom Hartley who stole the show - he bowled an unbroken spell of 23.3 overs, during which he captured the prize wicket of the Wallasey Captain Danny Beaver (75) to end the innings, with the impressive figures of 23.3 overs, 5 maidens and 6 wickets for 51 runs.

The Wallasey batting found it hard to score at a good rate against tight bowling and after batting on after the tea interval they reached a total of 169 off 54.3 overs.

Ormskirk's bowlers and fielders had done well to keep the score to a reasonable target. Gary Knight took two good catches behind the wicket, whilst in the outfield Robert Rankin and Ryan Maddock grabbed the chances that were offered to them. On the face of it, taking into account the strength of the Ormskirk batting line up, it was felt that there would not be a lot of difficulty in cruising past the set target. That proved not to be the case.

The first six wickets went cheaply as the batting collapsed to have the scoreboard showing 67-6. Tyler McGladdery (10) was the first to head back to the Pavilion, followed in rapid succession by George Lavelle (4), John Armstrong (15), Alex Rankin (5) and Robert Rankin (0).

Some stability came into play when Gary Knight was joined by Tom Hartley to put on a stand of 67 before Hartley (17) was dismissed, bringing in Ryan Maddock to join Knight who looked comfortable but was in danger of running out of partners. Maddock stuck around to add 19 runs to leave the score on 108-7.

It was now down to Gary Knight and his new batting partner Gavin Griffiths to steady the ship and some steadiness was established with a stand of 50 runs. It was broken as Griffiths (25) lost his wicket to leave a nerve wrecking ending as the new partnership of Gary Knight and Nicky Caunce set about a run chase. Remaining wickets were in short supply and time was running out so the game could have gone either way.

With little time to spare, the batsmen made it with Gary Knight remaining undefeated on 59, as Nicky Caunce settled the issue with a succession of three boundaries, ending with a huge hit for six with only nine balls left.

It wasn’t the best all round performance of the Ormskirk team but there were some contributions well worthy of note. Gary Knight was impeccable behind the stumps and his batting showed what a good cricketer he is. Nicky Caunce with his economical and effective bowling linked to his extravagant batting brought great value to the game. It was, however, Tom Hartley who stole the show with a superb display of spin bowling and resolute batting when it was needed; choosing him as 'Man of the Match' was an easy task.