Report and photos: Peter Rogan

Entertaining Darwen, the holders of the Lancashire Knockout Cup, Ormskirk won the toss and elected to bat.

The innings got off to a nightmare start with the first three wickets falling with just 8 runs on the board. Tyler McGladdery (0), George Lavelle (3) and Alex Rankin (4) followed each other back to the Pavilion in quick succession and from then on it was always going to be a difficult task to set a match winning score.

The loss of the top order batsmen brought Gary Knight and Michael Gill together and they knuckled down as virtual openers to take the score along to 47 before Michael Gill (18) was bowled to bring in Tom Hartley.

With Gary Knight and Tom Hartley together a revival was underway. Together they put on 116 runs but when Tom Hartley (69) was run out with the total score on 163-5 another batting collapse followed. Gary Knight who at this stage had scored 77 was joined briefly by Nicky Caunce (0) and Scott Lees (0) without a run being added, bringing Ryan Maddock into the fray.

When Gary Knight (77) lost his wicket, with the score on 185-8, a total in excess of 200 looked to be a forlorn hope and so it proved to be. When the last two wickets of Ryan Maddock (11) and Harvey Rankin (0) fell, Darwen were given a target of 190 to chase.

Thanks mainly to Gary Knight and Tom Hartley the score was better than could have been hoped for after the disastrous start but, nevertheless, it was disappointing. Darwen made a better start to their innings when their first three wickets yielded 108 runs, putting a lot of pressure on the Ormskirk team to keep the run rate to a minimum and at the same time take wickets. They managed both tasks well and once Ryan Maddock bowled the Darwen professional player Marques Ackerman (78) with the score on 145-5 it was game on. The odds, however, were still in favour of the visitors.

Drama came when the score reached 168 and David Bowden (10) was stumped by George Lavelle off the bowling of Nicky Caunce and wickets started to fall in quick succession. From 168-6 Darwen went to 179-9 in the space of a few overs and an Ormskirk victory was now a possibility. However, it was not to be as a last wicket stand of 12 runs took Darwen to victory in the last over of the game.

The major factor of the Ormskirk defeat was the awful start that was made to the game. It was always going to be an uphill struggle to defend a total of less than 220 against a team of the calibre of the visitors.