Report and photos: Peter Rogan

The best weekend of the season was celebrated in glorious sunshine with two great victories, the first in the League away to New Brighton (pictured) and the second in the National Club Knockout at home to Bolton League club, Walkden.

The game at New Brighton started with Gary Knight’s first success of the day when he won the toss and elected to bat. His second success came with a masterful batting performance that saw him score his first century of the season and lead his team to a fine victory!

Gary joined Taylor Cornall with the score on 51-2, with the wickets of Alex and Robert Rankin having been lost to two fine catches of opening pace attack, to take the score along to reach 115 when Taylor (59) lost his wicket to another good catch. Harvey Rankin joined Gary for a fourth wicket partnership that yielded 131 explosive runs.

With Gary taking the lead and Harvey offering excellent support they showed scant regard for the bowling and peppered the boundary to the enjoyment of the Ormskirk supporters.

Gary reached his century and went on to score and undefeated 106 runs off 114 balls and included eight 4s and seven 6s.

It was great to watch, unless of course you were a New Brighton supporter; at the other end Harvey reached his half century off 65 balls to included five 4s, to yield his best batting return of the season.

The partnership was broken when Harvey (50) was the victim of the fourth catch of the innings and a declaration was made with the score at 247-4 off 54 overs with the Ormskirk skipper on 106 not out.

The Ormskirk batsmen had left New Brighton with challenging target and with an in-form Scott Lees ably supported by Josh Thompson, Harvey Rankin and Jamie Barnes it was a challenge too far.

Before they knew it, New Brighton had lost 5 wickets with just 35 runs on the board. The bowlers had taken control and, aided by excellent fielding, that pattern continued with wickets falling at regular intervals.

The star man of the bowling was Scott Lees who claimed his first 5 wicket haul of the season with 5-44. Josh Thompson took 2-24, Jamie Barnes 2-0 and Harvey Rankin 1-27.

New Brighton were dismissed for 99 leaving Ormskirk to return to Brook Lane with a victory.

The home game v Walkden in the National Club Championship, was played in the sunshine in front of a big crowd and was hugely entertaining; in his programme notes Gary Knight warned spectators to expect a highly competitive game - and that's exactly what they got.

Walkden won the toss and elected to bat. Things, however, did not start well for them when their captain Nathan Rushton (1) survived for 10 balls before being trapped lbw by Josh Thompson to see the first wicket go down with just 3 runs on the board.

The loss of that first wicket brought in the visitor’s professional Akbar Ur Rehman and he proved to be a thorn in the bowler’s sides as they struggled to contain his fluent stroke play. The classy batsman saw his team mates’ wickets fall at fairly regular intervals and 5 wickets were down with the score on 98. It was at this point that the batsmen decided that an all-out attack on the bowling was the order of the day.

The score rapidly increased. Akbar Ur Rehman reached his century, ably supported by Toby Morgan (28), and the score progressed to 199 when the big break though came with the dismissal of the professional on 116. Stand-in bowler Alex Rankin took the vital wicket, having him caught by Josh Thompson.

On completion of the allotted 490 overs the innings ended on 218 -9 to leave the Ormskirk batsmen with a big task in front of them.

The first wicket of the reply fell when Alex Rankin (5) was caught behind with 21 runs on the scoreboard to bring in Gary Knight to join Taylor Cornell. The partnership added 39 runs before Gary was out lbw with the score on 59.

The next wicket fell when Robert Rankin was out lbw to leave the score on 60-3 and the run rate required was getting tougher. With Taylor Cornall (61) losing his wicket going to another lbw decision and with the score on 143 the task was starting to look beyond the realms of possibility; Ormskirk needed a hero and found not one but two!

The first, John Armstrong, was already at the crease with 39 runs to his name and was joined by the second, Ian Robinson. The two ‘veterans’ were not to be outdone and they set about taming the Walkden bowlers. John Armstrong led the attack with an array of shots that would grace any ground, while Ian gave as much of the strike as he could to John, while picking out any loose balls and depositing them to the boundary.

With four overs to go, victory was in sight and it was realised in the 37th over after both batsmen had successively cleared the boundary with huge 6s. The final winning runs went to ‘Super Hero’ John Armstrong as victory was achieved with him on an undefeated 79 and Ian on an undefeated 32.

It was a great game of cricket - and credit goes to both sides for making it so entertaining.

With 440 runs scored, played out in glorious sunshine - and an Ormskirk victory - home supporters couldn't ask for anything more!