Report and photos: Peter Rogan

It was full weekend for Ormskirk CC with a game in the Premier League at home to Southport & Birkdale on Saturday and on Sunday a second round Lancashire Knockout Cup game away to Read CC.

Saturday: Ormskirk v Southport & Birkdale

Ormskirk won the toss and elected to bat.

Alex Rankin and Taylor Cornall opened the batting but the partnership was short lived when Taylor Cornall gave a catch off the bowling off the visitor’s Sri Lankan professional Dinuka Dilshan without troubling the scorer.

More trouble followed when Alex Rankin (16) was on his way back to the pavilion having been caught off the bowling of Chris Firth to bring in George Politis. He was the third batsman to be caught having scored 3 runs and to leave the total score on 22-3.

Gary Knight (15) who like Taylor Cornall had been in excellent form all season became the victim of the fourth catch and, with his dismissal, the scoreboard displayed a worrying position. It was up to the Rankin twins Robert and Harvey to restore some respectability to the score line and they rose to the task with some assurance.

With the score having advanced to 95 the partnership came to an end in unfortunate circumstances. Harvey hit a fine straight drive that looked headed for the boundary when it hit the bowlers foot and rebounded on to the wickets to dislodge the bails. Robert was out of his ground and, through nobody’s fault and a huge chunk of luck for the visitors, he found himself run out having scored a creditable 32.

Following on from Robert Rankin’s dismissal a second batting collapse followed when three wickets fell in quick succession with the addition of only 8 runs. First to fall was Richard Brook (0) followed by Scott Lees (0) and Josh Thompson (2) taking the score to a worrying 98-8.

The partnership of Jack Snowdon and Harvey Rankin yielded 27 runs and was broken when Harvey (50) was bowled by Bobby Wincer. A further 15 runs were added by Jack Snowdon (17) and Jamie Barnes (3*) were added before the innings closed on 140.

Southport and Birkdale opened with a partnership of 29 when the first break-through came when Jack Snowdon, who had come on to bowl to replace the injured Scott Lees, had opener Jack Stanley (12) caught behind by Gary Knight.

A further 26 runs were added before Jamie Barnes took his first wicket of the day when he bowled Isaac Lea (12). When Harvey Rankin came on to bowl he had David Snellgrove (2) trapped lbw, quickly following up to take his second wicket having Basil Sultan (0) caught by Josh Thompson. The score was on 59-4 when the prize wicket of Dinuka Dilshan (16) was taken when the stumps were unceremoniously uprooted by Jamie Barnes. At 59-5 the Ormskirk team started to scent victory and piled on the pressure with Harvey Rankin and Jamie Barnes posing all sorts of problems for the S&B batsmen. Only Chris Firth offered any resistance.

The end came with the last five wickets falling in rapid succession. Jamie Barnes took his wicket haul to four, bowling Jack Carney (0) and having Tobias Lea (0) stumped by Gary Knight. Harvey Rankin completed a great day for himself claiming his first ‘5 for’ for the First XI taking the wickets of Charlie Byrne (5), Bobby Wincer (3) and Chris Firth (25).

The end result was victory for Ormskirk by a margin of 39 runs. With his 5 wickets and 50 runs Harvey Rankin was undoubtedly the ‘Man of the Match’ and deserved the sustained applause he received from his team mates and the spectators as he led the victorious side off the field.

Sunday: Read v Ormskirk

Read won the toss and elected to bat.

Early success came to Josh Thompson when he bowled the Read opening batsman without there being a score on the board. The second wicket did not, however, fall as quickly and the next two batsmen put on a stand of 48 runs.

The breakthrough was made by Gary Knight, who for the first time this season was not wicket keeping but taking up a new role as a bowler. He had the opener Sam Marshall (13) dismissed by catching him off his own bowling. Not satisfied with that, with just 10 runs added to the total the grabbed his second wicket by bowling Ben Denning (2) to leave the score on 58-3. In the next over it was Harvey Rankin’s turn to join the wicket takers, trapping Duncan Bennet (0) lbw with the second ball of the over.

The fall of wickets slowed and the batsmen took control putting on a stand of 63 dominated by Waseem Quershi who had scored 40 when he lost his partner William Wrathall (44) who was bowled by Gary Knight to give the skipper his third wicket.

The next to go was Jack Wood (54) who lost his wicket off the bowling of Ed Brown aided by a wonderful catch on the boundary by Josh Thompson. The score was now 157-6 with the key man Queshri still at the crease and with him there a total final score of 200 was a distinct possibility.

Josh Thompson came back into the bowling attack to meet with success by first taking the wicket of Warren Eastham (11) and then getting the vital wicket of Queshri (54), having him superbly caught by Alex Rankin. He took a further wicket and at the completion of the allotted 45 overs the innings ended on 186-7.

In reply Ormskirk opened confidently with Alex Rankin and Scott Lees putting on 17 runs when Scott, after playing a few explosive shots to and over the boundary lost his wicket to the bowling of Joseph Halstead.

The Rankin brothers Alex and Rob then took control and put on 41 runs before Alex (31) was caught in the deep bringing in Gary Knight to join Rob in the chase for runs which they did very successfully. Rob went on to score 35 and Gary 46.

John Armstrong joined Gary on Rob’s departure and had scored 24 when he was joined by Ian Robinson to reach the winning target of 188. Back to his best form John went on to score a further 20 runs as the winning total was reached with Ian Robinson having scored 2 runs.

It was through to the next round for a home tie against Norden CC.