It was President’s Day at Brook Lane and a big crowd turned out on a lovely summer’s afternoon for the game against Formby.

Ormskirk needed to maintain their current form to retain their lead at the top of the table while Formby uncharacteristically were struggling towards the foot of the table and badly needed a win.

And it was Ormskirk who prevailed and see themselves beginning the second half of the season sitting 53 points ahead of their nearest rivals at the top of the Premier League

Matt Glayzer won the toss for Ormskirk and elected to bat with Andy Baybutt and Michael Jones opening the innings. Michael (9) was the first to lose his wicket being adjudged out lbw. Andy (10) went shortly after being bowled and leaving the score on 21-2.

The new partnership of Josh Bohannon and John Armstrong came together and from then on things started to blossom. Josh was back for only his second game after a nasty injury and John was looking to reverse a poor run of form. It was just a question of how fit Josh was and if this was to be the inevitable day that John returned to form. Unfortunately for Formby they found that Josh was as fit as a fiddle and John was back to his old self.

After a cautious start they set about the Formby attack with some venom. Neither the fast bowlers or the spinners fazed them. Both suffered as the batsmen had no trouble showing them who was in charge.

Josh reached his half-century comfortably and not long after John followed suit. They were both in excellent form and treated the home crowd to a fine exhibition to include every stroke in the book.

When Josh reached the nervous 90s he showed no nerves whatsoever and
comfortably reached the magic ‘ton’ much to the crowds’ pleasure and his own unbridled delight. John reached 80 and the score on 214 when the partnership was broken as he was caught and bowled. Everyone was so pleased that John had enjoyed a good innings. All at Brook Lane know that John is a class act and he chose President’s Day to prove the point.

The third wicket stand had put on 183 runs and Ian Robinson came to join Josh to pile on the agony for the Formby team and supporters. Josh progressed to 130 and Ian to 13 when Matty declared the innings on 256 – 3.

The Formby reply was opened by James Seward and England opener Haseeb Hameed whose appearance had added to the size of the crowd.

Success came quickly to the Ormskirk side when Scott Lees had Seward (0) caught behind by stand-in wicket keeper Matt Glayzer bringing Formby’s veteran skipper Ian Cockbain to join the England international. He didn’t last long getting out for a duck going in the same fashion as Seward, going a catch behind the wicket to Matt off Scott’s bowling

Nicky Caunce then came into the wicket-taking scene when he grabbed the third wicket having Sam Oldham trapped lbw.

A fourth wicket stand developed with Hameed looking all the way a top class batsman and while he was about the game was very much an open contest. His was the prize wicket the bowlers were after. The next wicket to go was the number 5 batsman Dan Stanley (14) who was caught behind off the bowling of Josh Bohannon. It was looking as though the game would depend on whether the vital wicket of Hammed could be captured and it was Josh who came to the call. He delivered a fine ball and ‘hey presto’ the opener nicked the ball to land Matt his fourth catch. It was typical of Josh to take a vital wicket. With Hameed (36) gone the score was 56-5

All was not over as a stand of 52 developed for the sixth wicket. It took Ormskirk’s own international player Simon Kerrigan to bring that to an end as he had Luke Jones (19). caught behind. This was Matt’s fifth catch. Not bad for a stand-in keeper!

Tom Hartley joined Simon and took the wicket of Elliot Ketteringham (35) to leave Formby tottering on 127 -7. He caught and bowled the next batsman Ollie Sutton (8) and then it was on the home straight as Tom took his third wicket and Scott jumped in to grab his third of the innings.

The innings of 130 all out left OCC comfortable winners and with maximum points.

Picking an OCC Man of the Match was easy. For his imperious century and grabbing the vital wicket of Hameed the accolade could only go to Josh Bohannon.