Report and photos by Peter Rogan

On paper the game against Ainsdale was going to be easy - and in reality that is what it turned out to be.

Andy Baybutt and Michael Jones opened for Ormskirk and in confident style to lay a sound foundation to the innings with a stand of 91 before Andy (46) lost his wicket.

This brought Josh Bohannon in to join Michael; Josh (42) upped the pace and the score moved rapidly on. He was out caught and bowled by ex-Ormskirk player Martyn Farrell ... the capture of Josh’s wicket, however, brought no respite to the Ainsdale bowlers who now had to contend with the in-form Gary Knight in partnership with Michael who had looked entirely comfortable from opening the innings.

In an effort the push the scoring rate along Michael (90) offered a catch to Martyn Farrell and it was happily accepted. He had been at the crease for 2 hours and everyone, except those connected with the Ainsdale team, wanted him to record a century but it was not to be. He was given a great ovation as he left the field.

A knock of 40 runs by Gary Knight and innings by Simon Kerrigan (10) and Matt Glayzer (12) saw the score move to 249 –5 when Matt declared the innings, leaving plenty of time to bowl out Ainsdale and win the match.

The Ainsdale reply could be likened to a collapsing set of dominoes with Nicky Caunce starting the collapse when he trapped opener and star batsman Fazal (9) lbw. With the loss of Fazal’s wicket so early it was always going to be a hard struggle for Ainsdale and that proved to be case.

Wickets toppled as the Ormskirk bowlers took complete charge and the game was over in double quick time and when Simon Kerrigan took a catch off the bowling of Josh Bohannon to take the wicket of Newcomb Ainsdale were all out for a paltry 41 runs, the lowest total witnessed at Brook Lane for many a year.

It was hard to determine whether the bowling and fielding were brilliant or the batting was awful - a mixture of both was probably the case.

Michael Jones with his 90 runs would have been an obvious choice for a Man of the Match nomination before the Ainsdale batting line up was taken apart by the four bowlers. But in view of the fact that Josh Bohannon scored a quick fire 42 runs and then feasted himself to four wickets for just five runs he just edged him for the nomination.