Report and photos: Peter Rogan

Ormskirk won the toss against Lytham, electing to bat with John Armstrong - playing his 400th league game for the First XI - and Andy Baybutt opening the batting.

John (5), however, was unable to enjoy a full celebration of his achievement when he was trapped lbw with the score on 46; Andy, who had made all the front running, having raced to 35 before John lost his wicket, was joined by Josh Bohannon.

The next three wickets fell quickly and cheaply with Josh (5), Gary Knight (5) and Alex Rankin (6) all falling to the bowling of Anthony Mulligan.

The score had reached 80-4 when Luke Platt came in to Join Andy Baybutt and that partnership blossomed to yield 67 runs before Andy (83) was well caught while trying to force the pace.

The last three wickets before the innings was declared on 213-8, saw Robert Rankin (6) run out, Luke Platt (52) caught and bowled, and Ryan Maddock (28) trapped lbw.

It was a reasonable total, mainly made possible by the batting of Andy Baybutt and Luke Platt, for the Ormskirk bowlers to defend. Lytham, however, were by no means out of the game as they had batsmen well capable of knocking off the required runs and they had enough time to do it.

In reply Lytham made a decent start by taking the score to 42 before losing the wicket of Matt Shawcross (16), when he was caught by Alex Rankin off the bowling of Ryan Maddock.

The next wicket fell without a run being added when Taylor Cornall (24) was caught and bowled by Tom Hartley. It was the start of what was going to be an eventful afternoon for Tom, but his fun and games were to come later, after 103 runs had been added, and when he was brought back into the attack to stem the flow of runs and, hopefully, capture some wickets. He did both, and in style.

First, he grabbed the wicket of Matt Taaffe (43), then Guy Roberts (0), then Josh Holden (4), and then Tom Jefferson (78), all with the help of some excellent fielding, by way of catches, by his team mates. From looking good at 145-3, Lytham now looked far less likely winners with score having gone in dramatic fashion to 174-6.

Josh Bohannon, bowling at the other end, off a longer run than he had used in his first spell, nipped in to take the wickets of Ben Saunders (4) and Ryan Norris (0) to leave the score on 178-8.

The odds were now in favour of an Ormskirk victory, but not heavily, as with 2 wickets standing for the visitors and with time to get 36 runs the chances of a Lytham win was a real possibility. That was if Tom Hartley was to be ignored.

He had no intention of being ignored and the game was over with only 7 more runs being added as the indomitable left arm spinner bowled Ben Saunders ((4) and had Anthony Mulligan (5) stumped by Gary Knight.

Ormskirk had won by 28 runs.

Tom finished the innings with 7-69 and was applauded off the field by his team mates, his opponents and the spectators.

It was a good team performance with outstanding contributions from Andy Baybutt and Luke Platt, but choosing the “Man of the Match” was very easy. It could only have been Tom Hartley.