Report and photos: Peter Rogan

Royal London National Championship 2021: Ormskirk v Westhoughton

Ormskirk won the toss and elected to field, and Westhoughton openers, Rob Houghton and Matthew Morris, opened confidently in the glorious Sunday sunshine and took the score along to 43 when the partnership was broken by Josh Thompson when he had Houghton (12) caught behind by Gary Knight.

The vital breakthrough was followed up very quickly when Sam Marsh took the second wicket when he bowled Chaisty (1) to bring in Marlon Welcome-Goodman to join Matthew Morris who was cruising along with 30 runs to his name and the pair took the score along at a steady pace with Morris reaching his half century and both batsmen looking very comfortable against the pace bowling attack.

It took the spin of Harvey Rankin to bring the partnership to an end when he grabbed the vital wicket of Morris (53), assisted by a good catch by Taylor Cornall , to leave the score on 85-3.

The next partnership between the dangerous big hitting Welcome-Goodman and Charlie Honour put on 25 runs and Westhoughton were looking towards leaving a challenging total for Ormskirk to chase to secure their place in the next round of the competition.

That fear was somewhat eased when Scott Lees returned to the bowling and took the vital wicket of Charlie Honour (15) having him caught behind. He followed up the success when he captured the wicket of Westhoughton’s captain Mark Atherton (1) having him caught by Jamie Barnes.

The score was on 110-4 and progressed to 118 when Harvey Rankin took his second wicket when he had Welcome-Goodman (29) well caught in the deep by Scott Lees.
With the danger man gone confidence grew in the Ormskirk camp and the scoring rate dropped due to tight bowling and excellent fielding.

Wickets started to fall at regular intervals with Josh Thompson making the next major breakthrough having Rob Brown (16) caught by Scott Lees followed by Jamie Barnes who had Tom Senior (5) caught by Ian Robinson and Adam Pate (15) trapped lbw, to leave the score on 160-8.

The tail end batsmen Sam Connor (3*) and Matt Fanning (6*) batted out final few overs taking the score to a closing total of 171 -9.

All looked set for a good response for the Ormskirk batsmen in front of an expectant crowd bathed in sunshine.

Alex Rankin and Taylor Cornall opened in reply for Ormskirk and took the score along to 24 before Alex (16) lost his wicket to a catch off the bowling of Marlon Welcome-Goodman. He was replaced by his brother Robert and with Taylor, in darkening conditions, took the score along to 37-1.

The sunshine had gone and thunder rattled in the background and with first flash of lightning the umpires had no option but to suspend play. As the players left the field, replacing the covers as they left, the heavens opened with a vengeance with the torrential rain continuing for a couple of hours.

At the onset of the storm only six overs had been bowled and Ormskirk were ahead on a Duckworth Lewis (D/L) calculation. At the time, however, this was irrelevant because D/L could not come into effect until 10 overs had been bowled. One way or another to win the game Ormskirk needed a minimum of four more overs to be bowled before 8pm when the game, in accordance with the laws of the Competition, had to be finished.

With Ormskirk in a winning position under a D/L application there was no way skipper Gary Knight was going to agree to a replay or a bowl-out to determine the result and so it was a question of waiting until the rain stopped and get the game underway again.

When the rain did eventually stop a massive mop-up operation commenced. It was all hands to the pump to get the game restarted and after a stupendous effort by players, ground staff Phil and Dave and Club Coach Paul Bryson, the Umpires declared the pitch fit for play after 7pm with revised D/L winning target 56 from 11 overs.

It was back to business and Taylor Cornell (28*) with Rob Rankin (7*) steered the team to victory taking the score to 59-1 and earn a place in the 2nd round; to win the game was good enough - to beat the weather was almost miraculous!