Changing the
Love Lane Liverpool Competition: ECB Premier League: Southport and Birkdale (20pts), 149, beat Orrell Red Triangle (7pts) 139 by ten runs.
HERE are victories that revive seasons and there are victories that change them. Southport and Birkdale’s players will be hoping that Saturday’s win at Orrell Red Triangle, which was achieved by just 10 runs against the odds after a titanic scrap, belongs in the second category.
Certainly it was S&B’s best result of the season and firstteam skipper, Chris Cunningham, went a little further, calling it ‘as pleasing a competition victory as I’ve ever had’.
When they reflect on their side’s successful defence of 149 and the way in which they wore down ORT on a hot day, many of Cunningham’s players may agree with their captain. This was a game in which a team revealed itself to itself.
That said, as one or two of S&B’s wiser old heads pointed out in the riotous aftermath of the match, there was plenty wrong with the team’s cricket on Saturday. They lost four wickets for five runs in the middle of their innings, dropped five catches and bowled some dross. Yet they still prevailed. Why?
Well, one answer to that question is that they won the sessions of the game that mattered and repaired the damage after those they lost.
After opting to bat first and resolving to keep his opponents in the heat for as long as possible, Cunningham saw Dinuka Dilshan and David Snellgrove put on 72 for the fourth wicket after three batsmen had departed early, two of them to the left-arm spin of the Sri Lankan first-class cricketer, Duvindu Tillakaratne.
Then, after that damaging mid-innings wobble, Basil Sultan helped the tail to post a total which, while probably not really enough, was at least defendable and made sure Orrell were in the field for 58.5 overs and nicely broiled when they came in for the mid-innings break.
Perhaps fatigue had its impact on the opening overs of their innings. Rather more persuasive, though, is the argument
TLea Fielding 2 Stanley 3 Dilshan 48 Snellgrove c Naylor 26 Carney b Sharp 0 Sultan b Tillakaratne 23 Firth lbw Tillakaratne 3 Wincer lbw Tillakaratne 13 Gailey b Sharp 0 Cunningham not out 1
Extras 15
Ammer Mirza c Dilshan b Firth 22 Baybutt b Firth 1
Everett not out 70
Jones c Carney b Firth 0
M Hayes c&b Cunningham 23 Heeley c Carney b Gailey 6
Riley lbw Gailey 0
Tillakaratne run out (Lea) 0
D Hayes c&b Cunningham 9
Sharp b Wincer 1
Naylor c Firth b Wincer 0
Extras 7 that Chris Firth’s off-spin was instrumental yet again in an S&B victory, most notably when he lured Andy Baybutt down the pitch and bowled one of the batsmen capable of winning the game.
Firth took two more wickets in that vital spell but the other successes were shared around among three other bowlers with Cunningham removing Matthew Hayes and Angus Gailey producing the vital mid-innings spell that accounted for Sam Heeley and Chris Riley.
Isaac Lea’s brilliant direct hit from square leg dismissed Tillakaratne and the result of the match eventually rested on whether Richard Everett could score the runs required before losing his partners.
Everett batted superbly on Saturday, facing 117 balls and hitting eight fours in his unbeaten 70 but Bobby Wincer finally found the deliveries to remove Orrell’s last two batsmen and Firth’s catch at slip to dismiss David Naylor and clinch the win prompted chaotic celebrations.
But above all, this was Cunningham’s triumph. If a captain messes up his bowling changes when defending 149, the game is lost. Even one bad call can be decisive. But S&B’s skipper, who’s in his first year in job, got every one right. This was a vital win for him, too.
And it was a very successful weekend on all fronts for S&B.
The three senior sides and the Southport Diamonds Ladies’ team recorded victories with the second team’s sevenwicket defeat of Sefton Park being particularly noteworthy.
In that game Sam Holliday took nine wickets as the visitors were dismissed for 70 and Charlie Byrne then made an unbeaten half-century in what was a very pleasant afternoon for Tom Baybutt’s side.
At one stage Holliday seemed set to bag all ten only for Michael Lightbown to dismiss the ninth Sefton Park batsman. Byrne’s runs came off 57 balls with seven fours and a six.
In the third team game Alder were bowled out for 94, Tom Dixon taking five wickets and Henry Eccles three before Callum Scott made an unbeaten 63 as S&B raced to a ten-wicket win in 9.3 overs.
And there could yet be room for a twist in what was looking like a straightforward ECB Premier Division title race.
Leaders Northern still boast a 50-point cushion, but Saturday’s six-wicket defeat at Wallasey means they’ve lost three and won just two – one of those by a solitary run – of their last six games.
Saturday was a batters’ day across the divisions, and former New Brighton man Andrew Clarke’s 100 underpinned a total of 214/6 against his old rivals.
But it took them the best part of 59 overs – having not gone past the 55th for the whole first half of the season, Northern have now done so twice in two matches.
After 36 overs of their reply, Wallasey were 176/0 and the game was all but won. Both openers, Jamie Crawley and Daniel Beaver, missed out on centuries – Beaver by a single run; Crawley, who’d made two tons in midweek in a regional T20 tournament, by six – but that was the only disappointment for Alex Eagles’ side.
“We were a bit wary of them, we haven’t beaten them since I think 2014 in the league,” Eagles said.
“But we were tremendous in the field to restrict them and make them bat past 55 – it shows how highly they rate us as a side, and how well we did.
“Then the two at the top were absolutely flying, really positive and took the attack to a good bowling attack.”
The chasing pack in the table is slightly lopsided owing to a few Covid cancellations – Leigh sit 56 points shy of Northern but with two games in hand after their match at Ormskirk on Saturday was pinged off.
It would still take a slip-up from the Crosby men, but Wallasey are among those wellplaced to take advantage.
Eagles said: “To be honest, we haven’t been looking that far up – but a few cancellations have gone our way and we’ve got points on the board.
“We’ve got a couple of tough games coming up in Bootle and Ormskirk, but we’re playing really good cricket.”
There was less good news on Sunday, when Wallasey fell just short at the semi-final stage of the Cheshire Cup to Chester Boughton Hall.
Defending 185 after losing regular wickets, Sumit Ruikar’s 3/18 helped reduce the visitors to 69/6 – but a stand of 111 between Lee Dixon and Andrew Metcalf saw Chester to a twowicket win.
“We were about 20 runs under par,” said Eagles. “We’re gutted – but the style of cricket and the way we went about it was fantastic.”
Sunday also saw cup disappointment for Firwood Bootle, soundly beaten by Burnley in the semi-final of the Lancashire Cup after they mustered only 86 in response to the visitors’ imposing 232/8.
The other semi-final, between Ormskirk and Northern, was postponed due to Covid.
In the league on Saturday, Bootle fared better with the bat against Formby, racking up 263/6 on the back of Will Hale’s unbeaten 125.
But 50s for Ryan Brown and Sam Oldham helped the hosts reach safety, and they closed on 227/7 – a second successive draw for James Seward’s men.
Rainhill are second thanks to a comprehensive win over Wigan, set up by left-armer Peter Kelly’s 7/18.
From 50/1, Kelly ran through the visitors to leave them 74 all out – despite a couple of wobbles, the chase was completed with five wickets to spare.