S&B skipper, Chris Cunningham
Photo: Angus Matheson

Love Lane Liverpool Competition: ECB Premier League:  Orrell Red Triangle, (25pts) 280 for seven declared, beat Southport and Birkdale, (4pts), 111, by 169 runs

Written by Paul Edwards

Sometimes, words are unnecessary.

When Southport and Birkdale skipper Chris Cunningham was asked about his team’s thumping 169-run defeat to Orrell Red Triangle on Saturday he simply shook his head. It was a curiously eloquent reaction.

When your team has been annihilated after playing perhaps its worst cricket of the season, even the rich store of English adjectives does not offer anything to suit your depth of emotion.

S&B supporters can be assured that Cunningham will not be so reticent in the private conversations he will have with individuals before this Saturday’s home game against Leigh.

But they can also be confident that he will not simply be ripping into players who had a bad day at Orrell. Each cricketer needs to be handled according to his individual needs.

At the same time, every member of Cunningham’s side will be aware that having taken two early wickets, one of them the vital scalp of Andy Baybutt, it was utterly unacceptable for S&B’s bowlers to produce the tripe they served up for most of the rest of Orrell’s innings.

Most members of the visiting attack failed to maintain a steady line or an accurate length. In no time, Richard Everett was on his way to the century that would form the backbone of his side’s innings. Mark Waddington and Matt Wareing joined him relatively briefly before Dileepa Jayalath’s unbeaten 58 enabled the home side to make a mountainous 280 for seven declared in 55 overs.

And having seen their bowlers allow Orrell’s batsmen to enjoy free rein, S&B’s batsmen crumpled under the pressure of chasing a big total against Jayalath’s accurate left-arm spin. Until Romario Brathwaite whacked the slow bowler for four sixes late in the innings, it seemed likely that Cunningham’s team would earn no batting points for the first time this season.

As it was Brathwaite’s onslaught avoided that indignity but no one was fooled any more than they had been by the three bowling points S&B had somehow picked up. Defeats like this cannot be camouflaged and the only consolation is that the game at Orrell took place relatively early in the season and must be placed in the context of a reasonably decent start to the campaign.

But defeats are one thing; Cunningham probably knows there will be a few others before this season is done. What he will be concerned to ensure is that his team does not subside as completely as they did at Orrell. Avoiding such humiliations will be one of his chief priorities as he prepares for the game against Leigh and the tougher tasks to come.

While the flagship side was sinking with all hands, S&B’s second team were making 20 knots with a following breeze as they defeated Newton-le-Willows by four wickets at Trafalgar Road.

Mark Fletcher’s bowlers dismissed the visitors for 170, with Jack Wallbank and the brothers Crew taking three wickets apiece, and the home side’s pursuit of this target appeared to be under control when Fletcher and Carlos Hollyman were guiding their team to a polished 123 for one.

However, once Hollyman had been dismissed for an impressive 56 and the skipper had folllowed him after making a typically polished 40, the home side suffered a panicky clatter of wickets that left S&B on 170 for six.

Fortunately, however, the No8 batsman Justin Labuschagne was just the man for this tiny crisis. The burly all-rounder carefully assessed the pace of the pitch, the skills of the bowler and the disposition of the field before snotting his first ball to the midwicket boundary.

And a significant moment in the history of the club was frustrated by the weather on Sunday when the third team’s match at Alder was called off. Both Emily Whelan and Mia Smith had been selected for Ian Sutcliffe’s side, thereby making them the first women cricketers to be picked for one of S&B’s senior sides playing timed red-ball cricket in the Love Lane Liverpool Competition.

However, given Whelan and Smith’s obvious talent, it is almost certain that their debuts have merely been postponed.

Get all the latest news, updates, things to do and more from Southport, Merseyside's dedicated InYourArea feed.