Ormskirk (179/7) beat Newton-le-Willows (70) by 109 runs

Defending champions Ormskirk got their title defence off to a winning start with a 109-run demolition of Newton-le-Willows. 

Chief demolishers were the seam pair of Sam Marsh and Scott Lees, who took 4/22 and 4/11 respectively to blow the visitors away for just 70.

It was a lethal combination of good bowling and bad shots by a side who, having watched the hosts demonstrate exactly how to build an innings in tricky conditions, immediately forgot the lot.

Nathan Hughes hooked Marsh to fine leg in the first over; Lancashire prospect Gennaro Reddy pulled his first ball in the Comp for four, then aimed a loose drive at Lees.

Ben Walkden has the talent to thrive at this level but won’t want to see a repeat of his airy waft at Marsh, which produced a fine catch from George Lavelle.

Lees yorked Paddy Connolly then surprised Safi Abdullah with a short one first up; before he could deliver his hat-trick ball, Marsh had bruised captain Chris Chambers’ outside edge, then forced one through Newton debutant Leo Spilsbury. 

When Josh Davies drove at a wide one from Lees to give Calum Turner a second catch, it was 30/8. The opening bowlers were done, but so was the damage. 

A chilly afternoon had started with little to get heated about, as Turner and George Politis played themselves in. 

Safi began to make inroads with his canny left-arm spin, pinning Politis to break the opening stand, before Lavelle was left stranded at the wrong end.

Slingy left-arm seamer Jamal Adil pinned Turner to cap an eye-catching debut spell, and when home skipper Gary Knight became Safi’s third victim, the innings was teetering at 112/5. 

But John Armstrong and Tom Brown – one man in his 470th Comp game, another in his first – steadied the ship with some well-judged aggression. 

Their stand of 56 was the biggest of the innings and turned the total into the sort that formed the foundation of Ormskirk’s success last year.

Brown later got on the board with the wickets of Dom Chambers and, after some lusty blows delayed the inevitable, Marc De Brabander.