ROBINSON: WINNING THE COMPETITION IS OUR TOP TARGET

Date: 25th March 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

In an era when the siren voices of the short-form game sound ever more seductive, it is perhaps just a little reassuring to find that timed cricket and the 45-over contest still command the allegiance of young forward-looking captains.

Last September Ormskirk’s cricketers enjoyed the sort of publicity even lavish sponsorship can’t buy when they appeared in the national club t20 Finals Day at The Oval. The fact that it hosed it down and that the Brook Lane side lost the final in a bowl-out did not prevent the players having “a great day” insists first team skipper Ian Robinson.

Yet when Robinson is asked about his major targets for the 2014 campaign the answer comes back clear and strong. “Our first priority is winning the Liverpool Competition’s Premier League,” he said. “That is our bread and butter. Then I’d obviously like to win the national knockout because that invariably features the best teams in the country. We lost to West Indian Cavaliers last season and they were better than any club side I’ve played against. I mean no disrespect to any other national competition or knockout but the Comp and the national would be the two trophies I would go for if I were forced to choose.”

To help him achieve his goals Robinson will have Australian slow left-armer Ryan Delaney to call on this summer. Delaney has had four years’ experience of the Tasmanian first grade and he will bring the complement of slow spinners at Brook Lane up to three, although Robinson is not counting on seeing too much of Simon Kerrigan, whose commitments with Lancashire seem likely to limit his Premier League appearances pretty severely.

Likewise, the Ormskirk skipper regards Gavin Griffiths and Liam Hurt - the latter now has a scholarship at Old Trafford - as “one bowler”, since he expects their ration of overs on a Saturday to depend on their exertions during the week. He acknowledges that neither may be available on some occasions. So Robinson is fortunate that he has Nicky Caunce, Chris Smith, Jamie Barnes and, indeed, himself to call on during a season in which two games a weekend will be the regular schedule.

Delaney and the ex-Birkenhead Park cricketer Mike Quinn apart, Ormskirk have added nobody to what is already a very formidable squad, but Robinson regards the availability of Gary Knight as something akin to the arrival of a new player. Last autumn the word was that wicketkeeper-batsman Knight was to be offered a professional contract by Glamorgan, but the arrival of new coach Toby Radford has put an end to that possibility, albeit temporarily. Instead Knight will be at Brook Lane, displaying his unfussy excellence behind the stumps and judging run-chases to a nicety.

“The availability of Gary is a boost for us if not for him,” said Robinson. “I think he’s unlucky not to get a contract. There’s no better keeper in the Competition and he can sum up a match situation very well. He’s confident but quietly so and he knows his own game inside out.”

Few who have watched Knight over the past couple of seasons would disagree with that assessment and it is a reflection of Ormskirk’s strength that their full-strength first team boasts at least five players - Kerrigan, Griffiths, Hurt, Caunce and Knight, four of them bowlers, you notice – who could step into some county sides without causing the members to chunter about declining standards. Northern and the rest of the Premier League are in for a fight this summer.

Ormskirk will prepare for the new season with home friendlies against Ramsbottom on April 6 and Woodbank on April 13.