PREMIER LEAGUE ROUND-UP

Date: 3rd September 2010

Ack. to Liverpool Daily Post

The 2010 cricket season has now reached the crucial stage when the destinations of championships and cups will be decided. On Sunday, Sefton Park play host to Ormskirk in the final of the Liverpool Echo Knock-Out Trophy, while at Chester Boughton Hall, Firwood Bootle must beat the home side to reach the televised finals of the Cockspur Rum Club Twenty20.

Before all that, however, the battle for the Bridging Finance Solutions Liverpool Competition's Premier League title continues tomorrow with new leaders Ormskirk visiting New Brighton, who must surely win the Rake Lane clash to give themselves a realistic chance of claiming the championship in Tim Watkins's last season as skipper. Ormskirk's last three fixtures are against teams currently in the top five and Lytham skipper Antony Mulligan believes that his side is still best placed to win the title.

"Given Ormskirk's run-in and our own, we'd prefer to be in our situation," said Mulligan, whose side lost the leadership of the Premier League for the first time in over two months when they crashed to a 135-run defeat at the hands of Hightown on Monday. The Church Road side now trail the new pacesetters by two points but Mulligan remains in bullish mood. "We'd have taken this position at the start of the season and we remain confident and optimistic going into the last three Saturdays of the campaign," he said. "It's been a wonderful season for us and it wasn't the pressure that affected us on Monday, it was simply that we played bad cricket. Neither our bowling nor our fielding was good enough whereas Nick Death played very well for Hightown."

Lytham include Jimmy Wisniewski in their line-up for the tomorrow's game at Northern, but they will be without Joe Davies, who has been suspended by the club for showing dissent at an umpire's decision on Monday. After the match at Moor Park, Lytham play Northop Hall and Firwood Bootle in two matches which could decide whether the title goes to Church Road for the first time in the club's history.

Meanwhile Ian Robinson's battle hardened troops face tomorrow's clash against New Brighton having experienced the pressure of a title run-in two seasons ago and knowing that the destiny of the title is now in their own hands. The Brook Lane side are also well-used to the pressure of playing two big matches every weekend, something which should stand them in good stead when they face Sefton Park in Sunday's showpiece final. Ian Robinson's side will relish the opportunity to lift their first silverware of the season and include both Nicky Caunce and Simon Kerrigan in their team. Also featuring for Ormskirk will be the vastly underrated and frequently overshadowed slow left-armer Martyn Farrell, who has taken 30 Premier League wickets this season and regularly claims key victims in knock-out matches.

For their part, Sefton Park will be without Rashidi Boucher, who has returned to the West Indies, and skipper Robbie Houghton is now waiting to see if Lancashire will give the club permission to include Paul Horton in their line-up.