Cricket: Armstrong can’t wait to renew old rivalries

Dec 22 2007 by Our Correspondent, Liverpool Daily Post

SKELMERSDALE skipper Phil Armstrong will be keen to meet up with a few old friends and also renew a few sporting rivalries next summer when he leads his side in their first season in the Business Assistance Liverpool Competition.

The former Ormskirk all-rounder is going into his fourth year at Scott Rees Park and has captained the club to two promotions in the last three campaigns, a double achievement which means that he will be returning to some of his old stamping grounds.

“I’m looking forward to getting back to playing in the Liverpool Competition but it’s all new to Skelmersdale,” said Armstrong. “It’ll be good to see how we mix it in the First Division with the likes of Northop Hall, Leigh and Liverpool.”

The first task confronting Armstrong’s men when the season gets under way on April 12th will be to overcome newly-relegated Huyton and Armstrong hopes that his players will be able to cause “a few upsets” in their new league as they try to achieve a long-term objective.

“Our chairman Tom Holland has reminded us that although we’ve done what we aimed to do it’s now important that we stay in the Comp,” he said. “We have to realise that we may not be able to dominate games like we did in the Merseyside and Southport Alliance when at times we played poorly and won. We’ll have to take our chances and sometimes we may have to bat longer than 55 overs. But as long as we enjoy it all and don’t leave any of our effort in the changing room, I’ll be happy. And we won’t be making things too complicated for ourselves. It’s a see-ball, hit-ball game.”

One of Armstrong’s colleagues who has recently been striking the ball to excellent effect is Hemal Watekar who recently scored a century in each innings of Andhra Pradesh’s Ranji Trophy game against Punjab, an achievement he followed with five for 32 against Orissa. The Indian all-rounder rattled up over 600 runs and collected 74 wickets for Skelmersdale last summer and recently agreed to return to the club in April.

“Hemal was a real inspiration to us last season and we’re all looking foward to lining up alongside him again,” declared Armstrong. “He’s great to have around – on and off the pitch – and like all of us he’s very much looking forward to the challenge of Liverpool Competition cricket.”

But it is perhaps difficult to see how Skelmersdale could have risen up the recreational game’s pyramid without the long-term vision and ambition of the officials who masterminded the club’s move to a new ground six years ago. The new facility is now tended by full-time groundsman Stuart Clansy and as a result the wicket is, in Armstrong’s words, “settling down.”

It has all helped to vindicate the captain’s decision to quit Brook Lane three years ago. “It was certainly tough to leave Ormskirk but I felt it was time to have a crack at something else,” he said. “At first I wasn’t convinced that moving to Skem was the correct thing to do but when I’d had conversations with the officials, seen the facilities and realised the ambition in the club I was in no doubt that it was right.”

But the 2008 fixture-list – released almost as an act of reassurance at the darkest time of the year – will also quicken the pulses of more than a few local cricketers, some of whom will be readying themselves to return to winter nets in January. Liverpool Competition Champions Firwood Bootle travel to Hightown on the opening day of the new season while Prestatyn begin their Premier League career at home to Ormskirk. In the First Division promoted Rainford’s first match is away at Wigan.

BUSINESS Assistance Liverpool Competition: Opening Day Fixtures April 12: Premier Division: Colwyn Bay v New Brighton, Formby v Northern, Hightown v Firwood Bootle, Maghull v Lytham, Prestaty v Ormskirk, St Helens Recs v Fleetwood Hesketh, Wallasey v Southport and Birkdale. First Division: Highfield v Ainsdale, Liverpool v St Helens, Northop Hall v Newton-le-Willows, Sefton Park v Leigh, Skelmersdale v Huyton, Wavertree v Orrell Red Triangle, Wigan v Rainford.