Ormskirk u15 37*pts - Southport u15  7pts
Ormskirk had to travel to Waterloo Road, Southport for this home quarter final match due to the Southport side having to kick off earlier than had been planned. It didn’t make any difference as the “home” side had an enjoyable morning at the seaside in a very one-sided match. Southport did put up a great show, tackled like demons and never gave up.
Ormskirk scored almost at will, but it was very pleasing that the nature of victory was one of a team performance rather than individuals trying to score a try for themselves. Ormskirk’s first try came from a poor clearance kick, gathered by Gavin Griffiths who linked with Adian Charlton, before Chris Nicholson timed a perfect pass for skipper George Lightfoot to sprint way and score under the posts. A penalty in the Southport 22 was taken quickly and flanker Eddie Webster put Charlton in for the second, both converted by Nicholson. Cecil Fairhurst broke off a ruck and fed the ball to Charlton, who bundled his way over. Southport attacked and spent some time in the Ormskirk 22, until a turnover and great passing freed Webster who left defenders in his wake to score a fabulous try. More possession from a ruck in the Southport half Webster borke free and fed Griffiths who passed!! Jordan Bradshaw, who had a great game at scrum half timed a well placed pass for fly half Dan Bailie to score in the corner.
The second half saw Ormskirk virtually scoring at will with Griffiths adding another and Cecil charging over from a penalty. The Southport crowd continually raised the spirit of their players with some interesting comments about Ormskirk cracking under the pressure - of scoring lots of tries probably - but when their large second row forward was dumped into touch by Cecil Fairhurst, they umm’d and arrr’d and to be fair to the them applauded Ormskirk’s enterprising play. A highlight for Southport was an excellent try by thier inside centre, who put in some crunching tackles all morning and thoroughly deserved his try, appreciated by all on the touchline.
The game finished with three great passages of play - George Lightfoot hacking the ball downfield and winning the race both to the line and to get the ball afterwards and plant a great conversion between the sticks. Then Griffiths tip-toed down the touchline and placed the ball carefull over the line, offering Nicholson the hardest conversion possible. Chris took up the challenge and popped over a gem of a conversion from the touchline. The last word went to Joe Reade, who celebrated his birthday by latching on to a nice pass from Lightfoot to sprint 50m and score with a flourish, well Joe said it was 50m!!
