As the ball rolled out of the car park and into Mortuary Lane, New Brighton seemed dead and buried.
Formby’s Ian Cockbain had just launched Seb Botes clean over the pavilion for the biggest of his seven sixes on the way to 162*, a brutal and brilliant onslaught which threatened to put the ECB Premier Division game beyond the hosts.
Though it may have felt like an act of mercy at the time, Calum Turner’s decision to call a halt at 260/3 from 51 overs was a pragmatic one. Four more overs and they’d have been beyond 300, and Cockbain closing in on a double - but the pitch was true and the outfield flat, and creating 10 chances wouldn’t be easy.
And somehow, Adam Neal’s side raised themselves off the slab. There was no bolt of lighting out of the mizzle that settled over Rake Lane - instead, they put together a whole that was greater than the sum of its parts and won by one wicket.
“It was a great advert for cricket in the Comp, and a great credit to both teams,” Neal said, having seen his gamble to field first just about pay off.
“If they’d gone to the full 55 overs, it would have been a different game - but they left enough for us to want to have a go.
“Cockbain really took it away from us. He batted incredibly well, probably one of the best knocks I’ve seen in the Comp.
“But we knew if two or three of their really strong players got in, we knew we were going to be chasing a big score - that was always part of our game plan.”
Recruited after a winter making a name for himself in T20 franchise leagues around the world, Cockbain was on another planet. He put on 90 with Will Porterfield as a steady foil, then 141 with Sam Oldham as a giddy accomplice.
There were chances, and air shots - but once he’d settled in, Cockbain’s century seemed inevitable. He took 11 balls creeping from 94 to 100 and then truly let loose, peppering fences, sightscreens, houses and cars as he switched to T20 mode and plundered 62 runs from his next 22 deliveries.
Seb Botes ended Oldham’s fun on 58 with a perfect yorker, but the only person who could stop Cockbain was his own captain.
After tea, it didn’t take long for Owais Shah and Botes to make it clear what kind of pitch it was. An opening stand of 78 in 20.2 overs was just what the hosts needed - calm, confident and positive.
Anything back of a length could be safely left or attacked; anything with pace on merely beat the infield all the quicker.
It took the medium pace of Tom Simpson to make the breakthrough, curving one back into Shah’s pads; skipper Turner’s leg-breaks made further inroads, trimming Dan Cooke’s bails then finding Botes’ edge on 49 to leave the chase at a precarious 152/4 going into the final hour.
Neal said: “We’ve got a very strong and deep batting line-up, and I think that showed.
“No-one in our team got 50 and we went all the way down to 11 and chased 260.
“It’s tough at half-time when you’ve been flogged around the ground a bit, but everyone was pretty focused and knew what we had to do to win the game.”
Former skipper Matty Thompson became the key wicket, as the lower middle order took turns to keep him company. At 206/7, with 8.2 overs left, Formby were favourites; Thompson and Alex Watkins added a crucial 48 before both fell in successive balls to a run-out and an LBW.
With eight balls, seven runs or one wicket left, all four results were possible. Neal flogged Simpson for a cathartic four over point, before he and Mark Hale did the rest in singles.
Defending champions Northern and last year’s runners-up Wallasey had very similar afternoons at home to Rainhill and Leigh respectively.
For Northern, Chris Laker’s 91 and Jac Kennedy’s 83 helped their side post 253/4, before Tom Sephton’s 6/30 wrapped up a 132-run win; for Wallasey, the batters were Danny Beaver (93) and Jamie Crawley (62), the left-arm spinner Sumit Ruikar (6/13) and the margin 171 runs.
Southport & Birkdale’s last pair of Ste Gregory and Chris Cunningham held out for a draw at Birkenhead Park, surviving 50 balls to close on 191/9 after Jack Carney’s top score of 71. Ahmad Safi Abdullah took 7/58 for Park, who had earlier slipped from 100/0 to 221 all out thanks to Chris Firth’s devilish 6/66; Mark Rowland led the way with 50.
Ormskirk picked off their bogey side, Orrell Red Triangle, by eight wickets. Spinners Tom Hartley and Zahir Shehzad shared seven scalps for the second week running to restrict the hosts to 163, before George Lavelle’s unbeaten 62 and Alex Rankin’s 53 made short work of the chase.
Wigan’s Jordan Hampson took a career-best 5/15 in his side’s eight-wicket win over Newton-le-Willows, who could only manage 118; John Richardson and Aaron Redmond both struck half-centuries to seal the win.
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Liverpool earned their first win of the Division One season thanks to Dan Clubbe’s 6/38, which ensured Fleetwood Hesketh fell 52 runs short.
Alastair Andrady and Callum Doyle each hit half-centuries to help the visitors to 245/8; Lee Rimmer’s 68 was in vain for the hosts.
Sefton Park recovered from 104/8 to post 198 at Ainsdale, thanks to an unbeaten 41 from Jimmy Dixon, who then took a wicket with his first ball. But it still wasn’t enough as Harry Turnbull’s 62 led the hosts to a five-wicket win.
Lytham were too strong for Firwood Bootle, rolling them for 101 then knocking off the runs with nine wickets to spare, thanks to Edward Fiddler’s unbeaten 63.
Lloyd Eastham took 8/32 as Caldy restricted Rainford to 160, but visiting skipper John Dotters had the final say, twirling out 7/20 to seal a 53-run win.
Colwyn Bay earned a seven-wicket win over Highfield after Adam Campion’s 6/23 did the damage, dismissing the hosts for 113. Sion Morris finished unbeaten on 60 in the reply.
Spring View earned their first win in Division One, closing on 165/9 against Northop Hall and winning by 46 runs after Suleman Khan’s 7/25.
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Wavertree’s Luke Carus-McDonald hit an unbeaten 108 to rescue his side from 30/4 and set up a 102-run win over Parkfield Liscard in Division Two.
Maghull’s Liam Crilly finished unbeaten on 121 - with 64 from Jonathan Ring and 61 from Jamie Breakwell - before Munowar Samsodien’s 6/39 wrapped up a 189-run victory over Sutton.
Norley Hall chased 144 to beat Alder; the visitors’ Greg Harvey top-scored with 56, while Greg Coogan took 5/31 to give them a sniff, but the hosts prevailed by three wickets.
St Helens Town’s 205/9 - underpinned by Pat Whipps’ unbeaten 50 - was too much for Southport Trinity, who fell 72 runs short.
Hightown St Mary’s succumbed for just 30 to Prestatyn thanks to Sampath Perera’s 7/12, setting up a 169-run win. Andy Taylor had top-scored with 77.
