John Winn has brought us up to date with recent events in the Yorkshire Leagues as this period of change for many of them continues. Thanks to the excellent Lancashire League website and a recent meeting with some of my Lancashire friends, I have various items of information to impart from the 'wrong side' of the Pennines.
The Lancashire League, which has been a closed shop for it's entire history, will celebrate 125 years of cricket next season. Various events are planned including a league dinner with Geoff Miller as guest of honour and several representative games are to be played (no details yet). The big news is that for the first time in the league's existence three new clubs are to be admitted next season.
These are Clitheroe, Darwen and Great Harwood. Darwen move from the Northern League and the other two from the Ribblesdale League. I wonder if this will lead to Policeman Bob transferring his allegiance from East Lancashire to his home town team Darwen. This move seems to have taken a long time to reach fruition with all sorts of arguments along the way. Much talk about whether the leagues record books will be re-written and even whether the records for pre-limited overs games, introduced some years ago now, should be ring fenced as a totally different game.
Cliffe Park, Great Harwood
The good news is that the complete list of fixtures for league, Worsley cup and the T20 competition have already been published and can be found on the league website.
The first game of the season will be the traditional Ron Singleton Colne Trophy game on Sunday 9th April. This will be hosted by Worsley Cup winners Burnley at Turf Moor against league champions Ramsbottom. Other news from over the border involves the controversial spin bowler Toby Bulcock, who has moved from Richmondshire in the North Yorkshire South Durham League back to his native Lancashire with Ribblesdale League club Whalley (who always proudly tell us that they are the home of the first ever Roses Match).
Presumably Bulcock will continue to play Minor Counties cricket for Cumberland where he has had great success, as he had at Richmond until running into disciplinary problems last season. Another Lancastrian returning to home territory is Graham 'Foxy' Fowler. He has recently written a book 'Absolutely Foxed' about his eventful career in cricket both as a player and a coach. The book has received some excellent reviews and he will be appearing at the Grand Theatre, Clitheroe on November 23rd to tell many stories about his life with Lancashire, Durham and England as well as his period as coach at Durham University
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