Tuesday, 11 May 2021

The Chorley & District Cricket League remembered

By Mike Latham

Anyone who has followed league cricket over a long period of time will occasionally reflect upon teams they’ve watched that are now defunct, grounds they’ve visited as player, official or spectator that are now disused or built over, even leagues they once enjoyed watching that are no more.

That came home to me the other day when I happened across the splendid Lancashire Cricket Annual for 1972, then in its 22nd year and edited and published by Albert E Hall.


Lancashire Cricket Annual 1972

Contained within 240 pages of tightly packed print are fixtures for the season ahead and a review of the 1971 season, league by league, with a directory of participating clubs.

The Chorley & District League section caught my eye, as it is an area where I live and some of my cricket-watching friends that I meet on the boundary of local grounds talk fondly of games played and watched in the league.

Founded in 1902 the league was dissolved in 2005, many of the clubs joining the Palace Shield competition, which is a very well-run and impressive organisation that caters for cricketers of all abilities and ages.

Back in the 1971 season, 50 years ago, the Chorley & District League had 14 member clubs and I examined what had become of them.

Of those 14 clubs, three had become defunct, two had merged and nine were still in operation in their own name, three in the Ribblesdale League, the others in the Palace Shield.

In 1971 Salesbury were Division One champions with Walton-le-Dale runners up while Hoghton beat Leyland Motors in the Challenge Cup.


Salesbury CC

Salesbury (founded 1904) now play in the Ribblesdale League, their beautiful village ground enjoying sweeping views over the Ribble Valley. Brinscall (1890), a progressive club with a thriving junior section, and Feniscowles (1920), a village near Blackburn next door to rivals Cherry Tree, have also stepped up to the Ribblesdale League Senior Division in recent years and become competitive and valued members.


Hoghton CC


Whittle-le-Woods CC


Withnell Fold CC

The clubs now in the Palace Shield are Hoghton (1890), playing on the recreation ground close to Hoghton Tower, New Longton (1920), Walton-le-Dale (1875), White Coppice (1921), Whittle-le-Woods (1900) and Withnell Fold (1904).


White Coppice CC

Of those, White Coppice is a particularly iconic village ground with its whitewashed cottages forming the sightscreen at one end and a visit here comes highly recommended.

But all are well appointed grounds that I have visited recently where the heartbeat of cricket still beats strongly.

Of the remaining five clubs that participated in that season there are different stories to tell.


Chorley St James ground

Chorley St James (1919), playing at Limbrick on the back road between Adlington and Chorley, merged with Charnock Richard during the 2016-17 winter and the combined club plays at the latter’s ground. Fortunately, the St James ground is still used for cricket, used by Chorley CC for their third eleven fixtures and other games when their main ground is occupied with more senior teams.

Leyland Motors (1847), whose third team competed in the Chorley & District League, merged with the Leyland & Farington club in February 1907 and sadly lost their main ground at Sandy Lane. The third eleven played at Mayfield, which is still used by the Leyland club for third and fourth team games.

The other three teams were Moss, Roe Lee Mills and Withnell.

Moss, founded in 1949, was a works team playing at the Thomas Moss Sports Ground, Coote Lane, Tardy Gate, Lostock Hall near Preston.


Map showing the location of Roe Lee Mills cricket ground

Roe Lee Mills (1945) was a cricket ground behind the Roe Lee Mills, situated off Whalley New Road out of Blackburn.


Map showing the location of Withnell CC in 1909

Withnell (1901) had their ground just off the main street that runs through Abbey Village. I’ve visited the village many times as the starting point for walks around the Roddlesworth Reservoirs. I had no idea that a cricket club had played here and, looking at Google maps, the site of the old ground is still clearly defined and has not been built upon. That’s marked down for a visit over the next few weeks, and I will report back.

If anyone has any memories of playing in or watching the Chorley & District League, I would be delighted to hear from them.

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