Lancashire League Handbook 2018

16 SECRETARY’S REPORT 2017 2017 saw the League expand to 17 Clubs with Clitheroe, Darwen and Great Harwood joining. Chris Holt, Zain Abbas, Andries Gous and Shaun von Berg returned as professionals at Burnley, Church, East Lancs and Rishton. Andrew Payne returned as professional at Rawtenstall and Ockert Erasmus became Lowerhouse’s paid man. Another familiar name returned with Kelly Smutts joining Todmorden. This meant that 7 of the Clubs from 2016 had new professionals. Accrington with Michael Erlank, Bacup with Ernest Kemm, Colne with Unmukt Chand, Enfield with Ravi Teja, Haslingden with Nicholas Benton, Nelson with Devon Conway and Ramsbottom with Grant Thompson. Of the 3 new Clubs, Great Harwood had Ashen Silva, Darwen, Calvin Savage and Clitheroe Fawad Alam. Ockert Erasmus topped the professional run scoring charts with 985 runs and Nick Benton and Chris Holt took 46 for the best professional returns with the ball. Highest score by a professional was by Kelly Smutts for Todmorden against Enfield on April 23rd with a magnificent new League record of 211. Incredibly a couple of weeks later a new Worsley Cup highest individual record was set by Devon Conway as he hit 231 not out against Rishton at Seedhill on the 7th May. Ben Heap scored most runs as an amateur with 739 runs, a top score of 175 against Great Harwood on the 18th June also saw Ben create a new Club record for Lowerhouse. A further feat must be mentioned within this report, Chris Bleazard of Lowerhouse passed16000 runs and is now the 2nd highest run scorer in League history. The amateur bowler with most wickets was David Bowden of Darwen with 49 and best bowling performance by an amateur was Enfield’s Fergus Bailey’s 7 for 11 to bowl out Accrington at Thorneyholme Road on the 28th of May. This eclipsed the best professional performance of Nick Benton who took 7 for 15 for Haslingden at East Lancs on the 13th of August. Matthew Nuttall of Rishton took the wicket keeping award for the second year in a row with 29 victims (21 caught and 8 stumped). Highest team total for the season was by Darwen against East Lancs on the 28th May with 336 for 6. Burnley had set a Club record score just a couple of weeks earlier with 333 for 3 against Nelson on the 14th of May. In 2017 each team played 16 games in the first half of the season and