Lancashire League Handbook 2013

13 Heineken, under the Fosters banner became League &Worsley Cup sponsors under a 3 year agreement. Moorhouses Brewery took up the 20/20 Sponsorship and we are most grateful for both partnerships. Eight Clubs had new professionals, as opposed to 2011 when there had been13 new faces. Returning wereAshar Zaidi atAccrington, SaeedAnwar Junior at Church, Ockert Erasmus at East Lancs, Werner Coetzee at Enfield, Francois Haaesbroek at Lowerhouse andQaiserAbbas at Todmorden. The eight new faces included 3 professionals who had acted as substitutes previously, Harry Boam at Haslingden, Pieter Malan at Ramsbottom and Daniel Salpietro at Rishton. The remaining 5 were Adnan Rasool at Burnley, Shadley Van Shalkwyck at Colne, Jandree Coetzee at Rawtenstall, Udara Peiris at Bacup and Shahzaib Hussain at Nelson. Unfortunately the last 2 had to return home early in the season leaving Bacup and Nelson with substitutes for the remainder of the season. The now traditional curtain raiser for the season is the Ron Singleton Colne Trophy which saw play abandoned without a ball being bowled. This was a scenario which was to become an all too familiar one during the season. The trophywas therefore shared by Lowerhouse and Ramsbottom for 6months each. The season was scheduled to start on Sunday 22ndApril but only 2 games were able to start. The abandoned games and the following Sunday's block of fixtures which were also a total washout meant that with 2 Sundays gone we had 2 fixed dates used up already. One player who was relieved that play had been completed in his game was Adam Bracewell of Enfield who started off the season in style with a club record limited over score of 151. This would not however be enough to win the Telegraph batting tankard for highest amateur score, we will come to that later. Champions Lowerhouse eventually got their season underway on the 6th May when they hosted East Lancs and posted 187 for 7 with Jonny Whitehead top scoring on 61. Joe Hawke then took 6 for 28 to bowl out the visitors for 108 and start the Champions off with a 79 runwin. An experiment with matches on Bank Holidays met with the usual Bank Holiday weather and although play was possible on the first two, the August set of fixtures fell foul to the weather or as Nigel headlined it on the website Blank Holiday Monday with no play possible in any of the games. Clubs have since voted to abandon Bank Holiday fixtures next season meaning more Saturday games (problems with sub pros and umpires I envisage). By the end of May Lowerhouse topped the table with a perfect 6 out of 6 wins and 10 bonus points, leading Churchwhowere on 62 points by 8. The first set of fixtures in June were also completely washed out but the rest of FOSTERS LANCASHIRE CRICKET LEAGUE