Lancashire League Handbook 2014

14 Lancs. By the end of May seven wins out of seven had givenAccrington a lead of 24 points fromRamsbottomwith Lowerhouse 3 more behind with both having a game in hand. Four more wins in June and a defeat at Ramsbottom, their first in 15 games, meant that the lead had been extended to 26 points with Haslingden now 2nd and Lowerhouse still third. A second successive defeat at the hands of East Lancashire at the start of July proved to be a minor blip as 6 further wins followed with most importantly a victory at Lowerhouse who had now moved into second place. The lead by the end of Julywas now47 points withAccrington on 200 points The title was secured as early as the 18th August against Lowerhouse at Thorneyholme Road. It was clearly a season of achievements at Accrington, a club record 22 victories, 10 successive home wins and a record 55 point winning margin. And the records did not end there – professionalAshar Zaidi who had opted not to re- sign for 2014 overtook the 54 year old Club batting record previously 1444 by Bob Simpson by scoring 91 not out in the last game of the season at Colne to amass 1446 runs with four centuries, a top score of 138 not out and 6 fifties, add to this 81 wickets with 3 five wicket hauls and you can probably start to see what Accrington's success was based upon. In achieving these performances he topped both the batting and bowling averages, the first to do so since Roger Harper in 1994, scored most runs and the only thing he didn't top was most wickets as Adnan Rasool at Burnley pipped him with 83. Oh and he had 16 catches too!! You wouldn't have thought there was much left for the amateurs to do but Simon Hanson with 567 runs andAijaz Shah 507 both made 500 runs for the first time. The other main contributors with the bat were skipper and vice captains GrahamLloyd and Stewart Crabtree with 362 and 367 andGraeme Sneddon also had 300. David Ormerod came one short of 50 wickets with 49 and James Hayhurst and Simon Hanson took 29 & 30 respectively. Wicket keeper Matt Wilson provided safe hands behind the stumps with 39 victims. This wasAccrington's eighth League title and their third in five years. Lowerhouse took the Holland Cup remarkably for only the second time since 1982. Lowerhouse made the highest team score of the season 302 for 4 at home to Enfield on the 4th ofAugust. Unfortunately the game was a no result. Professional Francois Haaesbroek had his best season for the Club scoring 712 with 2 centuries, the 131 at Todmorden was his career best score. He also