Lancashire League Handbook 2019

18 Lowerhouse’s reply got off to a bad start with skipper Ben Heap falling LBW to the first ball of the innings and wickets continued to fall as they got to 47 for 5. Sub Professional Mark Cosgrove was then joined by Charlie Cottam and together they built a partnership of 71 before Cosgrove fell for 54. Chris Bleazard helped move the score forward until Charlie was out for 42, an innings which would earn him the Man of the Match award. At this point the score was 142 for 7 and sensible batting by Bleazard and Hawke saw Lowerhouse through to their 3rd Worsley Cup triumph. The JW Lees T20 was split into 4 groups of 6, all named after our sponsors products. Darwen won the JWL Bitter Group with Enfield as runners up. Burnley won the Founders group with Clitheroe taking 2nd place. Walsden and Crompton took the top two places in the Manchester Craft group and Ramsbottom and Bacup went through from the MPA division. This created quarter finals with the group winners hosting. Burnley overcame Crompton by 7 wickets at Turf Moor and Darwen beat Bacup at Birch Hall by 59 runs. In the other two quarter finals at Acre Bottom and Scott Street, Ramsbottom were too strong for Enfield in a 9 wicket win and Clitheroe posted a massive 256 for 2 in beating Walsden by 66 runs. This set up the finals day at Acre Bottom, Ramsbottom and as in 2017 the weather caused a postponement from the original date and once again we had to revert to Bank Holiday Monday again. The weather from earlier in the season didn’t oblige and at one stage the day didn’t look as though it was going to happen. But this is the Lancashire League and people used commonsense and got on with it. Albeit in games reduced to 10 overs a side. In the first semi final Clitheroe managed to pip Darwen on the last ball and the second game was just as close with a Burnley win over the hosts, Ramsbottom, again from the last ball. In the final Burnley batted first and posted a total of 98 from their 10 overs. Clitheroe lost two early wickets and the loss of their sub pro Sean Ervine didn’t help their cause and despite the efforts of skipper Jack Dewhurst fell 22 runs short which meant that Burnley left Acre Bottom with their third T20 championship trophy. The League had ten entries in the Lancashire Knockout Cup in 2018 and the League had its first ever winner of the competition when Darwen overcame Clifton in the final at Ormskirk with a thrilling 2 wicket win. Chasing Clifton’s 146 for 9, Darwen slumped to 69 for 7 and then 90 for 8 until skipper Mark Friend (41 no) and Neil Cordingley (26 no) added 57 for the 9th wicket to see them home. Ian Seddon of the Lancashire Cricket Foundation presented the trophy to Darwen at the League Presentation Dinner at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel. The second eleven Championship also went down to the last day of the season.