Lancashire League Handbook 2020

17 SECRETARY’S REPORT 2019 The 2019 season saw the introduction of promotion and relegation into the format of the League for the first time in its history and from all accounts it has been received with great enthusiasm as Clubs now have something to play for longer into the season and are able to compete at the standard their Clubs are currently at whilst striving to reach the levels they aspire to. We all know that success in Cricket is on cyclic basis and over the course of history every Club has a period of success and at some time they will have to accept a few lean years. Sadly during the season we had the news that Milnrow decided to resign from the League and we hope that they will find the level they wish, or are able to, compete at and then rebuild back to the standard such a historic and respected Club deserves. We continued to benefit from our sponsorship with J W Lees, and saw the introduction of Umpires jackets and stump with both bearing the sponsors logo. We look forward to a long and lasting partnership with the company. The League overall had a season with competitive and meaningful cricket right up until the last games of the season in all three divisions and this meant that there were many outstanding individual performances along the way. At the start of the season there were nine Sri Lanka professionals, nine South Africans, one from India, one from Pakistan, one from Zimbabwe and three home based players engaged by Clubs. Unfortunately the Burnley and Milnrow signings had to give back word before the season and Crompton lost their paid man very early on and all three ended up relying on substitutes throughout the remainder of the season. Arranging substitutes week in, week out adds to the administrative duties of Clubs and when you add others looking for replacements because of injuries or recalls for tours and training camps there is an ever diminishing pool of players to draw on, particularly on Saturdays when there are more Leagues playing. The annual Ron Singleton Colne Trophy raised the curtain on the season on a bright sunny day at Lowerhouse, who hosted Walsden who won the toss and chose to bat first. Three wickets fell early as they were reduced to 32 for 3 but a partnership of 98 between Jake Hooson and professional Umesh Karunaratne who made 46 steadied the ship. Joe Gale made 44, and was shortly followed by Jake Hooson who topped scored with 86 after they had taken the score to almost 200 before Elliot Gilford and Oliver Whitehead boosted the final score to 261 for 7 from their 50 overs. In reply Lowerhouse lost both openers early in their innings and whilst professional Ockert Erasmus made 52 and there were contributions from Charlie Cottam, Joe Hawke, Joe Martin and Toqir Hussain along the way, the hosts fell 92 runs short meaning that Walsden took the trophy at their first attempt.