Lancashire League Handbook 2023

20 SECRETARY’S REPORT 2022 I begin my report reflecting that 2022 was my 49th season associated with Lancashire League Cricket having joined Accrington in 1973 so 2023 will be my half century and 17th season as League Secretary. There have been many milestones over the years but there is no doubt that the introduction of the two division model with promotion and relegation has given the League fresh impetus and helped to earn our opportunity to be awarded Premier League status. We must remember that the eyes of the Cricket world will more than likely be watching over us, even more, to see that we maintain our standards as one of the best Leagues in the country. The introduction of Live Streaming of matches by several Clubs is another innovation towards promoting our great League but we must remember that these matches go worldwide and behaviour must reflect our reputation and players should respond accordingly. Firstly my thanks to all of our Executive, we have a set of hardworking people with the workload now spread between all. The Senior League was another great season and ended with just a two point gap between the top two sides. However the Champions had the title sealed with a game to go. But in fairness the runners up, Clitheroe, kept right on until the end of the season and, despite losing their contracted professional, had substitutes for all but one game which earned them the JW Lees Holland Cup for Season 2022. Clitheroe had several consistent performers. Jack Dewhurst had 777 runs, Thomas Lord 666, Ali Ross 663 and Sam Mulligan 417 and Ali Ross also took 34 wickets and Sam Halstead 25. The Champions, Darwen, were well served during the season by professional Siddesh Lad who scored 765 runs in 18 innings with 2 centuries and six fifties and also took 26 wickets. Able support was provided by John Cordingley with 590 runs and skipper Scott Friend chipped in with 403. David Bowden worked his magic again with the ball, amassing 60 wickets and John Cordingley took 41. This is Darwen’s first Lancashire League Championship. In Senior Division Two, going into the last round of games, we had a similar situation as in 2021 with two sides vying for the second promotion slot as Littleborough had already confirmed theirs the week before. Church who were in the runners up slot at the start of play on the last day but fell to defeat at Nelson and this left Enfield with the opportunity to leapfrog them if they could win at Bacup. Professional Promod Maduwantha and Simon O’Loughlin took 4 wickets each to restrict Bacup to 142 and they then marched into Division One with Lewis Wright top scoring with 63.