Fergie time is over – Rocky times still await

2 minute read

“When you go, your footprints will fill with grass. Moss shall cover your tombstone, and as the sun rises, green shall spread over all, in all its shades and hues. This verdigris will overtake your swords and your coins and your battlements and, try as you might, all you hold dear will succumb to it. Your skin, your bones. Your virtue.”

Basically, in the grand scheme of things, it’s hard for any of us to make a truly lasting impact – but to be fair to him, Fergus O’Neill did only play four games.

An apology then. A few days ago, we billed the Aussie seamer a long-term rental but he was in fact no such thing. He’s heading home already, 21 first-class wickets to his name and with his temporary employers Nottinghamshire top of the table. (Apparently he was only eligible for a short-term visa.)

O’Neill was actually a bit peripheral in his fourth and final match, the win over Sussex. Josh Tongue took five wickets in the first innings and Farhan Ahmed took four in the second, despite being even younger than his famously young brother, Rehan Ahmed (who is, admittedly, three years older than when we wrote that article. Watch out for moss and verdigris, Rehan!)

That said, 17’s quite the age these days, innit. He’s positively a veteran.

Surrey have moved up to second off the back of their first win of the season. Jordan Clark took eight wickets. It’s funny to see him now, a stalwart of the best team in the County Championship these last few years, when he was seemingly pigeonholed as a somewhat peripheral white ball specialist when he was at Lancashire.

These things happen. Players move and find opportunities elsewhere. Who was the last player who truly thrived at Lancashire though? Keaton Jennings has recovered from a career low since moving there, but it’s hard to think of anyone else. Saqib Mahmood’s tip-toeing a narrow path between injuries, but it feels like Liam Livingstone could have achieved more. Of the players who showed promise, Nottinghamshire’s captain has done well out of leaving the club, while Matt Parkinson is these days turning out for Kent’s Second XI.

All eyes on Rocky Flintoff’s battlements then.

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Reports, reaction & round-up: April 26-27

Game of the weekend

Firwood Bootle returned to the top flight with a bang, chasing 237 to earn a four-wicket win at Birkenhead Park.

Shaneil Patel’s side didn’t have things their own way, looking lost for a while with the ball and having to sacrifice a few wickets to the capricious gods of the Last Hour.

But a fine opening stand of 146 between Steve Rimmer and Ryan Westwell proved to be the decisive contribution.

They had a few helping hands – namely the buttery ones belonging to the three Park fielders who shelled catches in the first six overs of the innings. 

Skipper Alex Harris – the guilty man himself on one occasion – couldn’t have asked for a better cautionary tale for his side. By the time they created three more openings, the scoreboard read 172 and the momentum was all Bootle’s.

Rimmer set the tone with a crisp cover drive off Chris Stenhouse’s third ball, as the seamer returned to his old stomping ground against one of his former clubs, and continued in similar vein.

He more than any other batter managed to consistently find the boundary despite a sluggish outfield, and was brutal with anything wide.

Westwell was just as effective but more through the leg-side as Stenhouse, Pakistani spinner Safi Abdullah and Harris struggled to find the right line.

David Nevin trapped Westwell just after passing 50 and castled Ali Andrady just into the last hour – in between, Rimmer had succumbed to scoreboard pressure, attempting a ramp-scoop off Safi on 94 when orthodox shots had served him so well.

Stenhouse returned to remove Ali and Sagar Trivedi, and Safi had Kriek held at long off to set a few hares running in Bootle’s minds – but their cameos had done just about enough, and 17-year-old Jaden Rose slashed Stenhouse over slip to end the contest.

Patel admitted to some relief after the late flurry of wickets, but in truth his side never lost control of the chase. 

He said: “It was a good game on a good pitch and it’s nice to get going with a win. 

“The openers batted really well. There were a few nerves at the end and it was a relief to get over the line – but the openers had set it up really well, so there wasn’t a lot for the middle and lower orders to do. 

“We’ll take it game by game and we’re always learning and trying to improve our game. 

“It was good to chase down a big score like that, I was very happy with it.”

Love Lane Liverpool Competition results

The game was the first in the Comp’s top flight to be umpired by a woman, Kirsty Blackham. And some of the batters looked in the mood to smash some glass ceilings themselves, with 14 sixes (and a fair few uppish fours) across the two innings. 

After Patel won the toss, the visiting bowlers dominated the first hour, with Trivedi extracting some serious bounce from one end and Kieran New running through his variations from the other. 

But Patel recognised the difference between last season, in Division One, and this – such a hostile, accurate spell a year ago might have left the opposition six down; here, it was just three. 

Andrew Clarke and Harris laboured the point with a stand of 103 in 127 balls. Both started in watchful mood, Harris breaking character only to smack New for successive sixes, but accelerated after drinks. 

Rose pinned Harris but took some tap from Clarke and, with Safi finding the rope, Patel turned to off-spinners Josh Andrady and Kriek in an attempt to subdue the left-handers.

Clarke looked destined for his first century for Park, and his first in the Comp since 2021 for Northern, but feathered Kriek to Kris Ali on 98 – two Bootle debutants combining.

Safi kept swinging for the fences and powered Park past the fifth bonus point with an unbeaten 64 – Harris, in his first league game as skipper, pulled the plug on 236.

Afterwards, he stood by his declaration and said the game was won and lost with those early drops.

“At half-way we were happy, we’d batted really well,” he said. 

“But we were poor in the field early on, dropped a few catches and that set the tone, really. 

“They batted well and we just couldn’t find a way through – it was too little too late in the end. 

“I was proud of the way the lads stuck at it and didn’t let their heads drop, but the fielding cost us early on, myself included. 

“We’re normally really good in the field, maybe it was a lack of concentration early on. 

“We just have to learn from it and make sure the next few chances stick. If we’d taken a couple of early wickets, it could have been a very different game.”

ECB Premier Division

The other promoted club, Colwyn Bay, also won away after a big run chase – the Welshmen overcoming Formby with just one wicket to spare.

Chasing 251 after a declaration set up by half-centuries from Ian Cockbain, Lucas Kennedy and Jack Carney on club debut, Bay still needed 103 when their seventh wicket fell. 

But Matt Russell countered with a punchy 58 from 53 balls, and last pair Charlie Collins and Dulanjana Mendis got them over the line.

Rainhill came close to upsetting Northern, before Tom Sephton took centre stage. The spinner claimed 6/82, including a hat-trick, to run through the visitors’ lower order – after Ryan Brown’s half-century, they slumped from 138/4 to 159/9.

Sephton then removed Khalid Usman to seal the nine-run win. Earlier, Stephen Lucas’s 64 had been the only double figure score in the hosts’ top six.

Things were much less fraught for champions Ormskirk, who cantered to a 134-run win over Rainford. In contrast to many of last season’s games at Brook Lane, the hosts piled up a huge score – 267/3 thanks to unbeaten centuries from former Lancashire man George Lavelle and skipper Gary Knight, in a stand of 190. 

The visitors started strongly and Jason Login made 60, but Jamie Barnes’ 6/36 and four wickets from England international Tom Hartley wrapped up the win.

Leigh defended 141 to earn a 12-run win over Wallasey, for whom Australian spinner Ejaaz Alavi took 6/28 on debut. Mattie McKiernan and Adam Shallcross took four wickets each as the hosts wilted from 55/1 to 129 all out.

Wigan were frustrated by Newton-le-Willows, whose lower order hung on for a draw. Indian batter Shubham Khajuria’s 71 led the hosts’ 232 but after Ben Walkden’s 75, Newton closed on 183/7.

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Division One

Orrell Red Triangle just got over the line to ensure New Brighton started life in the second tier with a two-wicket defeat.

Skipper Andy Baybutt top scored with 47 for Orrell and his lower order had enough in the tank after Damitha Silva’s unbeaten 67 set a target of 164.

Southport & Birkdale fared better on their first outing since relegation, Bobby Wincer’s 6/50 earning a 39-run win at Highfield. Bellis Shukla had top-scored with 56 for the Sandgrounders.

Liverpool dominated their clash with promoted Hightown St Marys, who slumped from 30/0 to 92 all out. New skipper Jared Clein led the chase with an unbeaten 46.

Sutton earned a big win in their first game at this level, Andy Cowley’s 6/45 the key to their nine-wicket win over Old Xaverians. 

Wicketkeeper James Stirling made an unbeaten 67 in Sefton Park’s six-wicket win at Maghull, for whom Macauley Lawrenson made 72.

Spring View saw off Lytham thanks to four wickets each from Marc Birch and James Critchley, after Supun Samarathunga top-scored with 54.

Division Two

Prescot & Odyssey returned to the Comp with a three-wicket win at Southport Trinity, set up by Ali Zubairi’s 5/30. Jake Sunderland’s four wickets made a game of it, but the newly promoted side had enough to get over the line.

St Helens Town and Whitefield were both within touching distance of the win in their game – Town 11 runs away, the visitors one wicket shy. Cronje Van Greunen’s 6/56 on debut for the Roby side was the leading contribution.

Wavertree edged a thriller against Parkfield Liscard, an unbeaten 77 from Luke Carus-McDonald carrying them over the line by one wicket. 

Harry Beddard made 87 in Caldy’s 202 against Norley Hall, who fell well short thanks to Sadeep Saputantrige’s 5/24.

Ainsdale’s Daniel Fitzpatrick set up his side’s win at Northop Hall with 90, after which Dilanka Auwardt took 5/79 to secure the win, with Ben Slater making a defiant 72 before being last out.

Fleetwood Hesketh’s 180, with 50 from Nathan Condon, was enough for a 93-run win at Prestatyn, for whom skipper Adam Tidswell took 5/77.

SUNDAY

ECB National Club Championship

Formby, on the wrong side of a thriller on Saturday, made amends with a one-run win at Fleetwood in Group 6. 

The Northern League champions ran through the visitors for just 89, but 17-year-old spinner Archie Davies rose to the occasion and took 5/23, including the last wicket in the nick of time.

Wallasey will visit Cricket Path in the next round for an all-Comp tie after captain Greg Beaver made 62 to see off Hadfield St Andrew’s.

Along with 2024 beaten finalists Northern, who had a bye, they will be the only league representatives in the group. Northern will host Longridge after the Northern League side beat Highfield despite 51 from Jamie Darbyshire.

Birkenhead Park succumbed for 77 against Horwich RMI to end their campaign, while Firwood Bootle couldn’t get close to Westhoughton’s 285/6.

Wigan benefited from Penrith’s concession in Group 5. They will next face Leyland, whose 231/6 was too much for Orrell Red Triangle.

Ormskirk, against Flowery Fields, and Leigh, against Blackpool, enter the competition at the next stage.

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Saturday, April 26: Opening day feat. Birkenhead Park v Firwood Bootle LIVE!

Follow all the action LIVE here as newly promoted Firwood Bootle take on Birkenhead Park…

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Irby happy to be back in Cheshire… and aiming high after winning start

Irby skipper Rafi Afridi says his side feel at home in the Cheshire Cricket League, having spent two seasons in other competitions.

Relegation from the Love Lane Liverpool Competition in 2023, their first season after making the move, was followed by a successful year in the Southport & District league.

But despite winning the Sandhurst Shield and losing just two league games all year, those two happened to be to Prescot & Odyssey, who pipped the Wirral side to promotion.

The club voted unanimously to return to their Cheshire roots and began their Division One campaign with an eight-wicket win at Lymm Outrighton Park.

Afridi said: “It wasn’t a very competitive league last year. We’d sometimes be done by 1pm.

“Prescot & Odyssey were pretty much the only competitive games we had, and they were the only ones we lost. 

“We’re looking forward to a more competitive league in Cheshire. 

“There will be a bit more travelling to do but that’s nothing we haven’t done before. We feel a bit more settled in this league.

“No matter what league we play in we need to be strong, we need to be determined, we need to keep looking ahead and have a goal in mind. 

“It has been a bit of a bumpy ride, but we’re looking ahead now.”

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If all goes to plan, Irby could even notch up a fourth league in five years if they achieve promotion to the Cheshire County Cricket League.

Key to their success will be a sprightly seam attack of Ollie Wilson, 17, and South African Lowick Van Heerden, 18.

Wilson took 3/11 on Saturday as the hosts succumbed for just 60 – next up is a home clash against Stockport Trinity.

Afridi added: “My personal aim is to get promoted and the lads are focused on that goal. 

“We will give it our best shot and we’re definitely optimistic. 

“The youngsters we’ve got coming through deserve to be in a better league. 

“I think that’s where the club should be playing, to help them fulfill their potential.”

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Thunder Cup: Sefton Park and Leigh step into the unknown as women’s game continues to expand

Sefton Park’s women celebrate their Lancashire T20 win

Women’s club cricket took another stride forward on Sunday with the first round of Thunder Cup fixtures, featuring two of the region’s biggest success stories.

And while Leigh’s six-wicket win over Sefton Park was notable for a match-winning stand of 133 between Australian Lucy Page and Lancashire Academy prospect Olivia Brinsden, there was plenty of cause for optimism all round.

For Sefton, led by Sarah Culloty, admission to the Thunder Cup has capped a remarkable rise for a section launched just six years ago.

The application process included a presentation at Emirates Old Trafford, and rested heavily on off-field matters such as the health of the girls’ section and the support of the club as a whole, both fields where Sefton excelled.

But they’ve also punched above their weight on the actual field – winning the Love Lane Liverpool Competition’s T20 league and the Lancashire T20 cup last year, and finishing second in the county 40-over league.

“We’re probably at the lower end of the teams who are the Thunder Cup, because we’ve only been going six years, but we argued that each step of the way, we’ve been successful,” said Culloty.

Sunday ticked off another milestone – it was the side’s first ever 50-over match. 

With that in mind, Culloty was delighted with how they applied themselves, particularly in batting their overs after slipping to 17/3 early on.

The skipper made 36 and Abbie Wright an unbeaten 41 from number eight.

Culloty said: “It was a really nice match and it was great to be back playing. 

“It was nice to see a lot of the non-Lancashire or overseas players doing well – we really struggled at the top but I was really chuffed that we batted the full overs. 

“Our lower half put us in a really good position – I never thought we had quite enough and we were always going to have to bowl them out, but the lower order really got us to a good score. 

“There’s so much we can learn from playing with and against the more experienced players.”

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Leigh’s coach, Dave Dove, agreed, saying: “Sefton batted impressively down to the end, and it made it difficult for us. 

“But we had a good partnership between Lucy and Olivia and got on top of the bowling.”

Page, from Melbourne, only arrived in England last week and hit the ground running – or more often not running, as 64 of her 72 came from boundaries.

“Normally when you bring overseas players over in April it takes them a while to adjust to the wickets and the weather,” Dove added. 

“But luckily the wicket was quite good, and it helped her adapt and get into her stride.”

Leigh’s women’s side at Beech Walk

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One big selling point of the Thunder Cup, designed to provide a bridge between the club game and the top level, is the allocation of Lancashire stars to the eight competing clubs.

Sefton have been given Red Rose captain Ellie Threlkeld, of Rainford, and Upton spinner Sophie Morris, along with Academy talents Emilia Lamb, of Newton-le-Willows, and Ormskirk’s Martha Rimmer.

Leigh’s allocation is Brinsden, of Egremont in Cumbria, along with one of their own in Danielle Collins and Staffordshire’s Grace Potts.

Due to county commitments and injury, only Brinsden and Rimmer took the field. But Threlkeld, Morris and Lamb turned up to cheer their side on, and both clubs are hopeful of seeing more of their star names in the future.

Culloty said: “It’s all very new and nobody knew what kind of players we would be getting. 

“And obviously they have to fit it into the rest of their schedules. But it’s caused a lot of excitement.

“It was great having Martha on the field with us – even though she’s quite young, she’s far more experienced than us in cricketing terms. 

“There is a question of balance at the club – we welcome these players, and we want them in the team, but obviously we’ve got a full squad who turn up to training every week and pay their membership fees… we had to talk carefully with our whole women’s section to make sure everyone was on board. 

“But having those players around the club is exciting for the ones who aren’t playing as well.”

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Leigh were also without their skipper Sophie Heaton and star batter Ellie Mason, who made 726 at an average of 121 last year.

But Dove said it was no surprise that Page and Brinsden ended up having the decisive say.

He added: “It’s not just the on-field stuff, it’s the preparation and the way they approach the game that will hopefully rub off on the other players.”

The next round of Thunder Cup matches comes in mid-May – until then, it’s back to the bread and butter.

Leigh are defending the Cheshire League title they won last year, and in 2022 as well. 

Dove said: “We’ve been successful in the league in the last few years and I think it’s important to maintain that consistency. 

“There are some good sides in this cup competition, and we suffered a bit on Sunday because two of our best players were selected to play for Cheshire, and it might depend on factors like that.

“The league is the bread and butter and it’s a good standard in terms of facilities and wickets – we’re not taking our eyes off the league.”

Sefton’s next assignment is a T20 against Hightown St Marys at Croxteth Drive on Sunday followed by a meeting of the club’s two U12 hardball sides – the Sefton Derby, as Culloty put it.

“Our board have been very supportive,” she added. “All this means more matches to fit into a packed schedule.

“It’s great that Lancashire have put this on for us, and the Liverpool Competition have done a lot to support us too.”

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Drawsome: County Championship battle for mid-table mediocrity rages

1 minute read

There’s another top of the table clash looming in the County Championship this week. That’s not as dramatic as it sounds though because as tables go it’s something of a chabudai.

Quite a lot of teams have only managed one win so far this season – and they’re the high performers. After three games, no-one’s notched a second victory.

That leaves us with Nottinghamshire v Sussex as this weekend’s big game. Not that there’s much choice because – joy of joys – we’ve now entered that portion of the season where not everyone plays each week and the table therefore becomes even harder to draw conclusions from. Surrey v Somerset and Worcestershire v Durham are the only other top flight games and they’re currently the four table-proppers (legs?).

So we’re left with Notts v Sussex. The home team have the division’s top wicket-taker in the form of long-term rental, Fergus O’Neill. The visitors have the top run-scorer in opener Tom Haines – who must be eyeing Zak Crawley’s England spot.

It’s early days, but are we set for a drawsome season? We’re back at eight points for a draw these days after a dalliance with five points in 2023. Is there any chance someone could get close to Warwickshire’s feat of taking the title with five wins from 16 matches in 2004? (Kent finished second with seven wins.)

We’ve already waved goodbye to a record low points total though. In 1890, Surrey won the inaugural County Championship with six points after notching nine victories in 14 matches. Sussex finished bottom that year on -10. Now that was a table.

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What in Blazes? English women’s domestic game restarts in (yet) another user-friendly format

2 minute read

In England the men’s domestic game tends to flail around incorrigibly, endlessly adding formats and complexity to make itself ever more impenetrable. The women’s game, in contrast, tends to move from one reasoned, accessible structure to another. The sheer frequency of overhauls seems to us the only meaningful attempt to alienate fans.

A few years back, we rather liked the Super League: six regional teams playing 10 games each, then semi-finals and a final. It seemed a really manageable number of teams and games to keep track of and an entirely logical format. We thought the regions were for the most part pretty coherent too.

That ended in 2019 and we then had eight regional teams competing in the Charlotte Edwards Cup and Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy. Again, these competitions had sensible formats (everyone played everyone twice) and again the regional teams were pretty decent in the sense of the areas they represented.

All change

But now that’s gone too. Today is day one of a new, three-tiered domestic competition structure with a fully professional top flight and semi-professionalism below it.

This year, eight ‘Tier 1’ counties will contest the One-Day Cup and T20 Blast. The former is underway and will continue on and off throughout the season into September. The latter steps in to cover June and most of July with The Hundred pushing both competitions aside for the whole of August.

Beneath this, 10 ‘Tier 2’ sides will compete in Division Two of the same competitions, while a dozen more National Counties will join all of these teams in the Women’s County Cup, which is a T20 knock-out competition.

There will be no promotion or relegation for the first three seasons, but after that meritocracy will reign.

Plus points

The big hope here is that the new structure will result in a massive increase in the number of professional women’s players.

More trivially, we are delighted to see that one team has misread their invitation and mistakenly arrived in fancy dress.

Because the eight teams taking part are…

• Durham
• Essex
• Hampshire
• Lancashire
• Somerset
• Surrey
• Warwickshire
• The Blaze

The Blaze are taking on Lancashire in their first match and just from a personal perspective can we say how pleasing it is to see a Lancashire side in the top flight, because the men’s team appears to be faring no better in Division 2 than it was in Divison 1.

They’ve been underwhelming the last couple of seasons, but it’s hard to convey just how far they’re falling short of expectations at this point. As Mike Atherton put it last week: “Lancs following-on to Northants at Old Trafford: My God. If that had happened about 30 years ago we’d have all got the sack.”

No chance of following-on in Division 1 of the Metro Bank One Day Cup, of course. At the time of writing, Lancs have put The Blaze out for 234 before progressing to 110-1 in their chase – so no need for lower order fire-fighting just yet. You can watch it if you want.

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Round-up: April 19-20

Ray Digman Trophy

Formby were the highest-profile casualties of Round 1, falling well short of Birkenhead Park’s huge 293/7.

Skipper Ian Cockbain and debutant wicketkeeper Jack Carney each made half-centuries, but once they fell the visitors’ chances faded; earlier, Alex Harris marked his first game as Park captain with 93, helped by Safi Abdullah’s 54 in a stand of 129.

Park will play 2023 winners Rainford in the last eight, after Jason Login defended 10 off the last over to see off a spirited Newton-le-Willows pursuit of 194. 

Ben Walkden top scored with 70 on his captaincy debut but fell in the penultimate over; debut spinner Tom Spilsbury’s nine overs cost just 16 runs. 

Northern and Ormskirk set up a blockbuster quarter-final with wins over Wallasey and Wigan.

On the Wirral, stand-in skipper Chris Laker made an unbeaten 61 to drag his side to 173, before a classic middle overs squeeze by the ECB National KO finalists left the hosts 29 runs short.

Young seamer Cam Hill took 4/14 for holders Ormskirk, before George Lavelle’s unbeaten 72 led their chase of 176.

Latest Results

Karl Brown reached three figures with the winning runs for Leigh, who made short work of overhauling New Brighton’s 208. Harry Church made 64 in an unbroken stand of 187, after Ashley Watkins’ 81 gave the Rakers a good start.

Leigh will play Firwood Bootle after Ivan Kriek’s unbeaten 73 led their chase of 177 against Highfield. Teenage seamer Jaden Rose took 4/27 for Bootle.

Liverpool are the only Division One side in the last eight after Dan Harrison’s unbeaten 52 saw them home at Southport & Birkdale. The all-rounder, on debut, had earlier taken 4/35 as David Snellgrove’s 70 kept the hosts competitive.

Liverpool will face Rainhill, who inched past Colwyn Bay with two balls to spare. Alex Winiarski made 73 for the hosts after Matt Russell’s 63 led the hosts to 194/9.

Ray Tyler Cup

Cam Lawrenson smashed 118 as Maghull piled on the runs against Prestatyn in their Preliminary Round clash.

Macauley Lawrenson and skipper Anthony Molloy also made half-centuries in the hosts’ massive 302/8; Shaun Hornsby’s 3/11 ensured the Welshmen fell well short.

Lytham reached Round 1 thanks to a comfortable win over Caldy. Former Lancashire man Steven Croft took 4/12 to keep the Wirral side well short of their target of 148.

Sefton Park are through to the quarter-finals thanks to a dominant nine-wicket win in their derby clash against Wavertree. Haroon Khan’s 59 made short work of their target of 112.

They will play Parkfield Liscard after skipper Nuwan Wijekoon took 5/25 – one more wicket than he took all last year – to send his side to the last eight at the expense of Fleetwood Hesketh.

Norley Hall ran out of road against Sutton in Round 1, falling just short of their target despite Matty Hayes’ 53. Jamie Greener had top-scored with 34 to rescue the St Helens side from 125/7 to eventually post 169.

Andrew Watkin took a hat-trick – three first-ballers in a row, after a run-out – but Northop Hall still ended up on the losing side to Comp new boys Prescot & Odyssey. Matt Nation’s 5/15 had restricted the Welsh side to just 104, and P&O overcame their Watkin wobble to win by three wickets.

They will play Old Xaverians, who recovered from 114/6 to overhaul Hightown St Marys 167, with a crucial unbeaten stand between Ian Carroll and Sean Stamper. Earlier, Lewis Barnes took 6/27 for the Woolton side.

Half centuries for James Critchley and Nathan Ashford were enough to book Spring View’s place in Round 1 with a 55-run win over Ainsdale. 

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Thunder Cup

The Love Lane Liverpool Competition’s two representatives in the new Thunder Cup faced off on Sunday, and Leigh claimed the honours over Sefton Park.

Lucy Page blasted 72 off 38 balls, in a partnership of 133 with Lancashire Academy prospect Olivia Brinsden, to knock off the bulk of the target of 210.

Sefton had been left reeling at 17/3 by Kasey Bentham’s opening spell; Abbie Wright’s unbeaten 41 from number eight helped set a competitive total.

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2025 PREVIEWS: Cheshire Lines ready for another big push, says skipper Helsby

Cheshire Lines skipper Luke Helsby is hoping for more of the same this year from his Southport & District league promotion contenders.

The Allerton side’s fourth place finish in last season’s Premier Division was their lowest since 2019, an impressive record which includes one title, in 2021.

And given the three sides who finished above them have all left the arena, no wonder he feels his side can be competitive again.

Champions Prescot & Odyssey have been promoted to the Love Lane Liverpool Competition, runners-up Irby have returned to the Cheshire Cricket League and third-placed Burscough have left for the Preston-area Palace Shield.

Helsby said: “It’s going to be a pretty open league this year.

“I’d like to think it’ll be another strong campaign.

“There’s a few other sides who have been around mid-table and might be looking to have a push themselves this year.”

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With the Premier Division down to 10 sides, the first few weeks of the season will be taken up by cup cricket, giving the sides the chance to feel each other out.

Not that Lines need it, according to their skipper.

He added: “The 10 teams who are left, we know each other inside and out with the exception of Alder.

“So I don’t think there’ll be any surprises in that sense. 

“We’ve got a couple of lads who didn’t play last year, a few ins and outs, nothing major – it’ll be the same core group of lads who have been playing for the last four or five years.”

Lines were ineligible for promotion in 2021, and soon the Southport league will be merged with the Comp anyway.

Stepping up a level would still mean switching limited overs cricket for timed, and amateur cricket for open – Helsby is not sure of the impact promotion would have, if his side were to pull it off.

“If it happens, it will be a big change and we’d have to invest in the squad,” he said.

“I’ve gone to certain players and tried to get them interested and the first question is always ‘do I have to pay subs, or can I get paid’… that’s not what we’re about. 

“So we’ll just have to see how it comes if it happens.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Upton hoping to keep up momentum under skipper Owen

Upton skipper Matt Owen is still aiming high after last year’s promotion to Division Two of the Cheshire County Cricket League.

This time last year, Owen believed back-to-back promotions were doable – after wrapping up the Division Three title in style, nothing has changed on that front.

“It was relatively comfortable last year, Christleton pushed us but it was never really in too much doubt,” he said.

“This season is about kicking on from where we left off and keeping that momentum going. 

“We were keen on back-to-back promotions and there’s no reason why we can’t look somewhere near to achieving that.”

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Luke Camden’s return from Neston to his boyhood club should help matters.

The left-hander made more than 5,000 league runs for the Shrimps across 12 seasons and brings a wealth of top-flight nous.

“He was with us until about 15 then went off to play Premier League cricket, so he’s got a lot of experience,” said Owen.

“That experience, that calibre of player, has to be a bonus for the side, and he’s already had an impact in training. 

“He’ll add a lot with the bat, in the field and in the changing rooms.”

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And Australian batter Chris McArthur, who racked up 1,027 league runs last year, will also be back to test himself at a higher level.

Owen added: “It’s always like a new recruit when you manage to retain your overseas. 

“We’ve got a really good squad of 15 or 16 who could become 1st XI cricketers. 

“Division Two and Division Three are not too dissimilar in terms of standard. There are a few unknowns to us in there, but there’s a few we’ve played a lot of cricket against. 

“There will be three or four teams really pushing for promotion, but we like to think we’re capable of dealing with the standard of cricket. 

“A lot of it is about momentum. The first six games will be key.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: The only way is up for Runcorn skipper Maher

Kieran Maher has cast the net wide – and not so wide – in the hope of helping Runcorn climb the table.

After finishing rock bottom of the Cheshire County Cricket League, the side were only spared relegation because Kingsley had to be demoted for dropping their 2nd XI.

It means Maher knows the only way is up as he takes over the captaincy from Will Magee.

He said: “What started off at the end of last season with a bit of ‘oh God, we don’t know what’s going to happen next year’ has turned into everyone being really excited about the start of the season.

“We’ve had really good winter nets, we’ve had loads of people at training, so things are looking quite good for us.

“We shouldn’t have even been in the league, so anything is a bonus. I think we’re in a position to push a bit further and finish higher up the table that we thought we could.”

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Maher is welcoming three key arrivals ahead of the start of the season.

One of them is from Pakistan – all-rounder Nauman Akram, who played for Parkfield Liscard in the Love Lane Liverpool Competition last year.

But another is from a little closer to home – his own dad, Neil Maher, formerly of Moorfield in the Comp and tempted out of retirement by the prospect of being bossed around by his own son.

Ex-Rainhill man Matty Connolly also joins from Whitefield, to bolster the top order.

Maher Jnr said: “I’ve known Matty since I was a kid and we’ve played a lot of cricket together. He’s really settled in well so far.

“We’ve played against Nauman when he was at Cheadle and we know personally how good he is. He’ll open the bowling and bat in the middle order.

“And my dad’s decided to give it another crack. He was a really good cricketer in his younger days. 

“We’ve got quite a young team so he’ll balance that out as a slightly older head.”

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Maher is hoping for a more enjoyable season than last year’s struggle.

He added: “We’ve got a really strong batting line-up – our 11 should be batting at seven or eight – so we want to be posting big totals then backing it up with the bowling attack.

“Ideally I’d like us to be finishing mid-table. 

“We’re not looking at promotion yet because it’s been a transitional year for us – we also want to enjoy our cricket, because it wasn’t a lot of fun last year.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Skelton begins rebuild with some new faces at relegated Southport & Birkdale

Southport & Birkdale are looking to pick themselves up off the canvas with some new faces and a new man in charge.

Wicketkeeper Dean Skelton takes the reins following last year’s relegation under David Snellgrove.

After two last-gasp survival acts in the Sandgrounders’ five-year stay in the top flight, relegation was a sad coda to a difficult summer which began with Snellgrove stepping in when Chris Cunningham fell seriously ill.

And a longer era came to an end when veteran off-spinner Chris Firth announced his retirement.

Twirling away from the tennis court end at Trafalgar Road since 2003, the former skipper’s absence will leave a bigger gap than any one player could fill.

Lancashire prospect Jack Carney headed for Formby to further his professional ambitions, while Basil Sultan and Jack Stanley also departed the top order. 

Skelton had some rebuilding to do, in terms of morale as well as the playing staff.

“It has been tough,” he admitted. “Towards the end of last year it was really difficult, the mood in the dressing room was poor.

“So bringing in a few new players and having a new captain will definitely help morale. 

“I think a bit of time away will do Firthy the world of good. 

“He has been a fantastic servant to S&B and he’s still involved in the club, but he just wanted a bit of time on Saturdays.

“As for the others, it’s frustrating but I get why people have left, and ultimately you have to do what’s right for you. There’s no hard feelings.”

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Former Dutch international Muhammad Kashif – lately of Cheshire County Cricket League side Bollington – will bowl some of Firth’s overs.

And an Australian amateur, 19-year-old Raunak Roy, will join the batting department – along with Kiran Naidoo from Ormskirk and Seb Rice from Northern, two young prospects unlikely to get much of a look-in at their old clubs.

Skelton said: “It’s about bringing these players through and giving them a platform. 

“The Prem is a very good standard of cricket and it can be tough for a young lad when there’s an SLA on at one end who is a first-class cricketer. 

“I think in this league, there will be more opportunities to score runs and get wickets.

“It’s a much younger side but we’ll see how we go. 

“I just want the lads to have a laugh and enjoy their cricket.”

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Last time S&B were in Division One, in 2018, they stormed back up as champions under Firth, going unbeaten until late July.

Skelton – one of six captains in the division starting the season new to the role – has more modest ambitions.

He added: “We’ve got a three- to five-year plan with regards to the building of the club. 

“My main thing is ensuring everyone is enjoying their cricket and I think that naturally brings wins and positivity. 

“We’ve gone away from that in the last few years, it’s been a bit of a survival game. 

“But we need to build something sustainable because in the next few years, I won’t be playing 1st XI cricket and I want to hand it over with a real core of good young cricketers.

“We’re realistic – there are some good sides and we just want to make sure we’re competing in each game. 

“But I’m really comfortable with where we’re at – I’m hoping to be in the top five at least, and we’ll go from there.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: All change at Highfield as Hargreaves looks to carry on ‘legend’ Farrell’s good work

Ryan Hargreaves admits the past week has been a whirlwind – but he is looking forward to settling in as Highfield skipper.

Mike Farrell’s decision to take a break from cricket, with just days to go before the start of the season, left a gap Hargreaves was happy to fill, even if he will regret not having his friend and mentor out there with him.

He said: “Everyone across the Comp knows Mike, he’s done it at the highest level and it’s really sad to see him go. 

“He’s been a legend at Highfield and it’s been a pleasure playing alongside him. 

“I wish him all the best and I’m sure everyone at Highfield and beyond does as well.

“I had a little stint as captain in the Covid year, which was a bit different. 

“But working alongside Mike over the last couple of years, it was in the back of my mind that it was something I wanted to do eventually – maybe not in the way it came about, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

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Highfield were second at the midpoint of last season, only to be overhauled by eventual champions Colwyn Bay. 

An eventual third place finish, along with victory in the Ray Tyler Cup, represented a good season, and Hargreaves hopes to be competitive on all fronts again.

“We had a little drop-off last season but we still finished strongly, and it was nice to get a bit of silverware too,” he said. 

“I’m under no illusions though, with the change over the last week it’s about taking stock and trying to get a good start. 

“It’s not going to be easy but promotion is always the aim – we’ll have a better idea in week six or seven once we’ve got a few games under our belt.”

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Top-order mainstay Hedley Molyneux has departed for a new challenge at Prescot & Odyssey in Division Two, while Mike Simpson arrives from Norley Hall, having already spent two seasons at Highfield in 2017-18.

And Indian all-rounder Mohit Jangra, who made 599 runs and took 65 wickets last year, is back for another spell.

Hargreaves added: “Hedley is a big miss considering what he can do, but Mike is a really good player who’s looking to come into the top order, where we have had a few struggles over the last few years. 

“So hopefully he can do a good job for us this year.

“We’re really happy to have Mohit back, he was outstanding for us last year. I’m sure he’ll lead the way again.”

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Are the 2025 County Championship pacemakers going to drop out after a few laps?

2 minute read

Two games in, the first division of the County Championship has taken on a blobby, amorphous shape with three counties on the same number of points at the top. Will any of them still be in the running at the competition’s autumnal climax?

We may as well start with the table:

Just to highlight the margins here, if one ball had gone differently in yesterday’s Durham v Warwickshire game, the latter could have been third from bottom, so it seems safe to say this hierarchy’s far from settled.

Gaps are beginning to open though. It’s early days, but are any of those 35-point teams legitimate contenders?

Top three

As impressive as it was, Warwickshire’s nine-wickets-down victory was built on runs from the batters at six, seven and eight. As such, they’re shaping up as being incredibly annoying to play against but beyond that there’s plenty of room from improvement from the specialists given they only managed one win last year.

Nottinghamshire’s credentials are similar given they finished below Warwickshire last season. Josh Tongue made his debut in the first match of the season, almost two years after it was announced he was signing from Worcestershire. He took a five-for and Notts won – but the way the England attack was looking last winter, he could soon metamorphosise from an injury victim caterpillar into an injury beneficiary butterfly.

Sussex’s win this week was – somewhat unbelievably – their first in the top flight for a decade. Obviously ‘actually being in the first division’ is a pretty important entry requirement for such things, but we’re still slightly surprised. They won the Championship in each of the first two years of this website’s life and even post-Mushy they’ve had plenty of top quality bowlers – albeit mostly seamers (Jofra Archer, Chris Jordan, Ollie Robinson).

Will one of these counties win the title?

Nah, wouldn’t have thought so. Then again, the Championship is still a tournament in which sides can unexpectedly have a really good run. We wouldn’t put money on anything.

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The post Are the 2025 County Championship pacemakers going to drop out after a few laps? first appeared on King Cricket.

Related posts:

1. ECB expands County Championship comfort zone
2. Promotion day in the County Championship
3. Most of the County Championship starts fairly soon!

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2025 PREVIEWS: Firwood Bootle heading in the right direction, says skipper Patel

Shaneil Patel believes his Firwood Bootle side are on the right track as they prepare to return to the top flight.

Promotion last season ended a spell of three years in Division One, following their first ever relegation in 2021.

That the drop came at the first attempt after securing a 16th league title – three more than the next best – made it all the more shocking.

Patel, who took over as skipper in 2023, knows there is a long way to go to bring back the glory days.

But he believes the project to rebuild the club’s culture is already reaping rewards.

He said: “We’re probably ahead of schedule. We’ve got juniors coming through who will hopefully be pushing for 1st XI spots this year, which is a real positive. 

“We’re concentrating internally on our processes, our culture and it’s going brilliantly. 

“Everyone is on board. Expectations are there, they always have been and always will be. 

“And at some point, if we keep going in the direction we’re going at the moment, we’ll be able to fulfill those expectations. 

“But we just need to concentrate on ourselves, make sure that we’re recruiting people who are buying into the culture, and if they don’t fit then that’s fine and we move on.”

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Patel did not see many gaps in his promotion-clinching side, who remained unbeaten in the league until September.

South African Hermann Rolfes, one of Division One’s best players last season, will not be back – instead, Bootle have snapped up his compatriot Ivan Kriek, fresh from helping Rainford to third place.

Wicketkeeper Kris Ali arrives from Liverpool after a breakthrough 2024, but apart from that there are no new arrivals at Wadham Road.

Spectators will need to have their wits about them – naturalised Indian all-rounder Sagar Trivedi’s 30 sixes last season were the league’s highest.

“We’re excited to see how we can showcase everyone’s abilities,” Patel added.

“We’ve got lads who’ve played in Premier Leagues in different counties so there’s a lot of experience there, but we’re not focusing on any other team apart from ourselves.

“We know we’ve got one of the strongest seam attacks around and we’ve got some very good batters too. 

“There’s a lot of quality there with the likes of Sagar, and Ivan coming in, and we’re very hopeful it will be a decent year.”

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What counts as “decent” is not something Patel is ready to commit to yet. 

Instead, he just wants to focus on making sure his players do themselves justice.

He said: “We’re focused on ourselves, which I’ve always done since I’ve been captain. 

“The main aim for the season is to win as many games as we can and showcase how good a side we are. 

“Results will speak for themselves – if we’re playing proper cricket, then we can beat anyone. 

“We’ll concentrate on that, see what happens this year then build on that the following year.

“We don’t want to look too far ahead, we’re just looking forward to the first game.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Johansen keen to showcase local talent as Colwyn Bay return to the top flight

Colwyn Bay are once again flying the flag for Wales in the Premier Division of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition.

George Johansen’s side pipped Firwood Bootle to the Division One title last year and earned a shot at stabilising in the top flight after a yo-yo few years.

Now the skipper wants to show the rest of the Comp what North Wales has to offer.

He said: “We’ve got some young lads coming through, so it’s good to get some local talent involved and see what they can do. 

“I’m proud that Colwyn Bay are in such a strong league.

“I think it’s a good thing, I certainly view it as that.

“But the North Wales league are also very proud of keeping their homegrown talent in their league, so there is a bit of a divide in that sense.”

Sri Lankan spinner Dulanjana Mendis returns after leading last season’s promotion charge with 83 wickets.

And young seam bowling all-rounder Charlie Collins, part of the North Wales county set-up, arrives from Northop.

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Last season’s top scorer, Will Evans, has returned to Mochdre, and veteran left-arm spinner Paul Jenkins will be playing for Northop Hall in Division Two.

But with the likes of Zack Gidlow and Sion Morris keen to improve on their showing in 2023, when Bay made an instant return to Division One, Johansen is confident in his squad’s quality.

“We have lost a few players over the winter,” the skipper added.

“But it’s an opportunity for other people.”

As for whether his players can arrest the yo-yo trend this year, Johansen is more concerned with them doing themselves proud on the pitch.

He said: “It’s all about trying to play to our potential and see where we can get to. 

“I don’t want to pigeonhole us into a certain position, we’re just going to try to play positive cricket and win some games.

“If we can do that, hopefully we can not only stay up but also upset a few teams along the way.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Horton happy for Sefton Park to fly under the radar

Paul Horton says he doesn’t mind his Sefton Park side being seen as underdogs in Division One.

Last year’s sixth place was their highest since dropping back down from the Premier Division in 2021.

Former Lancashire star Horton believes his side have what it takes to climb higher – but he is quite happy to fly under the radar too.

And with a bit of better luck with the weather, he thinks anything is possible.

Horton said: “We had five games rained off or cancelled, which is more than anyone else; if it weren’t for that, who knows where we’d have finished.”

The biggest disappointment is the departure of young off-spinner Tom Spilsbury, for Rainford, but the skipper reckons an attack led by Jimmy Dixon and Abishek Jagan will still cause plenty of problems.

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Sefton may not have the spending power of some of their rivals, but Horton believes the club can still be an attractive destination.

He added: “We are where we are as a local cricket club, and we do our best. 

“We want the local talent to come through and play, and hopefully they can do well and we can build a team around them. 

“That’s what the idea is, to try to get some younger players into the side and build a team for the future.”

With the weather set fair, Horton is looking forward to testing his side against the division’s best – and seeing where it takes Sefton.

“I think we are strong enough to push for promotion but it depends on the other teams around us,” he said.

“Will the teams coming down be as strong as the ones that came down last year? 

“There are a lot of good sides but we don’t mind being the underdogs.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Transition time at Orrell Red Triangle as Baybutt looks to bring youngsters through

Andy Baybutt is prepared for a season of transition at Orrell Red Triangle, having bid farewell to some key players.

Wicketkeeper Richard Everett has moved to Netherfield in the Northern Premier, while opening batter Luke Prescott and seamer Dom Hayes have been given Premier Division chances by Leigh and Rainford respectively.

Baybutt accepts there are gaps, but is looking forward to seeing whether some of his fringe players can plug them.

“We’ve had a massive transition,” he said.

“Obviously there are massive holes to fill. 

“But I feel like I can take a bit of a bigger role myself, and bring some of the young lads from the second team in.”

Teenage batter Logan Pallet is one who Baybutt thinks is ready for the step up. 

And Matty Aggrey – signed from Comp champions Ormskirk – is another, having taken seven wickets against Northern on his 1st XI league debut in the last game of last season.

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Baybutt, himself a former Ormskirk man with more than 8,000 career league runs, still wants to get his side back to the Premier Division, which they exited in 2023.

He said: “I still have ambitions to challenge as high as we can in the league but I’m not putting too much pressure on in terms of promotion. 

“It’s an opportunity to develop these young lads and make sure the club is in a good state for years to come. 

“We want to win every game but we understand some weeks might not be our week – we’ll just train hard and go again the week after.”

His job will be made a little easier by the return of Dileepa Jayalath, the Sri Lankan slow left-armer who took 75 league scalps for Orrell in the top flight in 2022. 

“He was really interested in coming back so when we found out nobody had snapped him up, it was like it was meant to be,” Baybutt added.

“But I really want to make it an environment that doesn’t just rely on the pro. 

“He’ll be bowling the bulk of the middle overs, but I won’t be opening with him and using him from one end all day.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: Wavertree’s plan is coming together, says vice-captain Smith

Wavertree vice-captain Ben Smith says skipper Theo O’Brien’s “five-year plan” is progressing nicely.

After finishing ninth and 10th in Division Two in 2022 and 2023, last year’s seventh in O’Brien’s first season at the helm represented measurable progress.

Now Smith is hoping to help continue the good work – both in training and on the field.

He said: “I very much enjoyed seeing the improvements we made last year. 

“One thing myself, Theo and our wicketkeeper, Andy Davies, have been looking at is a bit of a culture shift to becoming a bit more professional. 

“Training with a bit more purpose and looking to apply that as we go into each Saturday. 

“It’s something that will take years but I think we did very well to make those improvements.

“To get up to seventh last year felt like a big shift, and if we could do the same again it would be a really good start.”

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Smith recognises the contributions made by individuals like Saeed Ullah, who joined Rainhill last season and impressed in the Premier Division, and Naveed Saleh, who has joined Parkfield Liscard.

But he believes the team can still get stronger, even without having money to spend on replacements.

“Saeed was a big part of our team, and we were fortunate that Naveed came in last year and played a big role too,” he said. 

“But Wavertree isn’t a club where we sign players for money, we’ve never been reliant on one player. 

“Their contribution was noticeable but I see enough talent in this group of players that if we all chip in, we can put in a very good team performance.”

Left-arm spinner Jack Donohue can expect a busy summer backing up the seam attack led by Smith and Shaoor Ul Haq; O’Brien will be joined at the top of the order by Hamish Farrell, an amateur from New Zealand.

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And as the club launches a fundraising drive to secure its future, the clubhouse is once again fully functional.

Smith added: “I play to win because winning is fun, I’m not the sort of person that can enjoy my day if we’re just being hammered. 

“If we play really good cricket and are beaten by a better team, that’s just sport.

“We’ve spoken about a five-year plan – not based solely on league position but how we look on a Saturday, do we look like a good team, are we going about it the right way. 

“To finish between fifth and eighth would be the goal again. 

“Last year, anyone could beat anyone in Division Two – you’d see results coming in at the end of the day and say ‘I can’t believe they’ve taken points off them’. 

“And some days, we were probably that team.” 

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2025 ECHO Knockout draw

This year’s draw for the T20 ECHO Knockout draw pits holders Birkenhead Park against their near neighbours Birkenhead St Marys.

Last year’s beaten finalists Rainford travel to newly promoted Firwood Bootle, while semi-finalists Formby host Spring View and Chester Boughton Hall travel to Wallasey in the first round proper.

This year’s finals day will be held on Bank Holiday Monday, August 25, filling a gap in the calendar left by the traditional Wirral derby not being a fixture this year.

In another change designed to give the hosts more time to prepare, clubs will be invited to bid to host finals day, and will not necessarily be one of the competing clubs.

The ECHO Knockout dates back to 1974 and is administered by the management committee of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition.

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2025 PREVIEWS: New Birkenhead Park skipper hopes to bring red-hot cup form into league campaign

For those of us brave enough to put our predictions in writing ahead of last season, there was pretty much one constant: Birkenhead Park would surprise a few people.

Newly promoted to the Premier Division but with a fire in their belly and a top-quality pro in Sri Lankan Test spinner Malinda Pushpakumara, Park were tipped to make waves.

They showed their quality in winning the ECHO Cup, defeating hosts Formby then Rainford on a scorching finals day. 

But in the league, things were not so hot. Pushpakumara’s arrival was delayed, and the other marquee signing, Andrew Clarke, struggled for fitness.

Both eventually got up and running, but it took a Mark Rowland century, a Pushpakumara five-for and a late Wallasey collapse to get Park the win they needed to stay up on the final day.

Now skipper Alex Harris, who takes over from Ste Hird, wants to help his side find their cup form in the league.

He said: “We’ve always done well in the cups over the last couple of years, getting to a few finals days. 

“It was great for the club to get over the line and win a trophy. 

“But in terms of the league, I’m not sure if it’s consistency or belief with some of the lads that they can play at this level. 

“They maybe don’t feel like they belong and struggle to put in performances week after week, and in this league you won’t win many games that way. 

“It’s about being able to do it on a weekly basis, especially against the top sides.

“Hopefully our success in the cup will help a few of the lads think ‘I can do it now, I do belong at this level’.”

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Pushpakumara’s overseas slot has been taken by the popular Pakistani slow left-armer Safi Abdullah, back for a third stint with the club after spending last season at Newton-le-Willows.

“We started off without a pro and got in a bit of a rut, and when you’re losing matches it’s hard to break that cycle,” Harris said.

“Malinda did really well but he’s a different type of signing to Safi. 

“He’d more come over for a bit of a holiday, towards the end of his career – he did great on the pitch but he wasn’t someone who got too involved in club life.”

Experienced seamer Chris Stenhouse also returns to the club he used to lead, having played at Oxton since 2018.

Harris added: “He and Safi are both really high-quality players and they’re really experienced at this level. 

“So we know what’s coming and we can pretty much bank on what they can offer.

“We feel like we’re building a team with a lot of experience at this level. 

“Our bowling was good anyway last year, but availability was a bit of an issue.”

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And with Clarke back to full fitness, his skipper can’t wait to see what he brings to the top order, having shown glimpses last year.

He said: “Last year was difficult for Clarkey because when he came, he wasn’t fully fit and was waiting for an operation – it happened sooner than we thought it would. 

“But he is fully fit now, and we know how good he is. 

“We’re excited to see a full season out of him – we just have to stay at the crease while he’s there.” 

A big-hitting all-rounder who made 72 from 55 balls in the ECHO Cup triumph, Harris is excited to lead his home town club, and is keen to do so on the front foot.

“Obviously we love playing in this league, but it’s very tough,” he said.

“I think this year we’ll be a closer-knit squad and I’m hoping the experience and know-how at this level will help us a lot.”

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2025 PREVIEWS: All change at Liverpool as Clein looks for repeat performance

New Liverpool skipper Jared Clein is hoping for more of the same from a much-changed side.

Former Leigh seamer Finn Hulbert, with 85 Premier Division wickets over the past two seasons, is the headline arrival.

Adding his experience to the top-flight quality of ex-Ormskirk men Alex and Rob Rankin might appear to be a recipe for building on last season’s fourth place in Division One.

But Clein, who takes over from Matty Jackson, is in a cautious mood thanks to the departures of spinner Ross Allen, all-rounder Jim Poulsom and batter Harry Watson, among others.

He said: “It was a really good, solid year but we’ve lost six or seven players. 

“It’s going to be a new squad and obviously they take time to gel. 

“We’re looking at last year and thinking we had a good season, so we hope we can almost replicate that.

“Finn’s obviously a very good player. We’re looking for him to fill the void left by Ross, who got through a lot of overs.

“I think Rob and Alex weren’t too happy with their form last year, so fingers crossed they can push on as well.”

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Australian wicketkeeper Josh Shawel arrives as an overseas amateur to bolster the top order.

Clein topped the club’s league run charts with 544 last year, and came second only to Allen with 42 wickets – he knows his off-breaks will have some work to do again.

“We’ve got some good pace bowlers but we’re a little lacking in spinners,” he said.

Aged 24, Clein is deceptively experienced with 203 1st XI games under his belt – he believes the time is right for him to take the reins.

He added: “I was a captain for a bit in junior teams, but this is my first taste of it as an adult and I’m really looking forward to it. 

“Talking to Jacko at the end of last season, we realised that even though I’m young I’ve had eight full years in the 1st XI – so on the experience side of things, I’m ready.

“It’s always nice to go into the season believing you’ve got a good chance. 

“We’ll set out with the aim to win as many games as possible and see where it takes us.”

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Succession: Who becomes England Test captain when Ben Stokes inevitably suffers his next major injury?

3 minute read

“Yes, if it is to be said, so it be, so it is,” as Greg Hirsch would say. Harry Brook has been named England’s T20 and one-day international captain, as we all assumed he would be. So what happens when Ben Stokes gets injured and can’t lead the Test team in, ooh, let’s say THE ASHES? Because we all know that is 100% definitely going to happen.

Even though Brook also plays Tests, he has taken the captaincy for both white ball formats because no-one could think of a better solution. It’s a tough ask, but he’s binned off franchise cricket and they reckon England’s schedule’s eased enough that his workload will be manageable.

Maybe it will. Brook will surely sit out the whole of August, which has become a fallow month in international cricket, then October’s looking pretty clear as well, before a tougher run where the Ashes butts up against T20 World Cup preparation early next year.

It’s a lot of playing, but how much captaincy will it entail? What is the likelihood that England have already lumbered their most exciting batter with triple format leadership responsibilities?

“I have of late decided not to tarry too much with hope.”

When we first wrote about Brook becoming ODI captain, back in February, we pointed out that it was in March of last year that Ben Stokes returned to full all-roundering and by August a hamstring was twanging him out of both bowling and batting. A bit of rehab, another return, and in December he was twanged out again.

Stokes fights with the strength of many men, but there’s something of The Black Knight about his attitude to doing so. “There’s a reason I have a Phoenix permanently inked on my body,” he tweeted in December. “See you on the field to fuck some shit up.”

What does this sound like if not a dinosaur having one last roar at the meteor before it wipes him out?

It’s just a flesh wound, isn’t it Ben?

“I’m not saying I’d make a better captain. That’s unsaid.”

Ollie Pope is England’s vice captain in Test cricket and has stood in for Stokes perfecly adequately in the past. But what do you make of him as a long-term candidate? You shouldn’t judge a book by a screengrab you took a year ago, as they say, but the image below always comes to mind when we think of his Test captaincy credentials.

That’s Pope serving as captain against Sri Lanka last summer. It’s just a snapshot obviously and doesn’t mean anything in itself, but it captures our view of him as essentially a specialist vice captain; a company man who can be trusted to provide holiday cover without faffing about with anything important.

Put it this way. Imagine Stokes is ruled out of the whole of the Ashes – who is going to step in? Pope or the guy who’s a fully-fledged England captain in the other two formats?

“If it is to be said, so it be, so it is.”

Are we already watching peak Harry Brook?

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The post Succession: Who becomes England Test captain when Ben Stokes inevitably suffers his next major injury? first appeared on King Cricket.

Related posts:

1. Harry Brook is obviously going to replace Jos Buttler as ODI captain – but do England need a third leader for T20s?
2. Which England all-rounder has the worst record as captain – Botham, Flintoff or Stokes?
3. Is Ben Stokes definitely a better pick than Harry Brook in England’s World Cup squad?

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2025 PREVIEWS: Anders keen to put things right at New Brighton after first ever relegation

Tom Anders is relishing the task of breathing new life into New Brighton after a punishing relegation season.

Two wins in 22 matches tells its own story; the Rakers spent 2024 playing catch-up after some key departures, and never really looked like making it.

It means for the first time ever, they will start a season outside the Love Lane Liverpool Competition’s top flight.

But as 22-year-old Anders recognises, with a first relegation comes the opportunity to earn a first promotion.

“It was embarrassing to be a part of the first New Brighton team ever to be relegated to Division One, to be honest with you, it wasn’t a nice feeling at all,” he said, after taking over the captaincy from veteran all-rounder Martyn Evans.

“It was a very difficult year, there’s no beating around the bush. 

“We didn’t win many games and ended up rock bottom. 

“There were a few games where we could have won if we’d had maybe one or two extra players, but we can’t change it now.

“The atmosphere in the club wasn’t the greatest but we have looked to strengthen and improve. 

“We’ve put some really hard work in this winter so we hope it comes off.

“We want to rectify the mistakes we made last season and show everyone in the Liverpool Competition that we are one of the best clubs around.

“I moved to New Brighton when I was 15 and one of the main reasons was that every single team, from the 1st XI down to the 4th, were all playing Premier Division cricket. 

“We want to get back to that at all levels.”

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Last season’s top performer was Sri Lankan pro left-arm spinner Damitha Silva, who made 590 league runs and took 52 wickets – 355 and 32 ahead of the next best. He will be back this year.

Joining him will be a former teammate, off-spinner Sheshan Silva, who moved to the UK a couple of years ago and is eligible as a resident player.

Anders added: “I do think that we’ve strengthened and we’re going to have a good year. 

“But we’ve never been here before, we’ve never faced most of the teams in Division One, so hopefully there’s no surprises we can’t handle.”

If one game summed up New Brighton’s 2024 for Anders, it was their home defeat against eventual champions Ormskirk in June.

Silva and fellow slow left-armer Elliot Griffiths bowled beautifully to restrict the visitors to 132, but with confidence in short supply and faced with a relentless attack, there was still only ever one likely winner.

Anders added: “We’re a bowling-heavy team and have a lot of options with the ball. 

“Bowling was never our problem last year, but batting has been an issue for the past few years. 

“I personally have put a lot of work into my batting this winter to help back up the top order. 

“I’m not expecting it to be any easier coming down a level, but I’m hoping that we can use our experience of the bowlers we faced last year and kick on.”

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What’s more? Tom Banton ups the volume

5 minute read

There’s a fundamental tension these days between specialising in one particular format and striving to become a more rounded cricketer. It’s pretty much impossible to walk both paths, but right now Tom Banton appears to have put a good few footprints on each.

In the parallel worlds of strength and endurance training, coaches often talk about the relationship between volume, intensity and frequency. Volume is how much you do; intensity is how hard it is; frequency is how often. Whether you’re powerlifting or riding a bike, you can’t really neglect any of those three areas if you want to progress.

We’ve thought about how this applies to cricket quite often since T20 franchisery made it possible for players to concentrate almost entirely on the shortest format. A few years back, we wrote about Jason Roy’s “foundations” and whether he might have needed a bit more time in the middle.

Roy was playing high intensity cricket and he was playing it often. What he wasn’t doing was facing a great many deliveries.

Broadening the mind, then crushing it

Tom Banton had a big T20 Blast in 2019. The only batter to make more runs than him was his then Somerset team-mate Babar Azam – and he didn’t make them anywhere near as quickly. Banton made 549 runs at 42.23, scoring at 161.47 runs per hundred balls.

At this point he was 20 and only a few months later he was handed an England cap in New Zealand. Not too long after this, he was playing for everyone. To refer to him as a Somerset player is something of a misrepresentation.

Now 26, Banton’s turned out for Brisbane Heat, Colombo Stars, Delhi Bulls, Dubai Capitals, Fortune Barishal, Gulf Giants, Kolkata Knight Riders, MI Cape Town, MI Emirates, Northern Superchargers, Peshawar Zalmi, Qalandars, Quetta Gladiators, Team Abu Dhabi, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire.

Rather than being an integral part of a band, Banton had become more of an itinerant session musician. He reckons he had his first taste of burnout as early as the winter of 2019/20 and a few months later he was already talking about the importance of finding a balance in his various commitments.

“I need to make sure I plan my winters well from now on and not play too much cricket,” he told Wisden.com in 2020.

In that same interview, he said he just tried to enjoy his cricket as much as possible. “The way I see it at the moment is that playing for your country is so much fun, so just enjoy the experience.”

How’d that go then?

“I hated cricket,” he recently said of the period after he was dropped by England for a second time in 2022. “I didn’t really enjoy playing it. I just had to do it because it was a job.”

This can happen even if you only play for one team, but a transient existence probably magnifies such feelings.

Given that Banton has clearly recovered a bit of form (and enthusiasm) since then, the obvious conclusion would be to assume that the freelance work dried up and he came back to Somerset, found a bit of stability, played some red ball cricket and got into a bit of rhythm. Except he actually reckons things turned around last winter when he was playing for MI Cape Town in the SA20. He then parlayed that into a run of scores in the ILT20 with Dubai Capitals.

As backdrops for heartwarming comebacks go, it’s one of the more soulless

How popular are all these Not-Quite-The-IPL franchise leagues actually likely to be?

But, you know, back is back. Banton played 12 County Championship games for Somerset last year and averaged 49.50. This year he’s put himself in a position where he can now peel off half a dozen ducks in a row and he’ll still be averaging more than 50 because he racked up 371 in his first innings of the season.

Kudos to Worcestershire for batting out 200 overs to secure the draw in that match, but they have to take second billing here. When a lad comes in at 39-3 after the opposition were dismissed for 154 and knocks out a triple, that’s a pretty big deal. The innings of the season might already have been and gone.

That Jason Roy article talks about the importance of building and maintaining a base. On a bike that just means doing low octane, steady miles, day after day. It’s an aspect of fitness that takes a while to build, but unlike the type of fitness required for more intense efforts, it lasts longer too. It takes time though. While various trends and fads sometimes suggest otherwise, it’s widely accepted there isn’t really any substitute for putting the hours in.

If you’re a high quality England batter, this is the hardest thing to find. There’s always a T20 league underway somewhere, so intensity is a given – and frequency too. But volume? How often do you really get a chance to just bat and bat and bat?

We don’t mean in the nets. We’re talking about in the middle, with fielders, against bowlers who are trying to get you out. Batting with less urgency. Zone 2 batting, if you will. It’s not easy to find this. Even if you don’t want to specialise in one format or another, chances are the game will steer you in that direction anyway.

So there’s a bit of luck here. The forces that align the stars are beyond a cricketer’s control. Banton had a good county season and a good T20 winter – but crucially not such a good one that he attracted any bids in the IPL auction. That left him free to play in Taunton, where he upped his volume considerably in the span of just one innings.

Maintaining significant volume might be more of a challenge, longer-term. That is unless he gets himself a regular gig with the Test team.

Speaking of frequency

We’ve been posting a bit erratically the last couple of weeks. Ideally, we’d move to posting shorter pieces a little more often, but honestly, for one reason or another, it just isn’t panning out that way at the minute. As ever, the best way to stay up to date with the site is to sign up for the email.

The post What’s more? Tom Banton ups the volume first appeared on King Cricket.

Related posts:

1. We’re mostly talking about Dans Lawrence and Worrall, Essex’s bowlers, Jordan Cox and Tom Banton this week… and also Keaton Jennings

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