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Liam Grey celebrates his century in the 2023 Lancashire Cup final
**Picture by GEORGE FRANKS**

Liam Grey says he’s not looking for omens as Northern head into Sunday’s Lancashire Cup final – but if he did, they would all be good.

Two of Grey’s three centuries this year have come against their opponents, Formby.

And he hit a matchwinning unbeaten 118 against Longridge the last time Northern reached this stage of the competition, in 2023.

But he insists he will step out at Blackpool CC on Sunday with his eyes firmly on the immediate future, rather than the past.

“I’m just going into it with an open mind and just playing the day that’s in front of me,” he said.

“Rather than thinking back, I’ll play it as a fresh game and try to give us the best opportunity to win the Lancs Cup.

“Formby are obviously a fantastic team with some really dangerous cricketers, and I won’t be thinking, oh yeah, I’ve done well against these previously.

“They beat us in the league, we beat them in the National, and we drew against them the weekend just gone – every game we’ve played, it’s been a very tight game.

“We’ve traded blow for blow, basically. So it’s set to be a very, very good game of cricket.”

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As an all-rounder who tends to open with both bat and ball, Grey is usually front and centre of Northern’s achievements.

Monday’s ECHO Cup finals day was no exception – he struck with the first ball in both games as the Crosby side won the T20 trophy for the fourth time.

Grey also went for just 24 runs all day from his eight overs, most of them in the power plays.

He said: “You can’t dream of starting a bowling innings any better.

“In the T20 stuff, I’ve struggled a little bit this year and been quite expensive, so it’s really nice to go on and get a couple of wickets and then also go for three an over for the day.

“So it was nice to sort of get into a bit of rhythm leading into this weekend.”

The forecast for Sunday is not great, raising the possibility of the 45-over final being shortened.

As last year’s national T20 champions, and with the ECHO Cup in their back pocket, Northern will be well prepared.

Grey said: “We’ll go into Sunday expecting to play a full game, and then it’s just a case of adapting as and when we need to.

“We’ve got enough talent within our team to be able to adapt to pretty much every situation, I’d say.”

Northern have a home league game against Wallasey to warm up for Sunday.

Ormskirk are 32 points clear in their quest for a third successive title, but James Cole’s side are not ready to give up just yet, with four games to go.

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And with Northern heading to Leigh for the Ray Digman Trophy final a week on Sunday, they could yet end the season with four pieces of silverware.

It all makes for a busy and intense time for the players – but it’s nothing they’re not used to.

“To be fair, I’ve been pretty relaxed,” Grey said.

“We’ve only had Saturday cricket, because we were out of both national cups, so we found ourselves throughout August having a good few Sundays off, which is a little bit different to last year.

“In recent years we’ve found ourselves going pretty deep in a lot of cup competitions.

“So it does get pretty intense. But at the end of the day, this is why we do it.

“We play for Northern because we want to be playing these games later on in the season, because if you’re not, then you’re not having much success.

“There is the potential of four trophies at the end of the season.

“We’ve got the ECHO in the bag, there’s Sunday and then the following Sunday and then the league is a bit of a long shot, but there is always the potential, you just never know.”

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