Lancashire County Cricket Club

I've always liked cricket and many years ago frequently used to go down to Old Trafford to watch Lancashire play with the likes of Clive Lloyd, Farokh Engineer, Flat Jack Simmonds, Barry Wood, David Hughes, skipper Jack Bond, Ken Higgs, Ken Shuttleworth, Peter Lever, David Lloyd (Bumble), little Harry Pilling and latterly Frank Hayes, Peter Lee, etc, etc.

I saw them win the first ever John Player Sunday League and watched many memorable Gillette Cup matches including the 'night' game against Mike Proctors Gloucestershire - a clip of the game which I've found for your enjoyment below!



Anyway since those days I've moved away from home and have only had the opportunity to see Lancashire play occasionally from time to time (although I've managed to see them in a few finals at Lords over the years).

The reason why I'm rambling on a bit about them now is that they seem to have the makings of a fine young side this season and although probably not County Championship winning quality right now, they could very well become a decent team over the next few years or so.

They been very unlucky not to win their first two Championship games this season and today (Friday) is the start of their third match - at home to Somerset.

I post the days highlights below - very eventful they are too and will endeavour to put up the following days clips as well.

Hopefully if you can spare a few moments per day you might enjoy (like me), following the ups and downs of Lancashire as they play through the summer.

If there is any interest I will keep posting up the highlights for people to watch.

Hope you enjoy them like I do.

Looks like they've borrowed that pitch from (the notoriously unpredictable) Headingley.

You don't get that much movement in April if your wicket is properly prepared.

Unless you've buried a load of prams and bicycles just under the surface. (As we had to cope with on Sheppard's Cross Street in the 70's.)

Disappointed to see that a second consecutive duck from Bolton's only representative in the Lancs line-up was extensively reported on in the media today.

He's 20, FFS...

It's gonna be a long season......

That Glos game was a cracker. Loved the story about Mike Proctor,who,after complaining about not being able to see,was taken aside by umpire Arthur Jepson,who,pointing at the moon said, "What's that?"
"The moon",replied Proctor.
"Well how far do you want to see!?" retorted Jepson.

Day 2, Somerset on top but Lancs begin the fight back!



Day 3, Lancashire youngsters score century's but Somerset cling on.



Which way will the game go on the final day today?

I can't get used to numbered shirts.

You will in time Bonce.

Anyway Lancs win!

After being bowled in 41.4 overs on the opening day at Old Trafford, and conceding a 169-run first-innings lead, that is a quite sensational victory for Lancashire.

All-rounder Ryan McLaren made 45 on the final day as they set Somerset a target of 295, and he has the final word by bowling last man Tim Gronewald for figures of 4-37. He was well supported by Jordan Clark (3-12) and the peerless Jimmy Anderson (2-30), who claimed the vital scalp of Marcus Trescothick.

So, Glen Chapple's side have one win and two draws from their opening three matches, while Somerset, who only just missed out on the title last season, have lost twice at the start of this one.

(from the BBC)

I'll put the days highlights up when the club puts them on youtube.

Playing for his home town club...............

Sorry been a bit busy but here now is the video of the last days play of the Somerset game which we won!

Enjoy!

A good Boltonian friend of mine has a son who opens the batting for Glamorgan. Is this a Boltonians in cricket thread?

Do you now support Somerset Manda?

Chairmanda wrote:A good Boltonian friend of mine has a son who opens the batting for Glamorgan. Is this a Boltonians in cricket thread?

Well not really because there isn't that many of them.

But if anyone wants to add in any Bolton connections to any county (or even overseas teams) then please feel free to do so.

The thread was really about raising awareness to a relatively young Lancashire team who I think will have a good season this year.

We've had a few recent years of being up and down, which included even winning the county championship title in 2011, our first outright title since 1934!

That team though was a mixture of 'seasoned' vets as well as Bolton born Karl Brown.

This season's team though seems to include a number of youngsters who look as though they have something about them.

Maybe they won't go on to achieve great things but I feel that they have something about them and it would be fun to see how their season develops.

They were unlucky not to win their first two games of the season and now after winning their last match, already sit second in the table.

A long way to go of course but I thought it might be fun to follow them this season.

Hope people find this thread of enough interest to follow their progress this year and beyond.

Ok, the County Championship is back after having a break to fit inone of the one day tournaments (for which we didn't qualify for the finals stage).

It was our old foes Yorkshire who visited at Old Trafford yesterday for the start of our next four day match and they ended the day on top.

The bad news for all cricket fans being that Jimmy Anderson injured himself and is now a doubt over his fitness for the remainder of the match.

Anyway a couple of minutes of highlights of the first days play - enjoy!

Rain and a continued Yorkshire battering on day two - oh well!

Day three - a wonderful ton by Chanderpaul but a draw now looks odds on.

Final day - Lancs continue the fight back but game ends in draw.

I've fallen a bit behind with putting clips up on here but its catch up time!

I'll skip the hammering we got on the reverse fixture with Yorkshire and start with our game against unbeaten Middlesex, the current County Championship holders -

Day 1, we bowl them out but they hit back to take four of our wickets before close of play -



Day 2, - Rained off.

Day 3, Lancs on top!



Day 4 Lancs win!!!

And to bring you up to date our last game against Hampshire.

Day 1, Hampshire post over 350 with wickets still in hand!



Day 2, Lancashire fight back -



Day 3, Lancashire dominate -



Day 4, Lancashire win and go up to second in the table!

Seems I was the only poster on here who likes to follow Lancashire in the county cricket.

We actually finished second in the league last season, so I was right in thinking they seemed set for a great season when I posted the thread.

Unfortunately I didn't have the same feel for this season and expected them to struggle which they have.

Up to the last two matches they were favourites to be relegated - they are still amongst the favourites to go down but they've had two amazing matches on the trot that have at least given them some hope to cling on to!

Our previous games was against Worcester at Southport.


They hit 222 and 252 in their innings compared to 161 in our first meaning we needed to chase a massive 314 to win.

The last time we scored anything like that to win was in 2002 - and we were soon heading for defeat at 63 for 4 - then we turned it all around, and knocked off the remaining 250 odd runs for the loss of only another two wickets and won easily!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/45362946

Our next game started yesterday at Taunton against Somerset and what a nightmare we had - we were bowled out for 99 (seems they had manufactured a dodgy wicket for their spinners) and they themselves were all out for 192, before we lost a further two second innings wickets to be 7 for 2 at close of play.

Today we regularly lost wickets and at 89 for 6, we were still four runs behind their first innings score with just four wickets left!

Our tail managed to scratch out a few extra runs to leave them with a easy target of just 78 to win, or so it seemed!

Our bowlers did the job to reduce them to 37 for 6 but they got to match our total with still two wickets in hand and just a single needed for the win but that's as close as they came because one of their players were stumped coming down the pitch and their last wicket was caught on the boundary going for the winning run, to leave the match in a remarkable tied result - the last tied game being 15 years ago!

Two remarkable results but we are still amongst the relegation scrap and have played more games than all our rivals.

Still where's there's life there's hope and all that.

Fingers crossed.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/45415238

I saw the scorecard yesterday afternoon when Lancs were in front by 26 but only had 3 wickets left. Can't believe they got a tie out of that! The pitch needs a good look at i think.

We actually went to Taunton yesterday. Sorry, non-cricket-lovers, but that was an incredible experience! You don't get long-drawn-out tension like that in many sports. Emotions ranging from despair to hope-against-hope, amazement and sheer exhilaration at the end, but how much better for Lancs if we could have saved or scored just one more run over the course of two days! Fighting spirit, nerve and awesome skill.

Somerset will surely be docked points for preparing a pitch like that when it's supposed to last four days, not two!  If only the points were to be awarded to us! 
Two lowly teams to play next so there is still hope as long as September weather doesn't play a part.