Lancashire Spin Magazine

T H E O F F I C I A L M E M B E R S ’ M AG A Z I N E O F L A N CAS H I R E C R I C K E T

WINTER 2020

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STEVE DAVIES

OPERATING A BIO-SECURE BUBBLE

ELLIE THRELKELD FOCUSING ON CRICKET FULL-TIME

PAUL EDWARDS

A SEASON LIKE NO OTHER

LIGHTNING’S LANCASHIRE PROGRAMME LIGHTNING’S OFFICIAL MATCHDA LANCASHIRE LIGHTNING’SOFFICIAL OFFICIALMATCHDAY MATCHDAY PROGRAMME NG’S OFFICIALLANCASHIRE MATCHDAY PROGRAMME

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4

Andy Anson

50 Paul Shaw

8

Spin News

54 MRG Update

10 Daniel Gidney

58 Ellie Threlkeld

14 Glen Chapple 16 Saqib Mahmood 22 James Anderson 28 2020: A Season Like No Other

35 George Balderson

62 Where Are They Now? John Wood

66 Luke Wood’s Keys To

Bowling In T20 Cricket

70 Get To Know...

Sandy Mitchell

40 Life Inside A Bio-Secure

72 Ian Folley

44 Tom Hartley

80 First Team Statistics 2020

Emirates Old Trafford

76 Foundation News

Partnerships/Commercial 0161 868 6725 ecummins@lancashirecricket.co.uk Hospitality 0161 868 6810 hospitality@lancashirecricket.co.uk Lancashire Cricket Foundation 0161 868 6849 foundation@lancashirecricket.co.uk Lancashire Cricket official store 0161 848 8611 onlinestore@lancashirecricket.co.uk

CLUB OFFICIALS The Board President: Sir Howard Bernstein Chairman: Andy Anson Honorary Treasurer: Les Platts Non-Executive Members: Sara Tomkins, Rachel Downey, Maurice Watkins CBE, Andrew Flintoff MBE, James Sheridan Chief Executive: Daniel Gidney Head Coach: Glen Chapple Director of Cricket: Paul Allott Finance Director / Secretary: Lee Morgan Operations Director: Steve Davies HR Director: Joanne Hunt

SPIN MAGAZINE Editor: James Price This programme was designed and produced on behalf of Lancashire Cricket by Ignition Sports Media. www.ignitionsportsmedia.com

Designed by: James Ginieres Printed by: Stephens & George Print Group

FROM THE EDITOR Welcome to the latest edition of Spin Magazine from Lancashire Cricket.

First of all, we hope you and your families are keeping safe and well in what remains a very uncertain world. At one point this summer it looked like we may not get any cricket at all, so we are delighted to be able to bring you the final edition of Spin for 2020 packed with interviews and features on the season just gone.

The hosting of international cricket at Emirates Old Trafford was one of the big success stories of the last nine months. We hear from Operations Director, Steve Davies, on what life is like inside a bio-secure venue and also from someone who’s stock continues to rise in the Three Lions setup, Saqib Mahmood.

On the domestic front, we enjoyed two intense months of cricket and the emergence of some future stars. George Balderson and Tom Hartley give extended interviews on their first season at First XI level, while Paul Edwards paints the picture of just how much Members and supporters were missed this season.

Best wishes to all our Members for the upcoming festive season and thank you for your unwavering support of the Club during this year. We cannot wait to have you back at Emirates Old Trafford next year, fingers crossed.

James Price | Spin Editor W INTER 2020 S P IN 3

Andy Anson — CHAIRMAN —

It is with huge pride I take on the role of Chairman at Lancashire Cricket. As a Member in my younger years and a regular at Emirates Old Trafford, it means a lot to both me and my family to take on the role at one of the North West’s great sporting institutions.

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ome of my fondest sporting memories are from watching Lancashire through the 1970s and 80s as a Junior Member. I especially remember the era of Sir Clive Lloyd, Farokh Engineer, David Lloyd, Barry Wood and the rest of that magnificent side. Those Gillette Cup runs during that golden era really stick in my mind and I was lucky to see some truly amazing moments. The NatWest Trophy wins of the 90s were also special, watching the likes of Graeme Fowler, Michael Atherton and Wasim Akram.

I regret that this opportunity has come around due to the passing of David Hodgkiss OBE. David was a highly respected and popular member of the cricket community, both in the North West and also nationally. His vision, expertise and passion for Lancashire have helped make the Club what is it today. I know he will be sadly missed.

I would also like to thank Les Platts and congratulate him on the job he 4 S P I N W I N TER 20 20

has done as Acting Chairman in the interim period. To take the role in such turbulent times and lead the Club with such great effect deserves our sincere thanks. I look forward to working with Les as he returns to the position of Treasurer.

Over the next period, it is my job to consolidate what David and the Board have achieved over the last few years while also supporting Daniel Gidney and the Executive Team in driving the business forward. Our first task is to navigate through the immediate, shortterm challenges presented to us by the COVID-19 crisis. The team at Emirates Old Trafford have done a fantastic job over the last few months and I am confident that they will work tirelessly to overcome the obstacles ahead. As Daniel alludes to in his notes, the Club was facing a serious financial challenge and it is testament to everyone involved here that we have averted that crisis.

We still have to plan for the worst-case scenarios moving forward in such an

“OUR FIRST TASK IS TO NAVIGATE THROUGH THE IMMEDIATE, SHORTTERM CHALLENGES PRESENTED TO US BY THE COVID CRISIS.”

spaces, we will continue to explore ways of diversifying our business and embracing the opportunities the future presents.

uncertain and unstable time throughout the world, not just in cricket, but we hope for a future with positive news and developments and especially a future that sees cricket fans returning to cricket grounds once again in 2021.

For all the pressing challenges that lie ahead in the coming months, we must not lose sight of our aims over the medium-to-long-term. Cricket will always be at the forefront of our priorities. The other elements of our business exist to support and drive the cricket side. Thankfully, Lancashire Cricket has some of the best facilities in the country at Emirates Old Trafford and we will not rest on our laurels once we return to some sort of normality. With the on-site Hilton Garden Inn and the most versatile of conference and events

One key area of focus is how we grow the Membership in the coming years.

Members are the lifeblood of the Club.

Being a Member of Lancashire means so much more than being a season ticket holder at a football or rugby club.

From my own time as a Junior Member and my parents’ time as long-term Members, I know how proud you all are to be associated with the Red Rose and I am keen to listen to your views alongside the Members’ Representative Group as to how we attract more Members to the Club. As I know from watching my 17-year-old son Lachlan progress through the ranks, there are a lot of cricket-mad communities in the North West which we need to tap into. We do not currently reach many of these communities, especially the younger cricketing audience which we need to be tapping into. I believe we need to do more when it comes to Junior Memberships to ensure they are the future of this Club. We also need to do more to reach those Lancastrians spread throughout the UK and beyond who have an informal relationship with Lancashire Cricket. I have been amazed by the number of Red Rose fans who have reached out to me since the announcement of my appointment from diverse geographies and backgrounds.

It would be remiss of me not to congratulate everyone at Emirates Old Trafford for their hosting of behindclosed-doors cricket this summer.

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To stage international cricket during the height of a global pandemic was fantastic and, as a spectator, it certainly kept me entertained while I was working from home! It cements our status as one of the leading venues in world cricket and we are looking forward to welcoming Pakistan and India to Manchester next summer – hopefully with the return of cricket fans. The fact that we are consistently awarded the biggest international matches in England is not by chance; it shows that the professionalism and hard work of Lancashire Cricket’s staff is noticed by our friends at the ECB. In my few short weeks as Chairman so far, this has been evident across the business.

I also watched the Club’s domestic season with significant interest and huge credit goes to the Paul Allott, Glen Chapple and our playing and coaching staff for their excellent performances.

The application and talent on show from a young squad was excellent to watch and it is good to see our emphasis on young, home-grown talent. I am looking forward to meeting the players, coaches and staff early in the New Year.

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A large portion of Members enjoyed watching the live stream via social media and I was impressed with the output. Looking at the stream from an independent perspective, as I did before being offered the role of Chairman, it was clearly a highquality production, way ahead of other counties, and something we will look to further develop for next season, despite hopefully being able to welcome you back to matches in-person. We have a lot to learn from other sports, internationally, about how to use digital and social media with maximum effectiveness. Our main aim for the stream is maximising reach and awareness of county cricket, so we will be keeping it free of charge for Members and supporters, whilst looking for exciting new ways to generate commercial revenues through association with our media channels.

Though our stream was universally popular in the North West, England and even further afield, I am keen to explore how counties can work together to collectively spread the word of county cricket through the increased impact

“THE APPLICATION AND TALENT ON SHOW FROM A YOUNG SQUAD WAS EXCELLENT TO WATCH AND IT IS GOOD TO SEE OUR EMPHASIS ON YOUNG, HOME-GROWN TALENT.� of digital media. With the existing county-by-county approach, the quality varies quite significantly, and the impact is nowhere near as great as if we established a central, high quality county cricket hub. This is something we have already begun to discuss with the ECB. We are working on a similar digital rights package in my role as Chief Executive at the British Olympic Association, bringing all the Olympic sports together under one platform that creates a much stronger proposition and a broader reach. It will be interesting to see if a similar approach can work in county cricket.

As part of Lancashire Cricket TV, we have also been streaming to the Jio digital platform in India this summer and in the coming 12 months, we are pressing on with plans to broadcast and

distribute more video content to India via a new studio in the Media Centre at Emirates Old Trafford. With India coming to play Test Cricket at the home of Lancashire Cricket next summer, as well as a further international T20 in 2022, the Executive Team have been working to maximise our opportunities in such a cricket-mad country. As Daniel has alluded to, we want Indian cricket lovers to see Lancashire as their English county and he is working hard alongside James Sheridan, one of our Non-Executive Directors, to make this happen.

It is genuinely a privilege and an honour to take on this role at Lancashire Cricket. As I said earlier, the Club means so much to me and my family, as it did to my parents. I wish you all the very best of health over the Christmas period and look forward to meeting you all in person at Emirates Old Trafford during the 2021 season.

Best Wishes,

A.Anson Andy Anson | Chairman W INTER 2020 S P IN 7

Stephen Parry Announces Testimonial Event As part of his Lancashire Cricket Testimonial Year recognising his long and distinguished service to the Red Rose, Stephen Parry invites you to celebrate with him for a huge night of virtual Christmas fun.

On Friday 11 December (6pm), Lancashire and England legend David ‘Bumble’ Lloyd will lead an evening of family entertainment in celebration of Parry’s Testimonial Year and in aid of his chosen charities, Parkinson’s UK and the Lancashire Cricket Foundation.

Parry and Bumble will be joined by Warren Hegg for a fun evening which includes interactive cocktail making, quizzing, interviews, magic and more.

The standard early bird ticket costs just £29.99 and includes virtual event entry for a full household and entry into the raffle.

The VIP household ticket includes premium cocktail ingredients delivered direct to your door, so you can join in with the virtual cocktail masterclass.

To secure your ticket now, visit eventbrite.co.uk and search ‘Virtual Christmas Party with Bumble’ or visit the Lancashire Cricket website.

Contracts for Luke Wells and Jack Blatherwick Lancashire Cricket is delighted to announce the signings of Luke Wells and Jack Blatherwick on twoyear contracts.

Wells joins after leaving Sussex, while fast bowler Blatherwick has signed following his departure from Nottinghamshire.

Wells, 29, has racked up nearly 8,000 First-Class runs at an average of over 35 while Blatherwick is a former England under-19 international who debuted for Nottinghamshire in 2018.

Lancashire Director of Cricket, Paul Allott, said: “We are pressing on with our plans for the 2021 season and we’re pleased with the additions of Luke and Jack to bolster the squad.

“Luke’s record in First-Class cricket speaks for itself. He is a skilled batsman who values his wicket and has the ability to bat long periods of time.

“In Jack, we are getting a highly talented young seam bowler who is yet to fully show what he can do in FirstClass cricket and we’re excited to see what he can add to our group.”

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Matt Merchant Receives Inaugural David Hodgkiss OBE Award Lancashire Cricket and Emirates Old Trafford Head Groundsman, Matt Merchant, has become the first recipient of the David Hodgkiss OBE award.

The award was inaugurated by Members of the Lancashire Cricket Board to recognise an above and beyond outstanding contribution to Lancashire Cricket.

Lancashire’s Head Groundsman, who has worked at the Club for over 30 years, was selected by the Board due to his tireless work preparing pitches for the behind-closed-doors fixtures at Emirates Old Trafford this summer.

Lancashire Cricket Chief Executive, Daniel Gidney, said: “What Matt and his team have achieved this summer is nothing short of extraordinary. To have such an enormous amount of cricket in such a condensed period of time and yet consistently achieve a superb standard of pitch is remarkable.

Matt Merchant said: “I would like to thank every one of the groundstaff for their hard work and determination.

It has not been without its challenges, but every single one of them has worked tirelessly to make sure we could host cricket this summer.”

Toby Lester Leaves Lancashire Lancashire Cricket can announce Toby Lester will leave the Club after his contract expired at the end of the 2020 season.

The left-arm seamer featured in five FirstClass matches for the Red Rose, taking six wickets, and made 13 Vitality Blast appearances for Lancashire Lightning.

Lester will remain synonymous with Red Rose fans after delivering the final over of the famous one-run win over Yorkshire Vikings at Emirates Old Trafford in 2018.

Lancashire Director of Cricket, Paul Allott, said: “We feel now is the right time to let Toby establish his professional career with another county and I wish him all the very best for the future.”

Toby Lester said: “I have loved every second of my six years with Lancashire. I owe so much to the Club and I’d personally like to thank all the coaches and staff at Emirates Old Trafford, as well as the Members. I will always follow the Red Rose’s fortunes and wish the Club every success.”

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Daniel

Gidney — CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER —

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would like to begin my pages by expressing gratitude to all Lancashire Cricket Members for their unwavering support over the last six months. This has truly been a season like no other and despite not being able to enjoy your company at Emirates Old Trafford this summer, your support from home for the Club has been keenly felt.

To say this year has been difficult would be an understatement, but we can also look back with pride. To lose our beloved Chairman and friend David Hodgkiss OBE at the start of the year was unimaginable and hugely painful, but over the course of the summer, to host behindclosed-doors international cricket and complete a truncated domestic county season, we have achieved a lot in truly extraordinary circumstances.

I will start with hosting half of England’s summer international programme at Emirates Old Trafford. No ground has ever hosted three consecutive Test matches and, in total, we were able to stage 21 days of international cricket across the national team’s fixtures against the West Indies, Pakistan and Australia. When you consider we would normally host two matches spanning six days, at most, outside of an ICC Cricket World Cup year, it is a mind-blowing amount of cricket. Add to that the West Indies’ quarantine period in the on-site Hilton Garden Inn, where they were the first international travellers during the COVID-19 pandemic, their practice matches and the consistent need to provide international-quality training facilities for four months, and you get a feel for the amount of work that has gone into this summer.

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Our staff have shown extraordinary dedication to pull this off, working round-the-clock to ensure the needs of all international teams, commentators, broadcasters and other stakeholders were met. I must reserve special praise for Matt Merchant and his groundstaff.

They are often the unsung heroes of cricket venues and they managed to provide high quality pitches time after time, culminating in one of the most exciting finishes of the summer during the final Royal London One-Day International against Australia. Congratulations to them all and it was great to see Matt receive the inaugural David Hodgkiss OBE award at the 2020 Annual General Meeting.

A special thanks also goes to our Operations Director, Steve Davies, and the Operations Team.

They have faced unique operational scenarios with the development and implementation of a bio-secure bubble at Emirates Old Trafford with stage two and three COVID-secure training and playing facilities prepared at Chester Boughton Hall and Liverpool respectively. I cannot easily describe the amount of work that it took for these games to be played. There’s an interview a bit later in the magazine with Steve, but for those that don’t know, he started in his new role in April, having joined from Merlin Entertainment. He started working from home and almost immediately put together a 50-page plan on how Emirates Old Trafford could potentially deliver a bio-secure bubble.

He, along with the Operations Team, then went on to write over 100 new risk assessments to deliver exactly that throughout the summer.

Credit must also go to the Board for their vision and dedication in making Emirates Old Trafford a world-class, multi-purpose venue.

Few Clubs have the foresight, for example, to finance, build and run a Hilton-quality hotel on-site and without doubt it enabled us to stage these matches. You never anticipate building a stadium around such events, but it shows the flexibility and versatility our site has. These will be key assets in the coming months and years.

If international cricket had not taken place this year, I honestly believe some counties might have gone bust. That’s how grave the situation could have become and I’m very proud that Emirates Old Trafford has played its part in the return of international cricket this summer.

On the domestic cricket front, and on the field, it was fantastic to see the players perform admirably in tough circumstances. We were not able to host a game at Emirates Old Trafford until the final stages of Vitality Blast, staging ‘home’ games at New Road and Trent Bridge as well as using Liverpool CC and training at Chester Boughton Hall CC, which created undoubted difficulties for Glen and the team.

However, they embraced the various factors and it proved to be a season of considerable progress, reaching Finals Day with the fourth youngest squad in the competition.

The Bob Willis Trophy win against Derbyshire at Liverpool was a shining example of what our young Academy prospects can achieve when given the opportunity. We did not have the benefit of overseas players where other counties did, but the likes of George Balderson, Tom Hartley and Jack Morley took their chance superbly and we are building strength in depth ahead of next season.

“WE HAVE ACHIEVED A LOT IN TRULY EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES”

Off the field, our conference and events business has been heavily affected by the restrictions around COVID-19. We were working towards re-opening in a COVID-secure way on 1 October, but the subsequent delay announced by the Prime Minister has significantly set us back. The final quarter of the calendar year is usually our biggest for large events, including Christmas Parties in the Point, so the inability to host events is a big blow to not only us but the wider events industry, which is worth some £7 billion pounds to the British economy. We are continuing to lobby Government around regulated, secure gatherings, which are different to somewhere like a shopping centre, which is completely unregulated. We believe we can put these events on in a safe way and this extends to the return of crowds at Emirates Old Trafford for the 2021 cricket season.

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@kukrisports

@KukriSports

@Kukri_Sports

01772 338 899 | contact@kukrisports.com | kukrisports.co.uk 12 S PI N W INTER 20 20

In the meantime, we will continue to innovate and find ways to attract business over the winter months once the current restrictions are lifted. As mentioned above we have a flexible, 17-acre site and have launched a Safe In One Place initiative for our conference and events business, and our experience in hosting behind-closed-doors cricket has been invaluable in driving the campaign. Our Hilton Garden Inn re-opened in September and received a strong number of bookings before the second national lockdown was implemented, though the hotel has remained open to key workers and business travellers.

While we were not able to welcome you to Lancashire Cricket games this summer, we hope you enjoyed our significantly enhanced live stream. We invested more than any other County in high quality cameras and crew and were able to stream all of our home fixtures (other than our home Roses Vitality Blast fixture that was broadcast on Sky) and a number of away fixtures, becoming the first county to take a live stream production ‘on the road’ more than once in a season. We had over 2.5 million views across all days of cricket, which shows the huge appetite for county cricket and opens up avenues for the Club to explore and reach supporters who cannot regularly get to games.

We have also become the first County to stream into an Indian platform and all our games have been made available on the Jio app in India.

The platform has over 350 million subscribers nationwide and has helped us to spread the word of the Red Rose in conjunction with the India strategy that started at the end of last season. There is huge opportunity for the Club to expand in the region and we continue to work hard on that front ahead of hosting India in a Test match next summer, followed by an IT20 the year after.

Women and Girl’s cricket continues to take great strides forward and the launch of the Regional Development Centre this summer, as well as the subsequent Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy competition, ensured another vital step towards the full professionalisation of women’s cricket at county level. There will be four full-time professionals next season under the guidance of David Thorley and Paul Shaw, which will add further opportunity to progress and follow in the footsteps of Kate Cross, Alex Hartley and Sophie Ecclestone into the national side. The two home fixtures, that took place at Liverpool CC, were watched by over 150,000 on the live stream which shows the appetite for high-quality women’s cricket. This year has also

seen a real embedding of our close relationship with Cumbria and Cheshire.

In my 15-year career as a Chief Executive in professional sport, this has been the most challenging yet. The whole country will take longer than anticipated to recover from COVID-19 and the resultant effects, but we will bounce back. We are a resilient, creative organisation and will find ways to navigate through this difficult time and come out the other side.

Finally, thank you to everyone who has stuck by us. Many Members have been willing and able to keep their subscriptions in the Club by becoming a Platinum Member, and we are eternally grateful to each and every one of you.

Thanks also to our valued Club partners, who have again stuck by us through these uncertain times and showed their considerable support where others may not have done. A final thank you is to Acting Chairman, Les Platts, who stepped into the very difficult shoes of David to fill in March. Les has been a great support for myself and the wider team, and will be stepping back to his role on the Board as we welcome Andy Anson, the CEO at the British Olympic Association, to the Club as Lancashire’s new Chairman. I’m very much looking forward to working with Andy in the coming years and to continue the legacy that David left behind.

I hope you all winter well over the coming months and we’ve all got our fingers crossed that we’ll seeing our Members and supporters back at Emirates Old Trafford for the start of the season in April. The science is starting to clear the ropes with genuine hopes for a vaccine, enhanced treatments and affordable rapid testing.

Daniel Gidney | Chief Executive W INTER 2020 S P IN 13

Glen

Chapple — H E A D C OAC H —

e came into 2020 full of confidence and ambition following a successful promotion campaign and excellent T20 form during the 2019 season. The squad has developed well over the past three years and all the coaching team were excited about the potential for success.

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Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic, everything changed. The first half of the season was cancelled as lockdown arrived and then it was all about finding a way to get some meaningful cricket played in a safe environment. The first priority, of course, was the behind-closed-doors international matches in order to provide some financial stability and protection during what has been an incredibly challenging summer for everyone involved.

The efforts that went into restructuring the season were incredible in such trying and difficult circumstances. All involved in the organisation of the behind-closed-

“THE EFFORTS THAT WENT INTO RESTRUCTURING THE SEASON WERE INCREDIBLE IN SUCH TRYING AND DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES.”

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doors, bio-secure ‘bubble’ at Emirates Old Trafford deserve huge credit in preserving the international schedule this summer.

Financially, it was imperative for cricket in this country that these fixtures happened so to host West Indies, Pakistan and Australia in one summer was a huge effort and I’m very proud that we at Lancashire Cricket have been able to play our part.

From a Lancashire perspective this led to further challenges as Emirates Old Trafford was effectively out of bounds for us. Chester Boughton Hall Cricket Club came to the rescue allowing us to use their facilities as our main base to prepare for the reformatted season. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Chester, especially to ‘Keggy’ (Alex Kegg) the groundsman who worked tirelessly to meet our demands.

The challenges faced by the playing staff were met with a great no nonsense attitude.

The squad returned to training in excellent shape, having trained alone for three months, and then spent six weeks at Chester preparing for the shortened season.

The two England ‘bubbles’ contained seven Lancashire players and it soon became clear that we had the opportunity to give younger players more experience than we would normally be able to give. Richard Gleeson and Saqib Mahmood were away with England, and Graham Onions and Luke Wood injured, we had three debutants in the first game of the season at Worcester against Leicestershire.

In the Vitality Blast we had the challenge of replacing Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner and for the first half of the group games Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood, who were away with England. To win five and lose one, with two no results, from our first eight games was a fantastic team effort. Keaton Jennings’ hundred against his old team, Durham, in our opening T20 fixture was a special highlight.

The quarter-final at Hove against Sussex looked like being a huge test on paper but the partnership with the bat between Dane Vilas and Steven Croft was outstanding to get us to what looked like a decent score on a challenging surface. Then an excellent all-round bowling effort reduced Sussex to 95 all out. Livingstone and Parkinson were superb with seven wickets between them.

Getting to Finals Day with a young team should be remembered as a good achievement. We were beaten by a very strong Notts team in the semi-final, which was obviously disappointing for the players, but this should not take away from the positives around the team’s campaign.

Luke, George Balderson, Tom Hartley, Ed Moulton, George Burrows, Jack Morley and George Lavelle all made their Lancashire debut this season. All impressed and showed where they may fit into a full-strength Lancashire team which is both encouraging and exciting for the future.

Having joined from Nottinghamshire, Luke showed the quality and variation we knew he would bring to the squad. George Balderson and Tom Hartley played nine Bob Willis Trophy matches between them and both showed great character in the way they played. They developed in every game which reinforces the fact that the best way to develop young players is to play them.

Our results in the new Bob Willis Trophy were very encouraging with such a young team.

Moving on from the disappointment of losing the first game to Leicestershire to the two superb wins against Durham and Derbyshire showed the progress the team had made in six weeks.

The lack of spectators in the grounds was very disappointing and our supporters were definitely missed. I hope that Members and supporters enjoyed the live stream and were able to watch us up and down the country this summer. I know your support has been keenly felt amongst the changing room with all the messages we get.

I’d like to finish with a mention for two fine players in Graham Onions and Stephen Parry who will be leaving the Club. Graham came to Lancashire in 2018 after many successful seasons with Durham. He brought professionalism, determination and quality to our bowling attack and took over 100 wickets in two seasons. An excellent role model for young players who will be missed on the field.

Stephen will be remembered as a Lancashire legend, I’m sure. Maybe more for his contributions in One-Day cricket over many seasons, but he also played an important role in Championship cricket when the chance arose. I would also like to thank Toby Lester and Brooke Guest for their contributions in recent years. We wish them all the best for their future careers.

The squad returned to training at the end of November with the pre-Christmas phase very much focused on their physical work as we build towards next season.

I think everyone’s biggest hope is that next season will be a full schedule with spectators allowed in. We hope to see all our supporters at Emirates Old Trafford next April!

Best Wishes,

Glen Chapple | Head Coach W INTER 2020 S P IN 15

I’VE GOT TO MAKE SURE I GET BETTER AND QUICKER; I’M NOW PUSHING 90 MILES PER HOUR CONSISTENTLY — F E AT U R E I N T E R V I E W —

Fitter, faster and stronger: Saqib Mahmood tells Graham Hardcastle how a home-built gym has been key to an extra yard of pace and competition for places in England’s international side.

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f you want a story about someone who made the most of the UK’s nationwide summer lockdown, then look no further than this one about Saqib Mahmood, the Lancashire star who is rapidly turning himself into one of English cricket’s brightest fast bowling talents.

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Mahmood was in Sri Lanka with England’s Test squad when, in early March, COVID-19 started to seriously come into the public consciousness back home. It was a tour which ended up being cancelled after only 12 days, with the squad landing back in England on 15 March.

Eight days later, the UK went into national lockdown, with the start of the English cricketing summer delayed until at least 1 May and no prospect of a return to training for players. Thankfully we would see plenty of cricket in the back end of the summer but in a bid to maintain and improve his fitness, Mahmood built himself a gym at home in Rochdale.

The results have been pretty impressive for the 23-year-old!

“That was done purely because of lockdown,” he explained. “For me, with the injury problems I’ve had in the past, I wanted to keep my strength levels up. I had a garage that I didn’t really use it for anything, so I built a gym in there.

“And when I came back to cricket, all my numbers had gone up and I was back up to full speed within a week. Even I was surprised by that. But I think that just came from having a good base of working from home every day.

“FOR ME, WITH THE INJURY PROBLEMS I’VE HAD IN THE PAST, I WANTED TO KEEP MY STRENGTH LEVELS UP. I HAD A GARAGE THAT I DIDN’T REALLY USE FOR ANYTHING, SO I BUILT A GYM IN THERE.”

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“It certainly bore fruit because the main thing I was looking for was an extra 10 percent on guys who were perhaps taking that bit longer to get back up to speed. I also stayed fit all summer and have been bowling quick.”

Speed has always key for the right-armer with a whippy action. Prior to breaking into Lancashire’s first team with a trio of Vitality Blast appearances - he claimed a winner’s medal despite not playing in the final - he had a reputation as a youngster with raw pace to keep an eye on.

Injuries have blighted him, but things seem more settled now, fingers crossed, which is allowing him to increase his pace even further. It is something he believes is imperative if he is to have a long and successful international career, building on his 10 career limited overs appearances so far.

“I’ve predominantly played white-ball cricket in the last 12 months, and the pace of my stock ball has gone up from where it was. I’m now pushing 90 miles per hour consistently from 85 - 88/89 would have been my quicker ball. Now, it’s 88/89 as my stock ball and 90 being my quicker ball.

“I have two guys ahead of me in the England squad who are literally the two quickest in the world in Mark Wood and Jofra Archer. So I’ve got to keep looking to improve and get fitter and stronger.

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“Those guys are older than me, so I’ve still got time on my side. But the way they bowl, they’ve definitely lifted standards in terms of pace, and I’ve got to make sure I keep trying to get better and quicker to push them for their spot.”

Delighted with how the summer went in terms of the amount of cricket he played - 11 competitive games in all, five for Lancashire and six for England - Mahmood was satisfied with his personal return of eight wickets.

He said: “From where we were at the start of lockdown, not knowing whether we’d get any cricket at all, to play those games pretty good. To have had six of them for England, I’d have taken that with both hands in May. “I’ve done ok. I’m someone who has high standards, so I don’t think I’ve set the world alight or done poorly either. I’ve had some good experiences and have learnt a lot.

“I DEFINITELY THINK I’M A BETTER BOWLER NOW FROM WHERE I WAS AT THE START OF THE SUMMER. THAT’S THE MAIN THING WHEN YOU’RE IN AND OUT OF THESE NATIONAL SQUADS, TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE ALWAYS IMPROVING BECAUSE COMPETITION IS VERY HIGH.”

“I definitely think I’m a better bowler now from where I was at the start of the summer.

That’s the main thing when you’re in and out of these national squads, to make sure you’re always improving because competition is very high. There’s some exceptional fast bowling talent around at the moment.”

After taking his time to settle in the England bio-secure bubble - he was in a red ball training camp at Southampton and then all white ball squads for 10 weeks - Mahmood grew into ‘bubble life’.

“Mentally, I found it hard to switch on for the practice games,” he explained. “That’s because you were waking up at the ground 2 0 S PI N W INTER 20 20

Mahmood is confident Lancashire, despite the obvious frustration of the Vitality Blast semi-final exit, are a squad heading in the right direction.

He said: “A squad like Lancs always want to be pushing. For the red ball stuff, we missed a lot of players. But we were more settled in the T20 and turned up again in a lot of games, as we have done for the last few years. The good thing is that some younger lads have had county exposure they wouldn’t normally have had. Hopefully that adds competition next year.”

Finishing on his own development, he would be keen to fill any free time around England commitments with his first foray into the overseas T20 league scene and signed with Peshawar Zalmi to replace Liam Livingstone in the closing stages of the Pakistan Super League earlier this month. with not a long walk to the dressing rooms, in a sense. For the Ireland and Pakistan series, I made a conscious effort to make a mental switch.

“Outside of cricket, I found it easier as I went on. It can be quite tough if you don’t have a good group of guys, but that’s the lucky thing with England at the moment - they are great lads, and we had fun.

“I played a lot of Call of Duty on the Playstation. It was handy being one of the better players because everyone wants to play with you! I had that on my side, with a lot of attention from the boys. It was nice to feel wanted I guess.”

“I started in 2015 and 2016, my first two years on the professional staff, and came out of the blocks and did really well,” he added. “After one year, I was already in the Lions system. But the two years after that were a challenge with the injuries. That was more to do with growing and putting more stress through my body.

“Injuries are part of the game, but the last two years have been good for me.

Hopefully I keep going on that upwards curve because there’s still a lot to be had for me in the game. I’m nowhere near my best and nowhere near my potential. That’s what I’ve got to keep working towards.”

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First he became England’s finest and now he has officially become the best pace bowler in Test cricket history. Graham Hardcastle reflects on an enormous achievement by one of our own.

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ames Anderson; Jimmy if you prefer. To many; legend, genius.

They are just two superlatives to describe the Lancashire and England bowler who, this summer, confirmed his status as the greatest quick the game has ever produced by reaching 600 Test Match career wickets.

J

Ex-Red Rose team-mate Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and Anil Kumble (619) had all previously reached that mark, but no seamer had ever joined their elite club, even though Glenn McGrath had gone close with 563.

That was until Tuesday 25 August 2020 when a boy from Burnley had Pakistan captain Azhar Ali caught head high at slip by Joe Root with a rising delivery from short of a length in the third Test at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl.

The rain-ravaged Test was drifting towards a draw, with England already having claimed a 2-0 series victory. But Anderson provided a magic moment to leave everyone connected with the game in awe of his skill and, as importantly, durability following some early career injury issues.

“It felt amazing,” was his immediate reaction.

“I was a bit surprised I managed to find the edge on a flat pitch with an old ball. It felt a bit emotional, and I’m very proud and happy that I could celebrate it with my good mates.”

A feisty character on the field, Anderson has always been quiet and understated off it. But there were plenty of folk prepared to shout about his brilliance from the roof tops.

Former Australia leg-spinner Warne was one of those.

“IT FELT A BIT EMOTIONAL, AND I’M VERY PROUD AND HAPPY THAT I COULD CELEBRATE IT WITH MY GOOD MATES.”

Present at Southampton as part of the Sky Sports commentary team, he said: “It is a terrific effort and something that he should be extremely proud of. The numbers, yes, are pretty amazing. To play 156 Test Matches for a fast bowler (over) 17 years is unbelievable.

“Playing top-level international sport is something you should be extremely grateful for the opportunity, but along that journey comes a lot of sacrifices. Time away from your children, your loved ones, your partner, family, friends, all those things.”

Lancashire Head Coach, Glen Chapple, said: “It’s ridiculous really - 600 wickets.

There’s a ruthless streak in him, the very best in the world demonstrate these traits.

“The work ethic he’s showed, the dedication and discipline to stay at the top for so long and constantly strive to get better. At international level everything’s heightened, speculation on whether you can carry on playing is always there. But he’s never taken a backwards step. Everyone at Lancashire is delighted for him, he deserves his achievement.”

Up until that rain-affected third Test, Anderson had gone through a period of nine wickets in his first four appearances of the summer, against Pakistan and the West Indies prior to that. It led to some in the media questioning his future in the game at 38-years-old. Foolish? Definitely.

He claimed a first-innings five-for in the final Test of the summer at Southampton and added three more in the second. And there is definitely no sign of slowing up for a bowler whose debut Test wicket was Zimbabwe batsman Mark Vermeulen bowled middle stump at Lord’s in the summer of 2003.

“Rooty said he would like me to be in Australia (next winter). I don’t see any reason why I can’t be,” he said. “I still enjoy putting the yards in in the nets, making those tweaks with my technique to make sure I’m in good shape going into Test Matches.

I still enjoy the stuff in the gym. I think that’s why I keep going.

“We have strength in depth, and I realise there will be times I’m left out for various reasons - resting, to have a look at someone else. I will W INTER 2020 S P IN 25

CAREER AVERAGE:

An illustration of how James Anderson’s career average has continually dipped with age. Since turning 34 he averages 22 per wicket, compared with 36 up until the age of 22.

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35.30

25.22

36.27

27.80

22.04

Under 22

22-25

26-29

Age (years)

30-33

34 or over

Anderson is closing in on another milestone - 1,000 career First-Class wickets. He currently has 975, and it is unclear how much cricket England will play this winter given the ongoing complications with COVID-19. It could possibly be that he achieves the feat at the start of next season whilst wearing Lancashire colours, a time of the year he has often returned to the county.

His First-Class record for the Red Rose is outstanding - 329 wickets in 82 matches at an average of 22.10, better than both his Test (26.79) and overall First-Class (24.93) averages.

Hogg added: “When he’s not playing for England, he’s absolutely desperate to play for Lancashire. He loves Lancs to bits. I reckon as soon as he retires from international cricket, he could still play for Lancs for a few years. Chappie went on into his early forties and could still bowl now, so I don’t see any reason why Jimmy couldn’t do the same.”

have to be wise about which games I play and which I don’t, but that is something for the selectors, coach, captain and medical team to help me with. I will just try and keep my game at as high a level as possible and be ready for when I’m called upon.”

At the start of the summer, this scribe spoke to Kyle Hogg about Anderson’s pending milestone in the hope he could achieve it at Emirates Old Trafford, where England played three of their six summer Tests behind closed doors - possibly even whilst bowling from The James Anderson End. Anderson and Hogg signed their first professional contracts with Lancashire on the same day back in 2000. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen on home turf and, as Hogg said, “It’s just a shame it won’t be in front of a full house with everybody there to really appreciate him”.

“IT’S RIDICULOUS REALLY - 600 WICKETS. THERE’S A RUTHLESS STREAK IN HIM, THE VERY BEST IN THE WORLD DEMONSTRATE THESE TRAITS.” [GLEN CHAPPLE ]

Anderson’s first Test wicket was Vermeulen, his 100th Jacques Kallis, his 200th Peter Siddle, 300th Peter Fulton, 400th Martin Guptill, 500th Kraigg Brathwaite and his 600th Ali. Reflecting on past memories, he joked: “The first thing that springs to mind is how bad my haircuts have been over the years.

They’ve been inexcusable really, and I’m a bit disappointed with that!

“But looking back on that first Test, I never thought I’d get anywhere near 600 wickets, so I’m absolutely over the moon.”

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Esteemed cricket writer Paul Edwards was one of the fortunate few to preside over county cricket’s 2020 season from inside the grounds. He reflects on the absence of fans.

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uring the cricket season just ended I received a number of phone calls and e-mails all of which brought similarly doleful tidings.

They began more or less like this: “The only cricket in the flesh I’ve seen this year has been…” I was then informed of snatches of matches glimpsed through train windows, of fine shots played by nameless batsmen for nameless sides, and of all manner of incidents which, whether eccentric or mundane, were treasured by spectators much as crumbs are grabbed in a famine. The following is a good example: “My only live cricket this year came when I paused for a couple of minutes to watch a couple of unknown teams in coloured clothing playing in a field near the Mersey at the other end of Didsbury.”

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Already many readers may be pointing out that most leagues in Lancashire and elsewhere managed to run reduced programmes in 2020 and if my correspondents really felt so deprived they could have stumped up their subs and joined clubs. Fair enough, of course, but for many folk summer is enriched by attendance at county cricket and unless one lived so close to a ground that you could watch from a window or balcony, that pleasure was unavailable in 2020.

Some people thought it didn’t matter. Early in the pandemic the tuppence ha’penny wits observed that no one watched four-day county cricket anyway and that those who did were socially distanced already. Such comments were among the first signs of the great cloacal tide of opinionated refuse with which we had to cope last spring even as we also did our best to stay alive. Those who agreed with such views subscribed to the long-exhausted “two men and a dog” line while ignoring the good attendances that championship cricket attracts at grounds such as Taunton and Hove. Yes, I know there are others.

Then on 1 August we found out what county cricket was really like when nobody watched it apart from the players, officials and a few media.

I’m not sure anyone was ready for the near silence that greeted a perfect cover drive or the isolated cries of triumph we heard when only bowler and fielders celebrated a vital wicket. Shut away in a press box at a Test ground it was easier to adjust; some rooms have thick windows that shut out all external sound anyway. Only when one stood on balconies or ventured out onto, say, the W INTER 2020 S P IN 3 1

top deck of the Radcliffe Road Stand, was one aware of the deafening silence. Of course the players noticed it, too, and it was a reflection of their professionalism that they coped so well in what was an alien atmosphere. But they are entertainers playing a spectator sport; to remove the crowd is to take away something of their raison d’être. To paraphrase John Clare, the stands were sudden bare.

In his fine book Floodlights and Touchlines Rob Steen writes this: Spectator sport is confrontational theatre, a non-stop people’s theatre where fellow thespians do their damnedest to make you muck up your lines. Drama, suspense and wonder are the ingredients that magnetise tens of millions of citizens and drive TV subscriptions, supplying us with the soap opera that makes professional sport the 21st century’s most authentic reality show and – in probably far too many cases – a barometer of our emotional state. Spectator sport enhances and exaggerates our sense of ‘we’ and ‘us’ and ‘our’, taps into our finest instincts (compassion, meritocracy, fairness) and our basest (physical aggression, deceit, schadenfreude).

There’s a lot there, more than can be considered in an article of this length. But the reference to TV reminds us of another aspect of the 2020 season, the coverage of Bob Willis Trophy matches on most counties’ live streams. For many spectators these were a lifeline. A few clubs, Lancashire included, invested heavily in them, believing that it was even more important to bring high-quality, First-Class cricket to supporters who would otherwise see nothing. The increasingly professional manner in which coverage was relayed made the streams one of the season’s success stories and their extraordinary popularity helped rebut arguments about any public apathy towards the four-day game. One colleague even stream-hopped from ground to ground, choosing what seemed likely to be the most interesting passage of play before moving to somewhere else.

Yet nothing beats being there.

The cricket media are generally excellent but the clue is in the name. Radio commentators and journalists select what seem to them the most important events from a day’s play, knowing all the time that spectators might choose something else.

We do feel a responsibility to get things right and to be vaguely entertaining but anyone watching the same game will have their own 3 2 S PI N W INTER 20 20

reflections, born of their assessment of the play, their conversations with friends and, above all, their awareness of atmosphere.

On good days, the media can add to these impressions but they can never replace the intensity that comes when one is present on the ground. The current presentation of cricket on TV is outstanding but there are powerful reasons why people still spend £90 for a Test Match ticket that will give them an inferior view. As my colleague Gideon Haigh said quite recently: “Television is writing with a one-tonne pencil.”

Lancashire’s final First-Class game of the 2020 season was played at Liverpool. We covered the game from a long tent square of the wicket on the Riversdale Road side.

There was no glass to protect us from the silence. The match itself was excellent as

we watched two young Lancashire spinners, Tom Hartley and Jack Morley, bowl out Derbyshire late on the final day to seal the win. I thought of how the Aigburth crowd, never reluctant to express its views, would have warmed to it all and how the slow left-armers would have appreciated the applause. In all likelihood they would have led the team off the field and up the steps to the famous pavilion. Instead of which, a fine game was played in an almost countryhouse atmosphere. Apart from the media the only people on the boundary were coaches taking a leisurely stroll.

It was a lovely way to end the season and also a melancholy one. For among the warm memories was also the simple reminder that cricket is vastly diminished with no one to watch it. The return of the supporters in 2021 will thus be one of the sweetest signs of our recovery from dark times.

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“I FEEL LIKE I’M NO LONGER TRYING TO IMPRESS, I’M TRYING TO IMPROVE” — F E AT U R E I N T E R V I E W —

Following a fine maiden season at First XI level, George Balderson sits down to discuss feeling at home in the first team environment and growing into his role as a First-Class cricketer.

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or many young cricketers, 2020 has brought about opportunity.

With bio-secure bubbles and a lack of overseas players in county cricket due to obvious challenges in the current climate, one particularly positive spin from the year has been the chance for up-and-coming talent to stake their claim in the First-Class game.

even if you haven’t made First XI squads, but the anxiety going into that setting was ‘am I good enough?’

Few have taken that opportunity more convincingly than Lancashire’s 20-year-old all-rounder George Balderson.

“Everyone says training is an open environment and you can make mistakes, but realistically when you’re the young lad who comes in for the first time, you don’t want to do that. You don’t want to show any weakness or look like a bad player. Once you’ve been involved more like I have been this season, you feel like you can make those errors and start to look to improve your game.”

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In the space of five matches, Balderson has gone from First-Class novice to looking like an assured part of the First XI for many seasons to come. In that six-week span, the left-handed batsman has shown skills and qualities in a multitude of situations; be it a gritty, determined knock with the bat or taking the new ball.

“WE HAVE A YOUNG GROUP ALREADY WHO MAKE YOU FEEL REALLY WELCOME, SO MY ANXIETY ABOUT GOING INTO THAT SORT OF SETTING WAS IMPRESSING THE COACHES.”

More importantly for the Bramhall-based allrounder, improvements with each passing game means he now feels at home as a First-Class cricketer. The challenge, in his own words, is now improving on each facet of his game after proving to himself – and others – he can cut it.

“Before this year, I had only trained with a first team squad twice,” Balderson said. “In the two times, I was nervous and you don’t want to speak to anyone. You get the bat in hand and say to yourself ‘have a good net’ and don’t think about improving that much.

You get the ball in hand and you’re like ‘don’t be bad, be okay!’ and try to impress a few people.

“We have a young group already who make you feel really welcome, so my anxiety about going into that sort of setting was impressing the coaches. You spend time with the lads in the winter or in the gym 3 6 S P I N W INTER 20 20

“I feel like I’m no longer trying to impress, I’m trying to improve. I know now that the coaches can look at me and know I can perform. I’m not that scared of making errors in training sessions because I feel more comfortable in the environment.

Balderson has gone from debutant in the opening Bob Willis Trophy match against Leicestershire to one of Dane Vilas’s go-to men. Only two bowlers bowled more than his 104 overs in First-Class cricket - one of which was the most senior bowler, Tom Bailey - and he showed maturity with the bat, too, using up an average of 56 deliveries in each of the seven times he batted.

It all came together in the final fixture against Derbyshire at Liverpool Cricket Club. He knuckled down for 36 off 128 balls to help rebuild alongside Josh Bohannon in the first innings after coming in at 108/5, took three-fer when tasked with taking the new ball for the first time and then scored a fluent maiden First-Class fifty when trying to set up a declaration target late on the third evening stretching into the morning of the fourth.

“I felt like my confidence grew as the season went on and when I came out for the final knock against Derbyshire and the situation suited me, I could impose myself a bit more. In my first game at Leicester in the second innings, I was four off 40 and having to dig in. Once I had played a few more games, I was able to come out and play my shots,” he said.

“Even within that game (against Derbyshire), I showed the contrast in the ways I can play. If I have to play a backs-to-the-wall kind of innings, I can but I can also push on and score. In the back of my mind, I know I can play both ways and that gives me confidence moving forward.

“I have felt the step up, especially as a batsman. Against the bowlers, it is the lack

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of bad balls, and then the pressure when you get a bad one and don’t cash in. You think ‘I might not get another bad ball here for half an hour!’.

“I found it easier with the bowling as you’ve got the likes of Bails [Tom Bailey] at mid-off to help you through it, whereas the batting you’re a bit more out on your own. Everyone tells you how hard it will be and I definitely felt the step up.”

And after enjoying the challenges of captaincy with England Under-19 last season, culminating in the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, Balderson accepts now is the time to dedicate his energy into his own game and fulfilling his potential with both bat and ball. Leadership is on the backburner for the time being, but something he is keen to resume in future.

“In the last two years, most of my cricket has been in England Under-19s where I was the leader and players are looking to you for that sort of advice. Even though you’re only a young lad, they look to you as the captain. It’s been nice to come back into an environment where you can go to lads who have been there and done it, and I’ve benefitted from it a lot” he said.

“When you’re 20 you want to score runs, take wickets and not have to worry about anything else. If I’m in a situation in the future where I am a consistent first team player, you can look at extra ways in which you can help others and help develop the team.

“I enjoyed captaincy and definitely want to do it again in the future. I don’t know how good I was at it, that’s for others to judge!

But I enjoyed it and the responsibility that comes with it.

Over the winter months, Balderson will be doing as he said at the start of the article: Honing and improving his skills, not just focusing on making an impression. A touted winter in Melbourne grade cricket is on the backburner for now, handing him the opportunity for more one-to-one contact time with the coaches at Emirates Old Trafford.

“It could end up being a blessing in disguise and you have to take every opportunity you can. Tom Webster [Strength & Conditioning Coach] wants to get me a bit stronger in the gym this winter, so he is working hard on a training plan and he will be buzzing to have me around for six months!

“There are a few technical things I want to work on in my game, especially in my bowling. I am trying to put on a few yards of pace and get a bit taller in my action, so if I have a long period now where I can work with Chappie and the coaches, I will hopefully improve in that area.

“It’s the same with my batting. If I can get a lot of contact time with Chilly [Mark Chilton] over the next six months, that will help me.”

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Operations Director Steve Davies reflects on the staging of international behindclosed-doors cricket at Emirates Old Trafford and reveals what life looks like inside a bio-secure venue. rom starting a new job to staging international cricket fixtures in the midst of a global pandemic within the space of within the space of three months.

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That was the unenviable task Lancashire Cricket’s new Operations Director, Steve Davies, faced after joining the team at Emirates Old Trafford in early April. After joining from Merlin Entertainment, where he was most recently Head of Operations at Madame Tussauds, Davies’ first job was to draw up a blueprint for hosting behindclosed-doors, international cricket in a ‘bio-secure bubble’, one of the most used phrases in the cricketing world since COVID-19 put the country into national lockdown back in March.

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Fast forward to the post season and Davies’s team achieved an incredible feat in hugely uncertain circumstances.

No ground had ever hosted three consecutive Test matches until Emirates Old Trafford did with the final two West Indies Tests followed by the first of three games against Pakistan. An unprecedented 21 days of international cricket were hosted in Manchester; six days in a summer under normal circumstances would be considered a success.

The challenge has been mentally taxing.

It may not be as physically demanding as when over 20,000 supporters per day are in attendance, but the constant attention to detail required in making sure the venue remains as bio-secure as possible has been significant.

“We have had to do everything from scratch. The key part is how it remained bio-secure in every single process, like feeding people, letting people sleep in the accommodation to training in the facilities,” Davies said. “Bio-secure is a space that, to the best that’s practically possible, we’ve checked everything that comes into the site and movements within the site so that any COVID-19 transmission is minimised or mitigated.

“As well as Emirates Old Trafford being an ‘island’, there were ‘mini islands’.

There are places where only players could mix, for example, or umpires, and then within that group, they all need to stay socially distanced as well. It’s almost an extreme version of what you see in the general public.

“Within the first ten days of me starting, myself and the rest of the Executive

Team made the assumption that this might come and thought ‘If this does happen, we’re in a very good position to host’. From the initial concept, we started drawing up plans about how we could run a bio-secure venue. We produced a 50-page plan containing all manner of detail so that when the ECB approached counties, we were ready. Once we were selected as a host venue along with The Ageas Bowl, we amalgamated our plans with the ECB’s to create one central plan that could work across both venues.”

On a normal day of international cricket, Emirates Old Trafford is packed with spectators around the concourses enjoying activities that occur outside of the on-field action. With a 17-acre site, there is considerable room for bars, food outlets and other activities, while

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The Point and the on-site Hilton Garden Inn hotel would be full with hospitality guests. This year it all looked very different.

“The first thing you saw when you drove in was plenty of medical teams and screening stations, which you have to go through,” Davies continued. “The hotel looked no different except for the sanitisers, PPE and signage, which you have to follow depending on which zone you are in. What we have to do is check safety is at the forefront but for the guys coming in, we didn’t want to make it at the forefront of their mind.

We have to make sure it looks and feels as normal as possible under the circumstances, with the safety kicking in behind-the-scenes. When you go out for a meal, you don’t want to come away thinking about the standard of safety, you want to think about how amazing the food was and that was the trick for us.

“The Point was used at the entertainment hub. One of the key points of the planning stage was we realised we are asking people to stay here for a long time, and we needed to make sure there was no desire to leave site. There was basketball, virtual golf, air hockey, simulators, computer games and so much more.

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“It’s incredibly clever the way the site was split into three zones, with groups of people only allowed into specific zones. So strict were the movements that we had access cards to be able to enter each zone. We had to identify who, how and when each person can enter a zone. For the ECB to get this over the line they had to present operational plans to the government for approval, so you can get a fair idea of how much work went in.

“What we have been able to call upon is a great amount of medical expertise.

We have been very meticulous and thorough in terms of our cleaning routine, where the partnership with Hilton Garden Inn has been very helpful in sharing key learnings. The ECB medical staff have also been exceptional and brought a great amount of knowledge which helped to shape the plans. We were also able to benefit from the learnings of other sports and leagues around the world, such as the Bundesliga, and spoke to key figures extensively that helped shaped our own plans.”

The result was overwhelmingly positive at the end of the international summer, which was immediately followed by three Vitality Blast matches in four days.

The feedback Davies and his team

received from the ECB and touring parties was outstanding, and West Indies captain Jason Holder even went as far as naming one of the Club’s stewards in his post-tour column to commend the way they were looked after at Emirates Old Trafford.

“I could not be prouder of the way the team have worked throughout this entire period,” Davies said. “All of the staff at Emirates Old Trafford, from catering through to hotel, have been nothing short of outstanding. It has been a summer filled with long days and very unique challenges, but we have met them all head on and ultimately delivered everything expected of us without a hitch. While we hope we don’t have to put something like this on again in future, the comments from everyone – the ECB, West Indies, Pakistan, Australia, broadcasters – has been extremely complementary.

“From my point of view, it has been extremely challenging. Many of us will look back on this and think of it as one of the toughest moments in our careers. Nobody I know has experience of how to put a cricket match on

behind-closed-doors in a bio-secure environment during a global pandemic.

I’m fortunate that the team we have, have already done some exceptional stuff. My background prior to this, I was an Operations Director at theme parks and zoos. There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t worry about something like a rhino escaping or someone in the tiger enclosure. You have to be mentally prepared for challenges.

“The challenge has to stay with you and your team, you need to be prepared and be thorough. It sounds miserable but you have to work with the worst case scenario in mind. In this case, it is someone testing positive for COVID-19 and getting seriously ill. If we work and prepare for this being the worst case, then we will deliver the best.

“I genuinely think we will look back on this in years to come and think: ‘Wow, that was really hard but it is something I am really proud of’. It has been difficult but I am proud to have played a part in an historic summer of cricket and everyone at Emirates Old Trafford will rightly reflect back on it with pride at what we have pulled off.”

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“YOU WANT TO GO OUT THERE AND MAKE A STATEMENT” — F E AT U R E I N T E R V I E W —

Spin Magazine caught up with left-arm spinner Tom Hartley to discuss his debut season in Lancashire’s First Team, his seemingly unflappable nature and being the latest from Ormskirk Cricket Club’s impressive production line…

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Lancashire are not dead yet,” proclaims Mark Butcher on commentary; Tom Hartley has just fired in a quicker ball to castle Notts’ form batsman Joe Clarke – who had smashed 77 from 36 balls against Lightning in the group stage - as a topsy-turvy Vitality Blast semi-final looks like it could be swinging back in the direction of the Red Rose.

Hartley’s pumped up and lets out a huge roar before he is surrounded by teammates to celebrate his second wicket of Finals Day. The tall left-armer would end up on the losing side that day but 22-year-old Hartley, in his debut season as a First XI cricketer, continued to advance his burgeoning reputation as Lancashire’s new man for the big moment.

Prior to Finals Day, he had already claimed the prized scalps of a selection of domestic cricket’s gun T20 batsmen in Wayne Madsen, Adam Lyth and Ravi Bopara – the latter as a South Coast quarter-final rested on a knife edge.

“BEING ONE OF THE NEWEST INTO THE TEAM, YOU DO WANT TO GO OUT THERE AND MAKE A STATEMENT AND THOSE BIG NAME WICKETS CAN HELP TO DO THAT.”

His brief Finals Day cameo, bowling two overs during a frantic 11-overs-per-side affair, displayed the Ormskirk Cricket Club man’s icy exterior in a hot-cooker situation when others of his relative inexperience may well have crumbled.

“It may not look like it, but I always get terribly nervous before I come on to bowl!” explains Hartley. “After I land those first couple of balls, I seem to settle into my work and be alright. I think that not having crowds there this year has taken a little bit of pressure off, knowing that there is nobody heckling you in the ground.

“I really enjoyed taking those vital wickets, Madsen and the two at Finals Day especially spring to mind. I think that getting those kinds of wickets can help to solidify my place in what is a really competitive side, especially in the spin bowling department.

“Being one of the newest into the team, you do want to go out there and make a statement and those big name wickets can help to do that – I think it’s one of them things, you can get lucky with who you dismiss and when it happens to be a big name or on an important stage such as Finals Days, it can help to put your name out there even more.”

While Lancashire’s elongated Blast campaign - which extended into a reserve day in the first week of October – caught the attention, their performances with a young squad in the Bob Willis Trophy were equally as promising as six debuts, accompanied by two victories and two draws laid solid groundwork to push on into 2021.

During the First-Class tournament only Tom Bailey bowled more than Hartley’s 111 overs, and he and spin-twin Jack Morley twirled Lancs to victory on a memorable final afternoon at Aigburth last month, allowing him to learn his trade while collecting six wickets along the way.

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“IT MAY NOT LOOK LIKE IT, BUT I ALWAYS GET TERRIBLY NERVOUS BEFORE I COME ON TO BOWL!... AFTER I LAND THOSE FIRST COUPLE OF BALLS, I SEEM TO SETTLE INTO MY WORK AND BE ALRIGHT.”

come up against some decent First Team cricketers in the Derbyshire side and be able to perform in tandem like that, looking competitive and taking wickets that lead to a hard earned win in a First Team environment was really pleasing.

Three of these came on a dramatic final day of the Bob Willis Trophy at Aigburth, as Hartley and fellow rookie twirler - and good pal - Jack Morley bowled Lancashire to a 178-run victory to deny Derbyshire a place in the showpiece Lord’s final.

“It was a great day,” recalls Hartley. “Me and Jack have played a lot of Second XI games together, so I was already used to bowling in a partnership with him. But to 48 S PI N W INTER 20 20

“I love the challenge of [bowling with] the red ball, trying to work a batsman over and tie them down for a longer period of time.

That win at Aigburth felt so rewarding after all our efforts across those four days. We were both talking to each other throughout the day, offering ideas at how to bowl to a certain batsman – if Jack felt better against one batsman, I would try and tie the other down and vice versa.

“Growing up knowing one another from the Second Team, and even before that, you get to know a player well, on and off the field. Not just myself and Jack, but also both Georges [Lavelle and Balderson], we have played a lot of cricket together and if somebody is struggling you are able to pick up on that, whereas somebody else who hasn’t played too many games with them might not.

“It means you can be that person to go over and help them out and say ‘maybe try this, maybe try that’ and I think that’s the relationship all of the younger players here are developing, we know each other’s game inside out.”

Part of that harmonious understanding between Lancashire’s latest crop of youngsters, can be traced back even further than their time spent together wearing the Red Rose.

Out of the current squad Hartley, George Lavelle, Josh Bohannon and Liam Hurt have all featured at Ormskirk Cricket Club.

Add to that former players Simon Kerrigan and Gavin Griffiths and the Merseyside club can boast quite the record in producing First Team players for their County.

“It’s no surprise to me at all,” said Hartley.

“All you have to do is look at the way that previous captains have played us; they have all given us opportunities from a young age. George [Lavelle] and I were given that chance in their First Team from 15 or 16 years of age – I would get to bowl long spells and George would have the chance to bat high up the order.

“The season that Kerrigan left [Ormskirk], I was told I was going to be First XI spinner and that I would have to bowl well if the team’s going to do well. They put that pressure on early and it really helped knowing you had been given an important role and that you will get to bowl a lot of overs, which I was then able to take into Second XI games with Lancashire.”

So, just how thrilled has everyone at his boyhood been at Hartley’s progress this season?

“Well…ideally, they would want me to play for them every week!” he laughs. “I have a great relationship with the Club and a lot of the people there so I think they are over the moon to see me playing on Sky Sports, they have been sending me messages throughout the summer and it’s always nice to know that I have that support from them.”

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“WE WANT TO MOVE TOWARDS PLAYING A REALLY EXCITING, DYNAMIC, POWERFUL AND QUICK BRAND OF CRICKET” — F E AT U R E I N T E R V I E W —

Spin Magazine spoke to the newly appointed Women’s Head Coach Paul Shaw who will lead North West Thunder, Lancashire Women and Manchester Originals into an exciting future…

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aul Shaw believes that the women’s cricket set-up in the North West can create something ‘special’ and is delighted to be the man charged with helping an exciting pool of players springboard into a hectic 2021 season and beyond.

Shaw, former Head of Performance for England Women, initially agreed to lead Thunder in the hastily arranged Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy at the back end of August, but admits he has been enticed into taking on the role permanently after working with a young and ambitious side.

“I ENJOYED WORKING WITH A VERY YOUNG NORTH WEST THUNDER SQUAD THIS SUMMER... I THINK WE’VE STARTED SOMETHING PRETTY SPECIAL.”

Next summer the 48-year-olds remit will expand as he combines the regional Thunder Head Coach role alongside heading up Lancashire’s County Women and leading Manchester Originals in The Hundred.

“I enjoyed working with a very young North West Thunder squad this summer,” says Shaw. “I think we’ve started something pretty special and although we’ve got a fairly long journey ahead - with a couple of years of really good work required - I think that the medium-to-long-term future for this group of players will be bright.

“Once you are in that cricket environment and coaching on a day-to-day basis it pulls you in, it really does. The players have been really open to new ideas and new ways of working and it just convinced me that I do want to be involved here for the long-term, too.

“You can see it’s a really exciting project, one which we’ve started together and one that I wanted to remain involved in.

Hopefully we can lay some really strong foundations that will serve us well for years to come.”

Shaw led Thunder to two victories in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy but saw enough in a young squad to assure him that they are headed for an exciting future together.

“The average age of our squad in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy was just under 21,” he explains. “When you compare that with other regions, their average ages are around 26 to 28, so from the perspective of cricket maturity we are a young squad and although that brings short-term challenges, I think it brings fantastic potential and excitement for the long-term.”

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Despite the obvious challenges faced this summer, it has still been a landmark one for the women’s game in the North West, with four full-time players – Georgie Boyce, Alex Hartley, Emma Lamb and Ellie Threlkeld now contracted to the region alongside the appointment of Director of Cricket, David Thorley.

Shaw believes with that core framework now in place, and with his appointment on a permanent basis, the hard work can really begin with the group now on focusing on implementing a specific brand of cricket.

“David is doing a really good job in his position as Director of Cricket and

hopefully with me coming in we can offer that continuity and also real consistency in terms of messages, ways of practice and how we want to play the game.

“If we can get those foundations in place and progress forward in the right way, I see no reason why we can’t be successful in the future. We’re looking to bring in some really good coaches to work with us over the winter, so that is exciting to be building a support team that’s really going to enable our players to move forward at pace.

“We want to move towards playing a really exciting, dynamic, powerful and quick brand of cricket. With a young squad you have got enthusiasm and we’ve got a couple of senior players in there that offer experience, but you have got to lay the foundations to enable us to play that way.

“We’ve talked a lot about knowing how to bat for long periods of time, how we want the team to bowl and field, and we managed to get those messages across during the summer in terms of our techniques, strategies and I guess playing philosophy, with a view to build the basic

in a strong way to give us an opportunity to play the brand of cricket we want to play.”

Shaw also runs Inside Leader, his own leadership management and development business which works across sport, business, and education to grow and develop leaders in a variety of high-level roles.

A proud Yorkshireman at heart, he jokes that it was not the easiest call to make the move down the M62 and into the North West.

“When I got asked to do it initially, I scratched my head a little!” Shaw says with a smile. “I know that some of the Yorkshire players and coaching staff, who I still work with from time-to-time, had a wry smile on their faces. It definitely seems to rain a little more on this side of the Pennines!

“But seriously, the people, the players and the staff have been absolutely fantastic – they couldn’t have been any better! That’s also a big part of why I wanted to continue, you can have the best strategy in the world but getting to work with great people on a day-to-day basis is, for me, why I wanted to continue working in the North West.”

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Members’ Representative Group Update In this edition of Spin, Members’ Representative Group Chair, Colin Gore, updates on new appointments within the group and helping the Club reach Members during the first national lockdown.

We would like to welcome all members to the latest MRG update. It’s sadly been an unprecedented year, we have lost David Hodgkiss and many Members from the Lancashire Cricket family since I last wrote to the Membership. Our thoughts and prayers are with those families at this difficult time and indeed with any of you who have suffered bereavement or hardship due to COVID-19.

Looking back at the proposed article I wrote just after Christmas, we had so many things to look forward to. The new stand, the heritage and museum projects and an exciting domestic and international season ahead of us at Emirates Old Trafford.

Times have certainly changed – our last MRG meeting with the Officers of Lancashire Cricket was held over a Zoom platform, as was the recent AGM, but for now let me reflect on the last eight difficult months and look forward to hopefully better things in 2021.

We would also like to welcome new Chairman, Andy Anson, to the Club and we look forward to working with and supporting him in his new role.

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Memberships 2020 The uncertainty of whether any cricket would be played in front of Members made the handling of Membership fees a really challenging and sensitive area. The Club worked really closely with the MRG and put forward the many differing views that Members were expressing. Whilst it was impossible to end up with a scenario that pleased everyone, the collaborative approach taken by the Club was really appreciated and the final decisions had our full backing.

Having the ability to feed into the FAQs was a very important aspect of the process and hopefully we were able to help clarify some of the issues that developed during the summer.

We all hope that the 2021 season will have a clearer, safer and rosier tint to it – a red rosier tint, of course!

Cricket 2020

It was such a relief to finally get cricket towards the end of the summer and the team performed admirably, particularly when the players’ age is considered. While there was no cricket being played, the MRG were appreciative of the feedback Paul Allott provided around the players’ training regimes together with the sports psychology support. He reassured us in May that he was 90% confident of some red ball county cricket towards the end of the season and we were delighted that he was correct!

Whilst we were not able to watch any matches live, the YouTube screenings were a blessing for Members.

The MRG were regularly consulted and the Club did an outstanding job.

Safe In One Place

Thinking back to the May MRG meeting, it was probably the most unusual one ever held.

Who could have imagined that we would have spent so much time talking about the financial impact of having to close down the Club’s operations and the duty of care processes undertaken to protect staff? We were grateful for the openness and clarity that Daniel Gidney provided and as we saw in the following months, Daniel and Lancashire became industry leaders in setting up the ‘Safe In One Place’ scheme. All of this reflected excellently on our Club, and we now need Government to recognise an alternative to a blanket lockdown for the hospitality sector.

It would be remiss of the MRG not to take this opportunity to congratulate the Club on the fantastic job of hosting international cricket during the season. Initially our discussions were about the impact of using Emirates Old Trafford and any subsequent knock on for county games. We were given real clarity around the complex conditions that were set for the ECB to give us permission to hold these matches. We pressed the Club to see if there was any chance of having the County game in between the West Indies and Pakistan Tests, but it was soon made clear that it was not possible. As it turned out, no spectators were allowed anyway but our challenge gave us an idea of what was going on in the ‘bubble’.

Moving On: Amanda Fearn & Tony Shaw It’s time to say a belated thank you to Amanda Fearn and Tony Shaw, who both completed five years on the Members Representative Group. Amanda was the very first Chairperson of the group and completed three years in that position when the Group was finding its feet.

There are fewer people more enthusiastic and knowledgeable about all things Lancashire than Tony. He will be sadly missed but has agreed to keep in touch more informally with the MRG and will be keeping both us and the Club on our toes to raise standards and enhance the match day experience on behalf of all Members.

Welcome Back – Phil Clarke What a pleasure it is to see Phil back amongst the MRG after he stepped down voluntarily from MRG1 due to personal circumstances. Phil’s knowledge of the game and the amount of Lancashire Cricket he watches can only enhance his value to the Members he meets. That instant feedback is so valuable to the workings of the MRG. Some of you may already have had a lovely cricket conversation with Phil as he rang about one hundred Members during the early COVID-19 months!

Welcome To Our Newest Member – Joyce Palmer

A big MRG welcome to Joyce Palmer, who was all ready to come on board before COVID-19 struck in early March. Joyce normally sits in the Red Rose Suite with her husband and has been a member for nine years. Her son is also a member and her grandchildren come to Vitality Blast matches. She is a retired magistrate, has sat on a prison monitoring board and has also been a Samaritans volunteer. Joyce has vowed to ‘help the membership run smoothly’ and is looking forward to the challenge.

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Heritage / Museum Project

The Club have reiterated they remain fully committed to the future development of the new stand and museum, though progress will now understandably be delayed. Phil Clarke is the MRG’s representative Members are encouraged to contact us through the usual MRG channels with any thoughts on the new development.

The Club have created a small working group, led by Sandy Mitchell (Head of Community Growth, Lancashire Cricket Foundation) to work on the application for National Lottery Heritage Funding. MRG’s Chris Bent is part of this group and is able to provide support through his finance and heritage experience. In particular, the National Football Museum and Warrington Museum were sources of invaluable help and proved to be a great inspiration.

Chris said: “It has been really exciting to work with the Club on this significant project. Many Members, myself included, have missed having a museum on the ground and this is such a wonderful opportunity to create something very special. Clearly the funding horizon changed since last March as a short term Heritage Emergency Fund was set up in response to the COVID-19 crisis, and hopefully things will appear very different this time next year.”

Survey

There has been an ongoing debate within the MRG about the value of the annual survey. Whilst recognising that if it changed substantially it would prevent the Club from monitoring progress, the MRG has asked for a review of its content. This is ongoing and we are working closely with Jonathan Nuttall, the Club’s Head of Ticketing and Hospitality Sales. One thing is for sure; no two Members feel exactly the same about what should be in it!

New Members Ground Tour

Following a Surrey CCC initiative, the MRG have proposed that they offer any new Members a tour of the ground at one of their first matches when we return to some sort of match day normality. This would be a nice welcome but also something very practical for those new members that have little experience of coming to Emirates Old Trafford. The MRG have already been contacted by one new Member with a tour of the ground in mind, so we are really looking forward to eventually meeting up and, of course, watching some cricket!

MRG Agenda For the first time, for the January 2020 meeting and subsequently the May meeting we published the agenda items ahead of our meeting with the officers of Lancashire Cricket, offering input from the general membership. I am glad to report that we had some quality responses from Members asking for questions to be asked directly to our Chief Executive, Daniel Gidney, at both meetings. This is something we are looking to continue and encourage Member feedback wherever possible in the future. I would also recommend that Members read the Minutes from our meetings with the Club. They can be found online in the Membership category and are a comprehensive record of our detailed discussions.

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MRG – Term 3 (MRG3)

The MRG has certainly evolved from the original group five years ago. It’s no longer enough for an MRG member just to attend the 2/3 meetings per year with the Club and so we plan to reach out to the membership to ask for volunteers who can support the ongoing projects managed by an MRG member. We accept that Members’ free time can be limited through work and family commitments. If we can build up a bank of volunteers willing to give some time in specialist project areas as they arise, we can add to the overall value of the MRG working group.

MRG – Calls To Members During Lockdown Following Daniel Gidney’s caring letter to members in late March, the MRG contacted the Club with the idea of making joint welfare calls to our most vulnerable Members along with the players and staff. Having received overwhelming positive feedback on the calls made by Phil Clarke and Chris Bent, they share some of the lovely comments and stories they received. I am aware that they made 100 calls each before declaring at the end of July. What an effort! Whilst the initial objective was to check on the health of our members during these stressful past few months, inevitably the conversations soon changed to cricket.

The following is just a snapshot of some of the conversations from members clearly missing coming to Emirates Old Trafford.

“As soon as you enter the gate, you feel at home. There are friendly faces everywhere even if you don’t know them” “I am really missing the cricket this season, particularly as I only recently became a Member at the ripe old age of 76” “I was so looking forward to this season and had changed all my holiday plans to make sure that I could attend every day of the four day games this year” “The biggest thing that I am missing is having a pint in the pavilion with my mates” “I have so many happy memories of coming to the ground. I was here in 1956 when Jim Laker took his 19 wickets. I remember that it rained heavily on the Saturday and Monday (there was a Sunday rest day back then). I also remember talking to some Surrey

members about Laker some months after this match and none of them rated him very highly!”

“It has been so hard having no cricket. I have so many lovely memories of Lancashire over the years and actually played with Cyril Washbrook many years ago” “During these horrible past few months since the outbreak of the virus, I have really appreciated the lovely family feeling that I get from Lancashire Cricket. This has been enhanced thanks to the MRG, Club, players, directors and staff who have all communicated with great care to the Lancashire Cricket family” “I am well into my 90s now and have so many happy memories of watching Lancashire. I can remember sitting on the steps outside the pavilion back in the early 1960’s before the start of a Roses match. My friend was inside the pavilion but as a lady member I was not allowed in back in those days. The Yorkshire team saw me as they headed into the dressing rooms and took pity on me. Geoffrey Boycott in particular was really bothered seeing me there outside the ground” “I think it’s great that you are doing these calls, especially for someone like me who is on their own at this time.”

“My earliest memory is sitting next to the boundary rope when Lancs beat Gloucestershire in near darkness to win the cup semi-final in 1971.”

“I’ve been a member for over 60 years and watched cricket in many parts of the world. I am proud of my collection of about 700 cricket ties from many countries.”

“I’m 93 years old and have been a member for 29 years. I still enjoy watching four-day cricket and tending my allotment, where I am now, for a couple of hours a day.”

“I have really enjoyed the interviews Warren has done with legends and players over the past few weeks, they bring back so many memories.”

“I first went to Old Trafford in 1953, travelling from Ashtonunder-Lyne. We queued at the gate to pay and were then told there would be no play all day back to Ashton!

In 1956 when I was 14, I was heading for the ground and passing the Midland Hotel in Manchester. The commissionaire, guessing I was a cricket fan, said Don Bradman had just left the hotel. I raced along the road, scruffy bit of paper in hand and caught him up. He said to me sternly ‘shouldn’t you be in school?’ I said that we broke up yesterday! He signed the autograph for me.”

“I have been a member for many years and my Grandad, Ernest Moore, was the Lancashire scorer many years ago.”

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“IN THE PAST, IT’S BEEN DIFFICULT HAVING TO BALANCE LIFE AND FULLTIME JOBS WITH PLAYING COUNTY CRICKET.” Hot off the heels of her first season since being awarded a Regional Retainer contract, Thunder wicketkeeper Ellie Threlkeld chats to Spin Magazine to reflect on a ground-breaking year for the women’s game following the birth of an exciting new regional side who attracted plenty of interest online…

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E

arlier this year Ellie Threlkeld – alongside Lancashire teammates Alex Hartley, Emma Lamb and Georgie Boyce – became the regions first recipients of the England and Wales Cricket Board’s Regional Retainers.

Due to the current COVID-19 uncertainty the Retainers became an interim solution to the full-time professional contracts, which the ECB still intends to award, however the announcement marked a landmark step for women’s cricket in this country.

For the first time, players would be given fulltime strength and conditioning programmes and undertake online educational programmes around anti-corruption and antidoping. They are also expected to take part in activities and appearances supporting ‘the good of the game’.

“Awarding those contracts to female cricketers across the country has been hugely important and exactly what was needed in the women’s game,” explains Threlkeld. “In order to keep improving the standard and bridge that gap between county cricket and the international stage, then it definitely needed to happen.

“There’s a generation of cricketers amongst the pool of players who’ve been awarded contracts, that would never have had the opportunity to be a professional cricketer otherwise. In the past, it has been difficult having to balance life and full-time jobs with playing county cricket and it’s hard to expect the standard to be where it should be without adding that full-time option.

After a frustrating summer of sitting back and watching as international cricket returned followed by the men’s domestic season, just as it looked as though there may not be any female cricket at all, the ECB announced that the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy would begin on August Bank Holiday Weekend with eight new Regional Centres of Excellence split into two groups with an Edgbaston final awaiting the winners.

In the tournament itself, Threlkeld contributed 114 runs – including an opening day 52 which helped Thunder to victory at Trent Bridge – and effected five dismissals with the gloves as the inexperienced side representing the North West region recorded two victories, while handing out six professional debuts in the process, under the leadership of Head Coach Paul Shaw and first-time Captain, Alex Hartley.

“Everything was up in the air for so long,” said the Knowsley-born keeper. “Post-lockdown 6 0 S PI N W INTER 20 20

I was just buzzing to be able to get a bit of cricket in and I think whatever format of cricket that was going to be, was just a bonus. The fact that we got to have that first experience of being full-time cricketers was brilliant and something that we didn’t think was going to happen.

“We would have liked more than two wins, but at the same time we have a really young squad. I think this summer was about looking into the future and trying to build something special with this group of girls. I think there’s only better things to come from this group.

“It was brilliant to see that some of the younger girls stepped up when they needed to and enjoyed some big moments. It was key for us that we were not relying on the same players to do things all the time. It’s really exciting for the group to have those sorts of players coming through our system.

“IT WAS BRILLIANT TO SEE THAT SOME OF THE YOUNGER GIRLS STEPPED UP WHEN THEY NEEDED TO AND ENJOYED SOME BIG MOMENTS. IT WAS KEY FOR US THAT WE WERE NOT RELYING ON THE SAME PLAYERS TO DO THINGS ALL THE TIME.”

“[Being a contracted player] I felt like there was more pressure on me, but that responsibility was something which I wanted, and I think it gave me a bit more confidence with a feeling that I needed to perform. I really enjoyed being a more senior player, the leadership side of the game is something that I like and something which I want to develop more.”

Over 150,000 viewers across Lancashire Cricket TV and Lancashire Cricket’s Facebook page tuned into live match coverage of Thunder’s home matches with local rivals Northern Diamonds and the Lightning at Aigburth. The roaming camera footage was supplemented with a live scorecard and live commentary led by BBC’s Mike Perkins who was joined by a number of special guests – including Threlkeld – throughout both games.

Following the success of the ICC Women’s

World T20 at the start of the year, this was supposed to be the summer that attendances for women’s cricket soared across the globe. We now know that a global pandemic had other ideas, but Threlkeld, inspired by Thunder’s online viewing figures, believes that this summer’s hurriedly arranged Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy has yet bolstered the momentum.

“I think everybody was quite surprised by the viewing figures, actually.” explains Threlkeld – who also furthered her own personal media experiences this summer by appearing as a pundit during Lancashire Lightning’s Vitality Blast clash with Notts Outlaws at Trent Bridge.

“It was massively important for us to see those kinds of numbers,” she explains. “It just shows that there is an audience out there for women’s cricket if you put it on TV and make it available on a stream.

“It is crucial that we don’t just stop at this point, that games continued to be streamed and hopefully next summer we will be able to have crowds back in, too. It’s really exciting that people are willing to watch us, hopefully that can continue, and the audiences can keep growing each year.”

“I definitely enjoyed the opportunities to work with Lancashire Cricket TV and to commentate on our live stream this summer.

It’s something I would like to get better at, prior to this year I didn’t have much experience within the media, but it was really enjoyable and the more I can do, the better.”

For now, Threlkeld’s focus switches to balancing her first winter as a full-time cricketer alongside finishing off the final year of her psychology degree at Loughborough University.

Incredibly, the 21-year-old also finds time to make fleeting appearances for Wigan Athletic Ladies, in the semi-professional North West Regional Comp.

“I don’t know of too many others who are balancing a professional cricket career alongside a semi-professional football commitment,” she laughs.

“Wigan are really good with me. If I can’t train or I am unavailable for a game, they will always understand that and just let me play when I can, which a lot of teams wouldn’t necessarily do - so I think it’s credit to them more than anything.”

An all-rounder in the broadest sense.

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John Wood

The former Red Rose bowler has swapped whites for scrubs in his new career in Bradford Royal Infirmary’s operating theatre or many people, the thought of giving someone CPR would be the most frightening thing imaginable. Not for ex-Lancashire fast bowler John Wood, though, who would much rather that than face Shoaib Akhtar.

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Mind you, Wood has done a pretty impressive job of both in his working life.

The now 50-year-old, who retired in 2004 having also played First-Class cricket for Durham, is currently working as an Operating Department Practice at Bradford Royal Infirmary. But there was a time when he was the one terrorising the fearsome Pakistan quick Akhtar.

“We played against him in a T20 (in 2003),” Wood explained. “It was his debut for Durham as their overseas. I went in towards the end of the innings and saw Akhtar ask Jon Lewis, who I knew as a former team-mate, where do I hit it. I saw Jon indicate extra cover, so I was expecting it short. And when it was I just swung, and it came right out of the middle and went for six. I think it might have been the last ball of the innings, which was a bonus as I didn’t have to face him again.

“Then, he came in at number three with the bat, and I bounced him first ball, which hit his hand and head and went straight up 6 2 S PI N W INTER 20 20

and was caught. I hit him for six off one ball I faced and then got him out with the only ball I bowled to him. It still makes me smile thinking about it, and I’ve told plenty of people I hit him for six, that’s for sure!

“Facing him is definitely scarier than giving someone CPR, yes. I’m not going to get hurt in this job I do even though it does get the adrenaline going.”

Wood ended a 13-year professional career in 2004, one which brought him 495 wickets across all formats for Durham, Griqualand West and Lancashire, signing with the Red Rose at the end of 2000.

Since then, he worked briefly for the Inland Revenue and then for four years with Manchester-based recruitment agency Michael Page, realising it was time to get out of the latter when he was given unrealistic targets to meet.

“I then went back to University to do a Foundation Science degree, lasting a year,” he said. “Because I’d been out of education so long and was 40, I couldn’t walk straight into a course which led to something. I had to prove I had a bit of a brain. I went to Huddersfield University and then into the ODP course for what I’m doing now.

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“There are three areas to my job, and I only focus on the anaesthetic side - getting people to sleep, waking them up and looking after them during the operations.

“I love it, although the last six months have been particularly hard because I’ve been shielding with underlying medical conditions. I’m back at work now as all hospitals have created COVID-free ‘green’ areas.

“It’s really interesting and all about helping people. I never thought I’d work in an industry like this when I was playing cricket.

I like the variety.

“Part of the job is that any night-time work we do is in emergency - people coming down with stabbings, gun shots and having to do CPR on people who have taken overdoses and stuff.

“The doctors are the ones with the real pressure on them, making the decisions on what drugs to be given. But you are very much part of a team, which is probably why I’ve succeeded in it given my cricket background.”

Wakefield-born Wood, who continued playing league cricket up until last year and was a title-winning captain with Bradford League side Cleckheaton, joined Lancashire at a time of transition.

Signed by Bobby Simpson, he finished his playing days under the guidance of Mike Watkinson.

Wood took 137 wickets in 91 appearances across all formats for the Red Rose, including only 25 in a “shocking” debut campaign: “It made me wonder whether I’d made the right decision to join because I was a senior player at Durham and things were going well for me,” he said.

“But I wanted to challenge myself and wanted to play a final at Lord’s. At that time, there was no better club than Lancs to do that with. Unfortunately, we lost three semi-finals in my time and only won the Sunday (National) League Division Two title (in 2003).

“It was a fantastic club, and I’m glad I went there. It opened my eyes to how cricket should be played because it was so much more professional than Durham. After that challenging first year, things got better, and I made some really good friends. Gary Keedy was my room-mate, for example, and we still keep in touch periodically.”

During Wood’s time at Lancashire, they lost some big names in John Crawley and retiring duo Michael Atherton and Neil Fairbrother. But they blooded another star in a certain Jimmy Anderson, with Wood adding: “He was phenomenal. He could swing it round corners even then.”

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Left-arm seamer Luke Wood enjoyed a fine first year in Lancashire Lightning colours and here he shares some of his thoughts on bowling at different stages in a T20 match.

A third successive Finals Day appearance for Luke Wood in 2020 further underlined his burgeoning reputation as one of the most reliable and consistent performers in English domestic T20 cricket.

The left-arm seamer took seven wickets in eight Vitality Blast appearances for the Red Rose this summer, going at a miserly economy rate of seven-and-a-half despite predominantly bowling at the most dangerous points of the game – in the powerplay and the ‘death’ overs.

A Vitality Blast winner with Worcestershire in 2018 with a further Finals Day appearance with Nottinghamshire Outlaws in 2019 and now another this year, we chat to Wood about how he goes about bowling in 20-over cricket.

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What do you view as success in a T20 spell?

“As a seamer, if I bowl four overs, it’s usually two at the start of the innings and two at the end. I view success in two ways.

Firstly, it’s the run-rate of the game and secondly my execution.

“Say the opposition get 160, if I’ve gone for 32 or less, I’ve done well, but feel I’ve done even better because of the times I bowl in an innings. If I went for 40 and they get 160, I’d be disappointed because they’ve gone at eight runs an over and me at 10s.

“Then, execution. Have I executed what I planned to bowl? From the outside, you may look at figures of 1/24 from four in the face of 160 and think, ‘He’s done well there’. But if I’ve still not bowled to my best and got a bit lucky, I will be frustrated. The key is being self-critical without being too harsh.”

How do you go about bowling with the new ball?

“Whichever Club I’ve played for, I’ve tended to bowl the first over of an innings because that’s when it’s most likely to swing. Initially, because the white ball only swings for a limited time, that’s what I look for without just bowling half volleys. I will look to hit a length which will hit the top of the stumps.

“If it’s not swinging, I’ll drag my length back because I’d usually have a deep square-leg and a third-man for a right-hander anyway - a pretty standard field - and I’ll try to get him caught there.”

How early do you go to your variations?

“If someone is more conventional, I would look to go to my stock balls and not take pace off. It’s a bit easier to limit a conventional batsman’s scoring.

“I’ll normally bowl some sort of variation in the first over anyway unless things go so well like for Notts against Lancs at Emirates Old Trafford last year (the wickets of Alex Davies and Steven Croft both bowled in the first five balls of the game). That over was the perfect example of what I’m trying to do.

“But say you bowl the first three balls and go for 10, you have to look at something different. You may even try and go to a death plan of a cow corner and long-on and bowl a yorker at the batsman’s toe to try and get him off strike. From 10 off three, an over of 12 or 13 is a result.”

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“THE THREE Cs KEEP CALM, BE CLEAR AND COMMIT TO WHAT YOU’RE DOING.” If you were asked to bowl in the middle overs of an innings, what would your plan be?

“It’s all situation dependent, but you generally have a field of third-man, fineleg, deep cover, deep square. Then, that extra man can be where their strong scoring area is. I’d be looking at a heavy length, though you can mix it up a bit more with slower balls. But you might have to go to an early death plan if they’re absolutely smacking it. The key is, don’t be predictable.”

And how about the death overs?

“You have to stay calm. As long as you are clear at the top of your mark on your field and the ball you want to bowl, that’s the main thing. If I bowl a yorker, miss it and get hit for six, I can take that because at least I know what I was trying to do. You are going to get hit for boundaries and sixes, that’s a given. It’s how you deal with it.”

What variations do you have up your sleeve?

“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been developing a back of the hand slower ball.

That’s something I’ve recently brought into my game, though I don’t bowl it a massive amount. I also have a slower ball off cutter, which will be useful here at Emirates Old Trafford. I’ve spent a bit of time with Harry Gurney at Notts on that. Then there’s the yorker, bouncer. It’s ideal if you have four or five different balls.”

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For bowlers young and old reading this, what piece of advice would you give?

“Playing T20 cricket, the advice I would give to any bowler is to accept the fact you are going to get hit for six. That is something that can throw a lot of people and they get frantic. Calmness is key.

“The worst thing can happen is to get hit for six sixes in an over, which has happened to me in Second XI cricket. As a personal experience, it won’t get worse. In pressure situations, it won’t always follow suit to put it to the back of your mind. But it helps massively if you can.

“The three Cs - keep calm, be clear and commit to what you’re doing.”

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As part of Spin’s exclusive feature with those behindthe-scenes at Emirates Old Trafford, we caught up with Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s Head of Community Growth, Sandy Mitchell How long have you been at Emirates Old Trafford?

SM: I started at Emirates Old Trafford in February 2013 when the Foundation was in its infancy. I was initially brought in to help establish a number of new projects and programmes and generate new money to help us to expand our reach into communities.

Having a strong background in sport and community development in a number of organisations, the opportunity to come and work with a professional sports brand and to be able to use that brand to help engage and inspire was too tempting to resist.

What does your day-to-day role include?

SM: As Head of Community Growth I am responsible for a fantastic, dedicated and passionate team of staff who plan, develop and deliver a range of projects, programmes and events that focus primarily on using the power of cricket to make a social difference to the lives of the individuals we work with.

This includes initiatives that range from using street cricket to engage young people in urban areas with limited access to traditional forms of the game, right through to providing pupils with healthy lifestyle messages using cricket and cricketers to help land the key messages.

I am also responsible for the Foundation’s fundraising arm which works tirelessly to raise vital funds that help to support cricket and community initiatives.

How much has the Foundation side of the business evolved since you started?

SM: A huge amount! When I first started, I was one of 10 staff split between the development and delivery of community projects and the existing Lottery Team. Over the last seven years we have successfully secured a variety of new grant funding streams to deliver projects and programmes which has seen the Community Growth Team expand to in excess of 20 staff members. Following the merger between the Foundation and the Lancashire Cricket Board two-and-a-half years ago to form the Lancashire Cricket Foundation, we now have a team of close to 40 staff delivering cricket and community activity across Lancashire.

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Why is it so important to be out in the community inspiring individuals through cricket?

SM: I am a passionate believer in the power of sport being able to positively influence the lives of individuals. The iconic brands of Lancashire Cricket and the Red Rose have the ability to engage with communities in a way that other agencies can’t do. By taking the brand to communities that don’t traditionally engage with Lancashire Cricket and providing people with positive, inspirational experiences we can not only help them as individuals but we can help to create a positive perception of the Red Rose amongst a new audience.

What’s been the highlight of your time working for the Lancashire Cricket Foundation?

SM: There have been so many and I remain exceptionally proud of the number and

variety of projects and programmes we now have in place from when I first started. That said, I think the one highlight that stands out to me was the first Schools Open Day we held in 2013; seeing over 4,000 pupils and teachers file through the gates for a County Championship fixture and leave in the late afternoon having had an amazing first experience of the best of everything Lancashire Cricket has to offer was just great to see.

You kept the Lancashire Cricket staff active during lockdown with your workout videos, why was that so important to you?

SM: I am a passionate advocate for the positive benefits that come with being physically active as those who attend the weekly staff fitness sessions would hopefully attest to. I was conscious that many staff were furloughed and locked down in their own homes and that this comes with several personal challenges.

I felt that something as simple as a weekly fitness session might help everyone to feel connected as well as providing the motivation for them to just give it a go. I got some positive feedback from the sessions and hopefully managed to encourage a few people to make exercise and physical activity a more regular part of their lives.

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“YOU THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO GET A WICKET WITH EVERY BALL” Paul Edwards tells the remarkable and ultimately tragic story of Lancashire’s left-arm spinner Ian Folley in an article first published on ESPNCricinfo

7 2 S PI N W INTER 20 20

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they may have sparked particular joy in his heart. It was shared by his Lancashire colleagues, who knew their tousle-haired, not-soslow left-armer was one of the best spinners in the land; and the delight was known in abundance by supporters, who thought, like thousands before them, they were watching Lancs play title-winning cricket.

n the 28 June 1988 Lancashire’s manager, Alan Ormrod, received a phone-call from his England counterpart, Micky Stewart. There was a Test Match against the West Indies taking place at Old Trafford in two days’ time and Nick Cook had failed a fitness test. Ormrod was therefore asked whether he thought his left-arm spinner, Ian Folley, was ready to make his international debut. The Lancashire coach replied that while Folley was bowling very well and worth his place in a touring party, he was, perhaps, not quite at the level he had reached the previous summer. The selectors eventually plumped for John Childs, the 36-year-old Essex spinner.

The 1987 season is just such a time and on 22 July, Lancashire are playing Warwickshire at Southport.

Folley is bowling from the Harrod Drive End and the ball is turning on the first afternoon. Players of the quality of Dennis Amiss and Asif Din are reaching forward to where they think the ball will land, only to find it pitching a trifle shorter, thus allowing the bounce and turn to do their work.

F

Folley never did receive a call to England colours. Although he finished that season with 57 First-Class wickets, he started the next virtually unable to bowl spin at all. His deliveries might bounce four times or sail high over the wicketkeeper’s head.

The yips had claimed another victim. Within two years of leaving the professional game in 1991 he was to die under anaesthetic at Cumberland Infirmary, where he was undergoing surgery for a perforated eyeball. He had been hit when batting for Whitehaven

7 4 S P I N W INTER 20 20

but had been able to walk off the ground. The operation should have been relatively routine. And the final sadness is that if you mention Folley’s name today many goodnatured folk are likely to recall only the way his career ended and the dreadful tragedy of his death, aged 30.

“Fol started as a seamer and you could see that in his action because he ran quite energetically to the crease,” said Atherton, who was making his First-Class debut for Lancashire in that game. “He had a fast arm action and I think that’s where he got his dip from.

The one thing I remember from my debut was the number of people he beat by getting the ball to drop and having batsmen searching for it. He was landing it on a sixpence, he was spinning it sharply and he had that lovely drop on the ball. He was dangerous.”

“Fol!...Bloody hell, can’t he hear me? FOL!...Next over, this end.”

“He had this knack, a little bit like Simon Kerrigan, that when he got into a good place, you thought you were going to get a wicket every ball,” added the former Lancashire wicketkeeper, John Stanworth.

“His consistency was that strong. I remember stumping Graeme Hick off Fol and the ball spun that much Hick nearly got back. He had this uncluttered knack of being able to produce really good spinning deliveries.”

There were many summers in the 1980s when those words brought happiness to Ian Folley; and at least a couple of seasons when

Lancashire win the game at Southport by ten wickets inside two days. Folley takes 12/57 and finishes the season with 74 First-

But that’s no way to remember you at all, is it, Ian? For one thing, it leaves out all the fun, such as the times you went in as nightwatchman and tried to score the fastest fifty of the season.

Let’s put them right, shall we? Let me start again.

started to struggle with a loss of confidence, my mind went back to a lunch time conversation we’d had during the winter of 1987,” said Ken Grime, Lancashire’s Marketing Executive in the late 1980s. “I’d always found him to be approachable, outgoing, with an impish sense of fun and happy to chat cricket. But somehow that day we got talking about playing under ‘pressure’ and he recalled the first time it had really crystallized in his mind. It was during that charge for the title in 1987.

Class wickets at a tad over 25 runs apiece, an achievement which had not eluded the notice of the selectors.

“At the end of that year I’m pretty certain he was on a list for the England tour to Pakistan,” said Atherton. “I think Fol was on an initial long-list of about 30 players and in those days not many Lancashire cricketers were playing for England. I remember it being a big thing in the dressing-room when he got the letter.”

Folley’s recognition was all the more remarkable given that almost every county possessed at least one high-quality finger-spinner in that era; and his achievement was vaguely astonishing given that he had only turned to slow bowling the previous winter on the shrewd suggestion of Jack Bond, Lancashire’s manager.

There is evidence he had mixed his usual left-arm quicker stuff with a few twisters during his time in Lancashire’s junior sides but the Burnley-born youngster had signed his first contract in 1982 primarily as a swing bowler. For a season or two it worked well enough for him but Bond recognised that the Folley’s career would be limited if he stuck to his first discipline and therefore suggested he try spin.

The change would be the making of him….and yes, probably the breaking as well.

The players accepted Folley’s decision and waited to see what

sort of progress he would make in his new trade. “Fol was away with the fairies at times” said Warren Hegg, Lancashire’s former wicketkeeper and captain. And one can see what Hegg means.

This, after all, was the lad who had been Graeme Fowler’s runner when he made two centuries against Warwickshire in 1982 at Southport and raised his own bat to milk the applause of the large crowd when Fowler reached three figures. “I’ve never scored a century before,” he told his mates in the dressing room.

Folley’s innings as nightwatchman also mocked expectations: they were noted for a flurry of boundaries carved through the slips or for calls to take quick singles early in an over, invitations which his partner, often Gehan Mendis, brusquely declined. But this sense of fun never strayed over into the sort of self-indulgent indiscipline that blights a team.

Indeed, Folley was so renowned for retiring to bed early in his first few years with Lancashire that his most popular nicknames were “Vicar” or “Reverend”. The extrovert Fol arrived at more or less the same time as he turned to spin.

But gradually, maybe even during that last golden season, the fun began to stop. Rather than hoping Folley would take wickets, his team mates and spectators started to expect him to do so. “When Ian

‘You want to know about pressure?’ he said. ‘You turn up at a ground and realise if it’s a spinning track everyone’s looking at me and Simmo [Jack Simmons] to win us the game,’ he said. ‘That’s real pressure.’ It showed a serious side to Ian I’d not seen before and I got the impression it was something that was on his mind.”

In 1989 the ball was going everywhere and anywhere when Folley bowled spin and he did not play another County Championship match for Lancashire. There were four First-Class games for Derbyshire in 1991 but he was released at the end of that season and had to build a new career in the licensing trade while playing cricket in the leagues.

To a layman, or even to an amateur sportsman who has suffered from the yips, the whole business is raw agony and not many recover from it. When the body cheats on the mind reconciliation is rarely achieved. “It’s like a worm in your brain that’s hard to get rid of,” said Atherton.

“It was the most heartbreaking thing to see from a guy who was only that far from playing for England,” said Warren Hegg.

“When the pressure was on he’d lose it, but even in the nets he’d lost it a bit. Pressure affects people in different ways and I think it was a real big burden for Fol because people were talking him up as the next England spinner.”

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Community Growth Team At The Heart Of North West’s COVID-19 Response As it has across the world, the unexpected events of this year have provided the Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s Community Growth Team with a lot of challenges.

However, since the easing of the first set of lockdown restrictions, the team has been working hard with key funders, determined to re-establish delivery of our vital projects.

That has meant having to think differently in some cases, for example adapting projects to engage participants over Zoom, rather than having regular face-to-face contact.

The Foundation is proud of its involvement in projects that have been delivered in community locations adversely affected by COVID-19, fostering stronger relations with these communities, and putting the Red Rose at the heart of the local response:

• Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s NCS team have been delivering a revised summer programme: Working with 30 young people throughout August by providing them with a range of volunteer opportunities from supporting the Foundation’s activity, to manning local food banks.

• 20,000 young people across the North West have been taking part in social action after pledging 16 hours of activity as part of the NCS’s One Million Hours of Doing Good campaign. Teens who volunteered with the Lancashire Cricket Foundation this summer gained important skills and a reference to support their future employment, as well helping rebuild their local communities and create positive, lasting changes.

• Lancashire Cricket Foundation staff have been working with 50 children aged 7-11 from deprived households in Old Trafford through the Trafford Council funded Summer of Sport programme during August. Our staff have been on-site delivering cricket and multi-sport activity, all in a socially distanced manner.

• The Foundation has also been working with 60 children from deprived households in East Manchester through the East Manchester Youth & Play Partnership Bags & Bubbles playscheme, funded by the National Lottery. Staff have been delivering cricket and wider sport and play opportunities.

7 6 S PI N W INTER 20 20

Regional Development Centres Set To Change Youth Cricket Landscape In Lancashire An exciting era for young cricketers in Lancashire is coming in the New Year, as Lancashire Cricket launches its new player pathway for Youth Cricket via a number of Regional Development Centres based across the county.

Youngsters with abilities ranging from beginner all the way to county representative, will learn to play The Lancashire Way, with Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s qualified coaches leading graded sessions that have been drawn up at the very top level.

The Development Centres will run throughout the year and will in-part replace District Cricket alongside an improved inter-league cricket offer which

will now form the competitive element of the player pathway.

The early stages of the scheme will be open to all, with no nominations needed. Entry into the latter stages of the scheme will require an endorsement from Regional Development Centre coaches, County Age Group coaches, Cricket Development Officers and inter-league representatives.

If you know somebody involved in Youth Cricket in Lancashire, then please visit lancashirecricket.co.uk/foundation to register an interest in attending one of Lancashire Cricket’s Regional Development Centre this winter.

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The Lancashire Cricket Foundation has relaunched its two main weekly draw initiatives, which allow you to win while also supporting the work of the Foundation and local cricket clubs across the county.

Lancashire Line: Join Lancashire Line today and you will be helping support cricket at all levels in Lancashire from club cricket to vital community projects. It costs just £1 per week to join cricket’s No. 1 prize draw, which has paid out over £2.5 million in prize money.

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Now you can also play your part, by becoming a Friend of the Foundation.

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To find out more about the Lancashire Cricket Foundation’s vital work and to access the new online Direct Debit system, please visit: www.lancashirecricket.co.uk/lotteries/ W INTER 2020 S P IN 7 9

First Team Statistics 2020 Bob Willis Trophy 2020 Batting Player SJ Croft AL Davies JJ Bohannon DJ Vilas TW Hartley DJ Lamb GP Balderson KK Jennings L Wood LS Livingstone TE Bailey RP Jones GID Lavelle RJ Gleeson JP Morley LJ Hurt GD Burrows EHT Moulton

Mat 4 5 5 5 4 3 5 5 2 2 4 3 1 1 1 2 2 1

Inns 5 8 7 7 4 4 7 8 2 2 4 5 2 1 1 2 1 2

NO 2 1 0 0 3 1 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Runs 199 337 257 247 35 104 156 182 52 37 47 77 20 6 3 3 1 0

HS 63 86 94 90 13* 50* 61* 81 46 23 38* 23 13 6 3 2 1 0

Ave 66.33 48.14 36.71 35.28 35.00 34.66 31.20 26.00 26.00 18.50 15.66 15.40 10.00 6.00 3.00 1.50 1.00 0.00

Wkts 5 12 3 5 13 7 1 4 9 3 6 0 0 0 -

BBI 4/62 4/55 3/32 3/79 3/11 4/27 1/14 2/20 3/63 2/31 3/79 -

BF 507 548 632 446 165 208 393 471 100 62 92 248 58 29 46 18 9 11

SR 39.25 61.49 40.66 55.38 21.21 50.00 39.69 38.64 52.00 59.67 51.08 31.04 34.48 20.68 6.52 16.66 11.11 0.00

100 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

50 3 4 2 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2

4s 25 54 23 37 2 12 18 23 6 5 4 9 1 0 0 0 0 0

6s 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 2 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Bob Willis Trophy 2020 Bowling Player JP Morley DJ Lamb RJ Gleeson LS Livingstone TE Bailey LJ Hurt KK Jennings GD Burrows GP Balderson L Wood TW Hartley RP Jones SJ Croft EHT Moulton JJ Bohannon AL Davies GID Lavelle DJ Vilas

Mat 1 3 1 2 4 2 5 2 5 2 4 3 4 1 5 5 1 5

8 0 S PI N W INTER 20 20

Inns 2 5 2 3 6 3 2 3 7 3 5 1 1 2 -

Overs 40.0 68.1 18.0 21.3 111.4 48.0 15.0 40.0 104.0 44.0 111.0 3.0 1.0 27.0 -

Mdns 15 13 4 2 44 6 3 8 23 8 28 2 0 4 -

Runs 71 203 52 92 282 182 28 127 296 118 324 4 6 110 -

BBM Ave 5/71 14.20 7/72 16.91 3/52 17.33 3/79 18.40 4/25 21.69 5/71 26.00 1/14 28.00 2/38 31.75 3/82 32.88 3/71 39.33 3/117 54.00 -

Econ 1.77 2.97 2.88 4.27 2.52 3.79 1.86 3.17 2.84 2.68 2.91 1.33 6.00 4.07 -

SR 48.0 34.0 36.0 25.8 51.5 41.1 90.0 60.0 69.3 88.0 111.0 -

5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

10 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

Ct 0 1 0 1 0 0 8 0 0 0 2 3 6 0 4 7 2 5

St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

KEY:

M - Matches

I - Innings

N/O - Not Out

R - Runs

HS - High Score

100 - Centuries

50 - Half Centuries

C - Catches

Vitality Blast 2020 Batting Player DJ Lamb KK Jennings SJ Croft AL Davies LS Livingstone RP Jones DJ Vilas S Mahmood GID Lavelle TW Hartley MW Parkinson JJ Bohannon L Wood TE Bailey LJ Hurt SD Parry

Mat 11 7 10 11 7 10 11 5 2 11 11 7 8 6 3 1

Inns 6 6 9 10 7 7 10 2 2 2 1 6 3 -

NO 5 2 0 0 0 4 3 1 0 1 0 2 1 -

Runs 69 233 272 299 192 77 144 10 18 4 3 10 3 -

HS 29* 108 58 82 69 38* 44* 6 12 4 3 4 2* -

Ave 69.00 58.25 30.22 29.90 27.42 25.66 20.57 10.00 9.00 4.00 3.00 2.50 1.50 -

Wkts 1 10 4 6 7 9 15 4 7 2 -

BBI 1/17 5/17 2/29 2/21 3/21 4/23 3/9 1/14 1/14 2/29 -

BF 66 173 216 246 123 73 118 14 20 7 7 25 5 -

SR 104.54 134.68 125.92 121.54 156.09 105.47 122.03 71.42 90.00 57.14 42.85 40.00 60.00 -

100 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

50 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

0 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 -

4s 6 22 12 32 13 5 9 0 2 1 0 0 0 -

6s 0 3 16 6 14 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

Vitality Blast 2020 Bowling Player SD Parry TE Bailey SJ Croft TW Hartley L Wood LS Livingstone MW Parkinson S Mahmood DJ Lamb LJ Hurt JJ Bohannon AL Davies KK Jennings RP Jones GID Lavelle DJ Vilas

Mat 1 6 10 11 8 7 11 5 11 3 7 11 7 10 2 11

Inns 1 6 6 11 8 7 11 5 10 3 -

Overs 4.0 16.0 11.0 36.0 19.0 25.2 40.2 15.0 28.0 8.0 -

Mdns 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -

Runs 17 111 77 256 143 191 310 116 226 85 -

BBM 17.00 11.10 19.25 42.66 20.42 21.22 20.66 29.00 32.28 42.50 -

Ave 4.25 6.93 7.00 7.11 7.52 7.53 7.68 7.73 8.07 10.62 -

Econ 24.0 9.6 16.5 36.0 16.2 16.8 16.1 22.5 24.0 24.0 -

SR 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 -

5 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -

10 0 2 3 1 3 2 0 0 0 3 6 6 0 7 0 9

Ct 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0

St 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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DELIVERING QUALITY ACROSS THE UK

0 1 68 5 388 888

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SA LE S @ S TE PH E NSA ND G E O RG E .CO.U K

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W W W. S T E P HE N SA N D GE OR GE .C O.U K

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