Greenmount’s first eleven have a baptism by fire for their first taste of 2022 Lancashire League Division One action when they travel to league champions Burnley.
The game will be played on Sunday, 17th April with near neighbours Ramsbottom lined up for the Mount’s first home clash on the following Sunday (April 24th).
Two weeks later Rammy are again the visitors to the Log Cabin in a first round Worsley Cup clash (Sunday, May 8th).
The return league clash with the Rams, at Acre Bottom, is scheduled for Saturday, July 9th.
Other notable fixtures are an early trip to Haslingden on Sunday, May 15th while a week later, on Saturday, May 21st, Worsley Cup holders Lowerhouse are the visitors to Brandlesholme Road.
The season concludes on Sunday, September 11th with a trip to Clitheroe.
Greenmount Cricket Club are saddened to hear the news yesterday that former chief executive of the MCC and the club’s ex-overseas amateur Keith Bradshaw has died at the age of 58 after a long battle with cancer.
The popular Tasmanian played for the Mount during the summer of 1985 – a campaign that was more memorable for rain and postponements than sunshine cricket.
Keith Bradshaw (left) is presented with his Greenmount CC cap by the club’s Bob Horrocks in 2018
Nevertheless, Keith won the Bolton League batting prize that year, with a record of 23 innings, four not outs and a highest score of 78 not out. His season’s total of 728 came at an average of 38.32.
Greenmount professional in 1985, bowler Steve Monkhouse, also played with Keith for his hometown club New Town CC, Tasmania and this morning tweeted “Rest easy old friend, RIP”.
Between 1984 and 1988, Keith, a middle-order batsman, played 25 times for Tasmania and hit two centuries in the Sheffield Shield before taking up positions with accounting firms Price Waterhouse and Deloitte being promoted to a partner by the latter.
In 2006, a friend in recruitment told him that the MCC were looking for a replacement for retiring chief executive Roger Knight and he duly applied and landed the job.
During his tenure from 2006 to 2011, Keith quickly gained a reputation for his energy and vision, among other things, pioneering day-night, first class cricket played with pink balls and oversaw the installation of floodlights at Lord’s.
He returned to Australia in 2011 to take on the chief executive position at the South Australia Cricket Association (SACA) at the Adelaide Oval, a position he held until his untimely death this week.
All at Greenmount would like to express our sincere condolences to Keith’s fiancé Helen, children Juliet, Eliza, Donald and Jack and son-in-law Patrick.
Congratulations to Greenmount’s Callum Hunter and Matt Donnelly on their awards at the Lancashire Cricket League’s Annual Dinner at the Fence Gate Inn, Burnley on Friday evening.
Callum picked up the Under-23 award for most wickets with his haul of 43 for the season while Matt’s 35 victims behind the stumps earned him the Division Two wicket keeping accolade.
The draw for the first round of the Lancashire League’s 2022 Worsley Cup competition has thrown up an enticing derby clash for Greenmount as near neighbours Ramsbottom will be the visitors to the Log Cabin on Saturday, 7th May.
The Rams will also be in the Mount’s T20 competition group along with Littleborough, Crompton, Norden and Rawtenstall.
The 2022 league campaign starts on Sunday 17th April for the first and second teams while the thirds begin a week earlier on Sunday 10th April.
The T20 competition begins on Friday 27th May with the league season due to finish on Sunday, 11th September.
Greenmount CC’s senior teams were dealing out the trophies at the Log Cabin on Saturday evening when the club held their annual presentation night.
Eighteen-year-old Callum Hunter took pride of place when he picked up four trophies for his efforts in the first eleven.
Callum took 43 wickets as the Mount won promotion to the Lancashire League top flight at the first time of asking, and was rewarded with the club player of the season award, the first team player of the year award, the first team bowling award and the Mark Stewart award for most wickets.
Tom Heaton won the first team batting award.
In the second team Brad Edge picked up two trophies, the Cyril Butterworth Award for most runs in the season and the Second team batting award.
Meanwhile, Oliver Dixon picked up the second team bowling award and Jake Chadwick was named players’ second team player of the season.
In the thirds young Max Birtwistle was named players’ player of season, Skipper Mark Crowther picked up the batting award and Stuart Leach won the bowling accolade.
Andy Kerr won the Moment of the year award for his part in his first wicket partnership of 320 with professional Chesney Hughes that smashed the Lancashire League record.
Matt Senior was also presented with the Pauline Rigby junior player of the year award and Charlie Exton was awarded a special prize voted for by third team skipper Mark Crowther.
The Clubman of the year award went to chairman Rob Kilvington.
WINNERS ALL… From left: Mark Crowther, Charlie Exton, Tom Heaton, Callum Hunter, Matt Senior, Jake Chadwick, Oliver Dixon and Andy Kerr
List of winners: Player of the season: Callum Hunter First team batting: Tom Heaton First team bowling: Callum Hunter First team player of season: Callum Hunter (players vote)
Second team Batting: Brad Edge Bowling: Oliver Dixon Player of season: Jake Chadwick
Third team Batting: Mark Crowther Bowling: Stuart Leach Player of season: Max Birtwistle
Moment of the year award: Andy Kerr
Mark Stewart bowling award: Callum Hunter
Cyril Butterworth batting award: Brad Edge
Pauline Rigby junior player of the year: Matt Senior
Starting this weekend (Friday 7th October) Danny’s at the Log Cabin will be open for breakfasts from 10am on Friday mornings and stay open for his regular menu plus specials throughout the day to his usual 8.30pm deadline. This is on top of his normal Saturday and Sunday opening times.
To coincide with this change, the club bar will now be open from 12 noon on Fridays.
Keep your eye on greenmountcricketclub.com for some forthcoming changes to Danny’s menu.
The club are delighted to announce that the Junior and Senior Presentation Evenings have been confirmed for Friday 8th and Saturday 9th October respectively at the Log Cabin.
Both evenings will be an opportunity to reflect on what was amazingly a full season of cricket despite the difficulties presented by the pandemic, and one that included our professional, Chesney Hughes and Andy Kerr, breaking the Lancashire League partnership record in what was our first season in the league as well as a plethora of representative honours for our players.
All junior players and their families are invited to the Junior Presentation to be held on Friday 8th October starting at 7pm.
The evening will celebrate performances across the U9s, U11s, U13s, U15s and U18s. Participation awards will also be presented for those who haven’t yet started playing for the U9s.
Food will be available at “Danny’s at the Log Cabin” before the presentation starts. Danny will be looking to do some hot dog / burger specials which will hopefully appeal to some of our younger players. The evening should finish around 9pm to 9.30pm. There will be no charge for the Junior Presentation evening.
All club members are invited to attend the Senior Presentation which will take place on Saturday 9th October starting from 7pm.
The evening will start with food at 7pm, with a choice of plate meat pie or cheese and onion pie and peas to be served by Danny and his team. Our compère for the evening will be Ryan Senior, our first team captain, and he will lead us through the evening, celebrating and reflecting on a wonderful first season in the Lancashire League.
Individual team captains will also look back on their respective seasons and hand out individual prizes for their teams. Once the presentations have finished, our resident DJ will bring the evening to an end with a few of his favourite tunes.
Tickets will be £5 per person to cover costs, please email club chairman Rob Kilvington at rkatrr@gmail.com to get your tickets and please remember to bring your tickets with you as you will need them to get your food at the start of the evening.
The club’s first eleven made it a memorable first season in the Lancashire League when they secured promotion to Division One with a comfortable six-wicket victory at rivals Enfield.
Defeat against Littleborough the previous week may have had the more pessimistic of the club’s followers fearing that they would blow the chance to go up at the final hurdle, especially as a victory for the home side could have seen them promoted.
But that was never going to be the case at Dill Hall Lane when skipper Ryan Senior won the toss and elected to put Enfield into bat.
After a steady start, the home side lost South African professional Stuart Els for seven with the score on 52. Jack Cook (6) then became Kieran Edwards’ second victim of the day at 62 before good knocks from Adam Bracewell (46), Lewis Wright (45) and Tiernan Hamill (27) moved things along.
However, some tight and economical bowling from the Mount lads prevented Enfield from getting too challenging a score and given the depth of the batting in the side, a total of 204 was one they were confident of surpassing.
With the real possibility that elevation to the top tier could come down to bonus points, the two wickets Callum Hunter took in the final over were a welcome sight as they earned Mount two precious points for bowling the opposition out at the same time preventing Enfield from getting a maximum 12.
Hunter took 3 for 61 ably assisted by Andy McGuiness (2 for 22), Evan Williams (2 for 28), Kieran Edwards (2 for 34) and Chesney Hughes (1 for 36).
The Mount’s reply didn’t get off the best of starts when Jack Harrison (7) was bowled by Nihaal Bhasharat in only the second over.
But on the plus side, that brought to the crease Andy Kerr and, once again, his superb partnership of 155 with paid man Hughes knocked the stuffing out of Enfield.
Greenmount’s promoted first team with runners-up trophy following victory at Enfield
Hughes finished unbeaten on 81 in a sensible batting masterclass, and as the light began to fade and both Tom Heaton (0) and Evan Williams (10) were given dubious lbw decisions in the gloom, up stepped Lewis Dove to smash a match-winning four and ensure the Mount take their place among the Lancashire League ‘big guns’ in the summer of 2022.
The pro’s innings (six fours and a six) saw him pass the 1,000 mark for league runs this season while Kerr’s 64 (nine fours) resulted in him passing 500.
Meanwhile, at the Log Cabin, the second eleven put paid to Enfield’s chances of winning the second team championship with a 46-run triumph.
Skipper Alex Bullen won the toss, elected to bat, but fell lbw for a duck after three balls. Man-of-the-moment Brad Edge, thankfully, was again in good batting form hitting 62 as the seconds ran up a score of 218 for 9 from their 45 overs.
There were also useful contributions from Chris Sherrington (24), Patrick Kilvington (22), Ryan Edge (22), Nigel Franklin (20) and Matthew Senior (18).
The Enfield reply fell short of what was required due in no small measure to Kilvington who took 4 for 41. The other wickets fell to Tom Nuttall (2 for 11), Oliver Dixon (2 for 43) and Bullen (1 for 30).
Greenmount’s second eleven following their final game of the season against Enfield
On Saturday the third team played their final game of the campaign at near neighbours Ramsbottom.
The Rams won the toss, elected to bat, but were restricted to 145 for 5 from their 40 overs with Max Birtwistle, Matthew Gilmore, Luca Addleton, Adam Clarke and Charlie Exton all taking a wicket apiece.
Skipper Mark Crowther was again the mainstay of the Greenmount reply as he hit 65 while David Mason (29) also got the innings off to a steady start after the early dismissal of father and son combination Leigh (3) and Henry (4) Dickinson.
Rammy’s total was overhauled in the 36th over for the loss of six wickets, thanks to a fine six from Steven Addleton.
To compound a day of real cricketing disappointments, unfortunately tonight’s final junior practice of the season has had to be cancelled due to the rain-soaked outfield at the club.
Nevertheless, the bar (complete with newly-installed Kingstone Press cider) will be open from 4pm while Danny’s At The Log Cabin will be in full swing to provide some culinary delights.
As well as his usual menu HERE Danny has a couple of curry specials on tonight with Lamb Balti or Chicken Madras served up with rice or fries and a naan bread.
The 2021 JW Lees Lancashire League campaign comes to a conclusion this weekend with all three of the club’s senior sides in action.
Firstly though, the final junior practice will be held tonight (Friday) at the Log Cabin from 6pm (weather permitting)!
On Saturday, Mark Crowther’s third eleven make the short trip to Acre Bottom to take on Ramsbottom thirds. WP 12.30pm.
And with all due respect to the second team who are at home to Enfield seconds on Sunday (WP 12.30pm), the main focus of interest at the club will be the first team’s encounter at Enfield (WP 12.30pm).
The Greenmount lads are currently in second place in the Division Two table and need to win to join Haslingden in Division One next summer.
Standing in the way are an Enfield team that have forced themselves into the heart of the promotion chase in the last few weeks.
They will be buoyed by knowing that victory will see them leapfrog the Mount into runners-up spot and with home advantage, plus the knowledge that they defeated Ryan Senior’s men at the Log Cabin in June, they are sure to be a tough nut to crack.
The club is hoping as many supporters as possible can get behind the lads and make the trip to Dill Hall Lane, Accrington for the fixture. The postcode for satnav is BB5 4DQ and the ground location can be found HERE.
