Accrington Cricket Club

Congratulations
Before we begin we must congratulate our friends and neighbours Accrington Stanley on their wonderful achievement of regaining Football League status. Well done to Eric Whalley, John Coleman and company for assembling a superb team both on and off the field. Who says that dreams do not come true? Let's hope that some of the sweet smell of success wafts its way a couple of 100 yards our way!!!

New recruits
The Pro'
Thirty-three year-old Indian left hander Nishit Shetty is the man entrusted with moving Accrington off the foot of the table after the most disastrous season in the club’s history.

The left handed batsman and slow left arm orthodox spin bowler has played for Bolton League side Greenmount for the past two seasons, hitting 1313 and 981 runs during his spell at the club. In spite of limited First-class bowling experience which has brought just 1 wicket in 23 matches, the Indian picked up 57 victims at 15.9 last term. In First-class matches, Nishit has hit 1181 runs at 34.7, including three centuries, in a career that began late in life in the 2000-01 season. In One Day matches, Nishit has 723 runs at 45.2 and 6 wickets at 67.2 for his side Mumbai.

Accrington will be hoping that the combination of Shetty and David Ormerod can inspire some improved performances to end a barren run of success since 1986. Shetty will be the club’s fifth Indian professional and the first since Bharati Arun left the club mid way through the 1987 season.

It is a great pleasure to welcome David Ormerod back to the club. David began his career at Thorneyholme Road as a junior alongside the likes of Graham Lloyd and Paul Barratt. David's move to Bacup saw him develop into the Lancashire League's leading bowler of his generation. An inswing bowler with a variety of surprises for the batsman, David took a total of 877 wickets in helping Bacup to three successive titles during his 15 year spell at Lanehead. David has taken 5 wickets in an innings 66 times with a best of 8-45 against East Lancs in 2002, picking up the Lancashire League Senior Bowling Award six times (1996, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004). David's record on Thorneyholme Road is equally impressive with a total of 39 wickets from 15 league visits. David has taken 17 of those wickets from his last three matches at Accrington. In those 15 matches David has been on the losing side just three times with one match abandoned before he had the chance to bowl. David has been appointed vice captain.

On the playing side we also welcome off spinner Callum Brown from Lowerhouse.

After a long search we have finally found a man to step into the shoes of Lionel Cooke. Stuart Whalley, former scorer at Read and Padiham, is our new first team scorer.

League honour
David Ormerod and Zahir Afzal have both been selected for the Lancashire League team to play against the Central Lancashire League at Crompton on Monday May 1st. Haslingden's Stuart Catterall will lead the side which also includes veteran spin king Keith Roscoe and youngsters Vishal Tripathi and wicketkeeper John Simpson.

The full side is: Stuart Catterall (Haslingden, captain), John Simpson ( Haslingden, wicketkeeper), David Ormerod (Accrington), Ben Law (Burnley), Keith Roscoe ( Rawtenstall), Paul Gallagher (Bacup), Vishal Tripathi (Burnley), Richard Rostron (Rishton), Simon Read (Ramsbottom), Zahir Afzal (Accrington), Paul Turner (East Lancs). 12th Man David Crotty (Nelson).

Appointments
Matt Wilson will again skipper the firsts with Zed Hussain staying in charge of the thirds. Ian Johnson has been appointed as second team skipper.

Alven Burrows has been appointed as Chairman of the Management Committee. Mark Sumner has joined the Cricket Committee and has replaced Kim Sneddon as Cricket Treasurer. Kim will concentrate on her role behind the bar. John Burnyeat has also joined the Cricket Committee. Steve Juliff has been appointed as the Club's Welfare Officer. John Burnyeat has also been appointed as Assistant Welfare Officer. Steve and John are working hard on Clubmark and have been on various courses such as "Time to Listen" and "Safe Hands", one of which was at Old Trafford.

Captains
1st XI Matt Wilson (vice captain David Ormerod)
2nd XI Ian Johnson
3rd XI Zed Hussain
Scorers
1st XI Stuart Whalley
2nd XI tba
3rd XI tba

Junior Team Managers
Under 17s Mick Donnelly
Under 15s Andy Eland
Under 13s Matthew Donnelly
Under 11s Damian Clarke
Under 9s Mark Ashton

Ladies Committee
The Juniors have once again covered themselves in glory this winter. The Under 11s became the first winners of the Hyndburn Indoor Competition [More] and the Under 13s retained the Steven Dickenson Indoor Trophy. [More]

New Book
The Club is publishing a new book entitled 'It was 20 years ago today, The Complete History of Accrington in the Worsley Cup' during the summer.

Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1986 Lancashire Evening Telegraph Cup win and the club's 160th year, the book will include details of every Accrington Worsley Cup tie between 1920 and 2006.

Chronicling the many tussles with local sides Church, Enfield and Rishton, there will be special features on all the finals and also Shane Warne's famous match winning performance against Ramsbottom in 1991.

The book will be available by subscription for £6 by contacting the author Nigel Stockley (01254 392923 or ncstockley@supanet.com). All proceeds from the book will go into club funds.

Sponsorship
Ball Sponsors are required for 10 matches. Cost is £40. Please contact Nigel Stockley (01254 392923 or ncstockley@supanet.com).

The Ground
Ian McCrae and his team of helpers have been hard at work getting the ground ready for the new season.

The Committee wish to thank all who have worked on the ground over the past few weeks, especially Ian and Harry Stevenson, Bert Ormerod, Adam Barnes, and the players ie, Jonathon Hayhurst, Andrew Greenwood, Matthew Donnelly and new man Callum Brown.

You can follow Ian and his team through the season with our new Ground Diary on the website.

Blast from the past
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 1986 Lancashire Evening Telegraph Cup win and the club's 160th year, we look back through the Worsley Cup Archives at some of the outstanding matches from the past 86 years.

Worsley Cup Round 2
Sunday 23rd June 1974
Accrington 168-7, Colne 163
There was an against the odds win at Thorneyholme Road by Accrington, who fought back to earn a 5 run win over Colne. Professional Alan Worsick led the home side's fightback hitting 55, his first ever half century for the club, after early wickets had fallen to professional Bob Letherbarrow. Worsick put on 70 for the 5th wicket with Alan Richardson (20) after the home side were in disarray at 31-4, bringing up his fifty with a huge six into Highams. Ian Birtwistle (31 not out) and Terry Neville then put on 50 for the 8th wicket to take Accrington to 168-7, but Colne were in the driving seat at 156-4 with three overs to go after a 2nd wicket stand of 102 between Letherbarrow (74) and Howard Lonsdale (59). Birtwistle had Letherbarrow caught by Malcolm Taylor, but it was Worsick who turned the match Accrington's way by dismissing Alan Braithwaite, Martin Beechy and Peter Lane in the 34th over. Tony Gallagher bowled Barry Driver for 4 which meant that Colne needed 8 off Worsick's final over for victory. Lonsdale and Bob Little managed singles off the first two balls but Lonsdale was caught behind by Neville off the third and Little was run out off the sixth ball to give Accrington victory.

This match will be featured in the forthcoming book 'It was 20 years ago today, The Complete History of Accrington in the Worsley Cup' which will be published during the summer.