Weekend Preview
Wednesday April 13th 2022

Skipper Graeme Sneddon and professional Jacob Clarke greet Ben Gorton and the other new signings ©Nigel Stockley

Accrington welcome Church to The Property Shop Arena on Sunday when the 129th Lancashire League season kicks off at 1pm.

Captained once again by Graeme Sneddon the team includes new professional Jacob Clarke with new signings Ben Gorton (Bury) and Kian Farnworth (Rishton) making their league debuts for the club alongside Simon Hanson who has returned to the club from Ramsbottom. Second team skipper Rick Williams is also included in the side.

Church are led by new skipper Sam Holt for the first time.

The explosive professional Sagar Trivedi has arrived and plays alongside veterans Craig Fergusson, Phill Gilrane, Andrew Bentley and Sam Tucker and new signing Mo Bhada from Feniscowles. Weekend teams.

This is only the second time the fixture has taken place on the opening day of the season in April.

The matches were traditionally played in June and July up to the 1950s with the earliest dated fixture between the clubs taking place on April 16th 2017.

In 255 previous Lancashire League encounters Accrington have 87 wins, Church 81 wins with 87 games ending as draws or No Results.

The seconds travel to Church on Sunday in the reverse fixture.

Matt Taylor leads the side which includes new signings George Mills (Bury), Afrus Ali (Rawtenstall), Arshad Mahmood (Enfield), Asmat Mehmood (Church), Waleed Majeed (Enfield) and Waqar Ashraf (Rawtenstall) with the evergreen Len Dewhurst again donning his whites.

The thirds return to action for the first time since 2019 with a home match against Nelson on Saturday.

Jordan Marsden takes charge of the team for the first time.

This season's Looking Back Feature takes us back to 1992 when Dipak Patel was professional. The season began on April 19th with a 4 wicket defeat at Colne.

If you have any memories of 1992 please email Nigel Stockley