With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket). We present how the Liverpool District Comp has dominated the Lancashire Cup.
David Snellgrove batting for Southport & Birkdale
Picture by ANGUS MATHESON
The past 30 years have been an era of dominance for the Love Lane Liverpool Competition in the Lancashire Cup.
In that time, the Comp has provided 11 outright winners, eight beaten finalists and two joint winners.
The Northern Premier League and the North West Cricket League are joint second for wins, with five each, while the Lancashire League has 13 finalists in total – a distant second to the Comp’s 21.
Since 1994, only 10 Lancashire Cup finals have taken place without a representative from the Comp.
With that in mind, it is strange that Sunday’s meeting of Northern and Formby will be only the second all-Comp final in the competition’s 53-year history.
The previous occasion came in 1999, just as the league was beginning to flex its muscles. Last 30 Lancashire Cup finals…
| Year | Winners | Runners-up |
| 1994 | Rochdale | Darwen |
| 1995 | Kendal | Walkden |
| 1996 | Blackpool | Widnes |
| 1997 | St Annes | Bootle |
| 1998 | Westhoughton | Bootle |
| 1999 | Ormskirk | Sefton Park |
| 2000 | Netherfield | Ormskirk |
| 2001 | Tonge | Ormskirk |
| 2002 | Walkden | Kearsley |
| 2003 | Walkden | Wallasey |
| 2004 | Bootle | Westhoughton |
| 2005 | Bootle | Greenmount |
| 2006 | Bootle | Darwen |
| 2007 | Bootle | Greenmount |
| 2008 | Walkden | Farnworth Social Circle |
| 2009 | Bootle | Egerton |
| 2010 | Farnworth | Denton St Lawrence |
| 2011 | Greenmount | Walkden |
| 2012 | Bamford Fieldhouse | Northern |
| 2013 | Northern | Bamford Fieldhouse |
| 2014 | Ormskirk | Norden |
| 2015 | Bootle | Littleborough |
| 2016 | Denton West | Farnworth |
| 2017 | Lowerhouse & Ormskirk | |
| 2018 | Darwen | Clifton |
| 2019 | Norden | Darwen |
| 2021 | Ormskirk | Burnley |
| 2022 | Longridge | Ormskirk |
| 2023 | Northern | Longridge |
| 2024 | Ormskirk & Prestwich |
Ormskirk met Sefton Park in a washout at Old Trafford, then in a replay the following week at Brook Lane.
And Comp legend David Snellgrove, who as Ormskirk captain ended up both lifting the trophy and taking home the player of the match award, remembers it like it was yesterday.
“It was a special time,” he says.
“There was a lot of buzz around the club that Ormskirk had got to the final for only the second time, and we hadn’t done it for a long while.
“It was a big thing for the club, and from a Comp point of view, it was definitely very unusual to have two sides from the same league.
“Just like this time around, with Northern and Formby, it was a fantastic achievement to get there.”
Sefton – including a 16-year-old Paul Horton – set a target of 165 before rain again threatened proceedings.
Snellgrove and David Whittaker came together at 37/3 and knew they needed to up the rate – in the 23rd over, the last before the rain closed in, they edged in front.
“Kevin Burns, who was already out, was in position by the scoreboard,” recalls Snellgrove.
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“He was passing on messages to us of how many we needed to be on at the end of the next over.
“I think it was just the straight run rate at the time.
“Prior to Duckworth-Lewis-Stern being plastered all over the scoreboards, we needed to know if we had one more over, how many more we needed.
“I think we needed five off the last over… we got a single then I hit a four. We came off at the end of that over, never to get back on.”
Snellgrove finished on 42 not out, to go with his economical spell of nine overs for just 24 runs.
He adds: “It was not an ideal way to finish the game, but we couldn’t control that, we just had to make sure we were in front.
“It was a very pleasing time because we hadn’t had a great deal of success in the immediate previous years, and it was the start of one or two trophies around that time.”
Ormskirk in fact reached the next two Lancs Cup finals, losing to Netherfield and Tonge.
But Snellgrove’s love affair with the competition had only just begun.
In 2004, he hit 111 at Old Trafford as Bootle beat Westhoughton by 127 runs.
It was the start of a streak of five wins in six seasons for a Wadham Road side led by the late, great Ian Cockbain – whose son will lead Formby on Sunday.
But even during that run, they never faced another Comp side. Leigh made the semis in 2004 but were paired with Bootle, while Ormskirk met with the same fate in 2006 at the same time as Huyton lost to Darwen.
Three Comp sides – Leigh, Northern and Ormskirk – also made the semi-finals in 2022, but it was Longridge who emerged victorious.
“It is surprising that it hasn’t happened since,” says Snellgrove. “But it’s all about the luck of the draw, and how the draw takes shape.”
Another chance for luck to intervene comes with the weather. Ormskirk and Prestwich started but couldn’t finish twice last year, and Sunday’s forecast for Blackpool is worryingly uncertain at this stage.
But assuming the clouds manage to cross their legs for an afternoon, the final promises to be a fine advert for the club game, and for the Comp.
Snellgrove, who says he is still enjoying his cricket at Southport & Birkdale, says he will be making the journey up the coast.
He adds: “I think it’ll be intriguing. Northern have got recent history of doing very well in knockout cricket.
“They seem to be a very, very strong outfit, very well drilled, seem to know their roles and they’re a very, very good cup side and have been for a number of years.
“Formby are sort of the new kids on the block in terms of the success they are having this year – winning the Comp T20.
“Coey has been scoring thousands of runs and batting very, very well, and they’ve got many other very talented players. “If they’re all available, they’ve got a very strong side.”
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With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket)
