With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket). This week, we present the Liverpool & District team of the year!
For nearly six months, the finest cricketers in the region have scrapped and strived for a place in this… the ECB Premier Division Team of the Year as presented by Tom Evans!
The rules are simple, but worth repeating: One player from each club, in a balanced XI, with a 12th player from the bottom side. I have tried not to pick too many spinners, honest.
Selections are based on the stats, on personal experience where available and on conversations with teammates and opponents.
Overseas and county professionals are allowed, as are paid amateurs (I don’t know who gets paid and it’s none of my business). But one of the things I take into account is how players performed compared to what was expected of them.
Feel free to take it as seriously as you like. No I do not have an agenda against [insert club name].
1 Ian Cockbain (Formby)
973 runs @ 69.50, 3×100, 6×50 • 10 ct
At their best, Formby had the most imposing top order in the division – and the captain was the main reason for that. Peerless through the off-side in particular, the crack of his bat once he passed 20 was an ominous sound for even the best attacks. He possibly saved his best for the cups, leading Formby to the regional T20 title and the Lancashire Cup final, but there were plenty of highlights in the league too – notably a matchwinning 140 at Northern, a run of five 50+ scores in his first six innings and a modern era record of 188* at his old club, Firwood Bootle. Capable of stunning slip catches too and one of several first names on the teamsheet.
2 Calum Turner (Ormskirk)
981 runs @ 49.05, 2×100, 7×50 • 6 wickets @ 15.33 • 9 ct, 1 ro
There were plenty of contenders from the triple champions and national knockout winners, as you might expect. Aussie all-rounder Tom Brown was a contender, and captain Gary Knight was pencilled in until Turner’s late-season form made him impossible to ignore. From July onwards, when he had his hair bleached as a fantasy football forfeit, Turner’s flashing blade plundered 912 runs in all competitions. And he saved the best for last – a demolition-job 134* from 85 balls against Wallasey to kick off Ormskirk’s title-clinching weekend, followed seven days later by a superb 111 at Lord’s to bring home the biggest prize in club cricket.
3 Ben Walkden (Newton-le-Willows)
602 runs @ 31.68, 6×50 • 31 wickets @ 21.19, 2×5 • 9 ct, 1 ro
This wasn’t the best season for Newton or for their rookie captain, but topping 600 runs in the league is no mean feat. Combined with his increasingly effective seam bowling, the whole package adds up to an excellent cricketer. Unsurprisingly for a man who opens the batting and the bowling, Walkden was at the heart of most of his side’s successes – in the games that mattered, against Newton’s lower-end rivals, he made 65 in a thumping of Colwyn Bay and took 5/39 to blow Birkenhead Park away.
4 Mattie McKiernan (Leigh)
1,116 runs @ 101.45, 5×100, 5×50 • 37 wickets @ 19.03, 2×5 • 8 ct
Imperious. The September rain spoiled it, but McKiernan was on track to become the first player in the three-division era to top 1,200 runs in a season – some teams barely manage that many. Nobody cashed in like he did – if he made double figures, he was only dismissed twice before reaching 50. Four of his five league centuries were unbeaten, leaving him with an average of over 100. And he was the 13th highest wicket taker in the league too, which is frankly just showing off. Leigh finished third, a level below the top two, but McKiernan was a class apart from all his peers.
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5 Ivan Kriek (Firwood Bootle)
787 runs @ 49.10, 2×100, 4×50 • 5 wickets @ 39.80 • 9 ct, 2 st
Firwood Bootle kept faith with most of 2024’s promotion side on their return to the top table, with one exception being the South African Kriek, fresh from a successful season with Rainford. A punchy 67 in the second game as Bootle gave Northern a scare was the start of a run of six 50+ scores in 11 games, including unbeaten centuries against Rainhill and Wallasey – the latter a match-winner in a chase of 274. He’ll have to take the gloves in our imaginary team, having shared them with Kris Ali throughout the season.
6 Sagar Trivedi (Colwyn Bay)
338 runs @ 33.80, 1×100, 3×50 • 18 wickets @ 21.44 • 2 ct
Despite trying to confound the “one player per club” thing by switching clubs mid-season from Bootle, Trivedi still makes it into the XI for his valiant efforts to keep Colwyn Bay up. Brilliant in the win over Wigan which gave them hope and momentum going into the washed-out last fortnight – his 103 from 79 balls was 86 more than any of his teammates managed – and there were three half-centuries too. He only went wicketless once for Bay and was probably the division’s fastest bowler, causing problems for the best; his victims included both this XI’s opening batters, for a start.
7 Khalid Usman (Rainhill)
407 runs @ 37.00, 4×50 • 72 wickets @ 13.76, 7×5 • 14 ct, 2 ro
The best overseas pro in the division over the past three seasons, quietly helping himself to top spot in the wickets table. The Pakistani has made himself thoroughly at home at one end of every Premier Division ground, getting through almost 60 overs more than anyone else this season and taking seven five-fors, two clear of the next best. Rainhill finished fifth, their best placing since coming third in 2017 and exactly the sort of improvement Jamie Harrison was looking for – Usman played a part in most of their nine wins, either with his consistent left-arm spin or his punchy batting, including 76 in a game at Rainford when nobody else made 30.
8 John Dotters (Rainford)
511 runs @ 42.58, 4×50 • 51 wickets @ 19.12, 3×5 • 14 ct
Underestimate him and his team at your peril, not that many do these days. Another year, another top-four finish for a side seemingly greater than the sum of its parts, all knitted together by their skipper. Three weeks before this team was selected, he warned that his numbers would drop off because of a broken thumb; days later, he took 8/59 in a win over Bootle, nudging himself past 50 league wickets for the sixth time in seven proper seasons. There were highlights with the bat, too, including an unbeaten 81 against Wigan, his highest score since 2021 and one of an average-padding six not outs.
9 Seb Botes (Wallasey)
365 runs @ 22.81, 1×50 • 46 wickets @ 21.02, 2×5 • 14 ct
Sometimes, particularly with seam bowlers, how bright you burn matters just as much as how long the flame lasts. Botes was perfectly good for most of his first season at Wallasey, then for two weeks in June he was unplayable. He took 9/41 against Rainhill, including three in four balls in the third over, then described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime” spell. In a way, he was right – the following week, at Newton-le-Willows, he managed a mere 8/58, again including three top order scalps in an over. A word too for his aggressive lower order batting and his excellent outfielding.
10 Jordan Hampson (Wigan)
197 runs @ 16.42 • 29 wickets @ 28.34, 1×5 • 13 ct, 1 ro
Wigan signed two gun overseas batters; both of whom had to go home within a few weeks of arriving. Ashutosh Sharma’s dash around the world to replace Shubham Khajuria was one of the stories of the summer, and both Indian stars showed glimpses of their star quality. But in the circumstances, their captain deserves a lot of credit for salvaging a season out of what might have been a demoralising few weeks. His 29 scalps were his best return since 2022 and he seldom went wicketless. “People will step up,” Hampson shrugged after Sharma’s departure; in piloting Wigan clear of danger, he led by example and can lead this XI too.
11 Tom Sephton (Northern)
7 runs @ 2.33 • 60 wickets @ 16.75, 5×5 • 5 ct
The evergreen slow left-armer topped 1,000 league wickets this season, his 18th in the Comp, and was as dangerous as ever. Locked in a battle with his spin twin Dan Wilson for much of the season, Sephton pulled ahead with 21 wickets in the last four games, including 8/48 against Colwyn Bay. And he helped his side win the Lancashire Cup and the Echo Cup, tangible reward for a season spent being almost, but not quite, as good as Ormskirk.
12 Chris Stenhouse (Birkenhead Park)
100 runs @ 10.00 • 25 wickets @ 25.96, 1×5 • 5 ct
The veteran seamer returned to Park from Oxton after 10 years away, tasked with leading the line. Despite Park’s struggles and eventual relegation, he did his job, always asking questions with the new ball. He claimed 3/26 in Park’s only league win, against Wallasey. Towards the end of the season, skipper Alex Harris bemoaned how Park would turn in half a game at a time – more often
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With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket)
