No play in SEC game at Urmston

The entire Second XI Championship game between Lancashire and Leicestershire at Urmston Cricket Club was lost to the weather.

Our excellent report writer Pete Johnson used his three days off wisely, researching the history of the town of Urmston:

Despite there not being any cricket, I did not want to see all of my ‘homework’ on Urmston go to waste, so I thought I would share a few things I found out during my sojourn to the North West.

Leicestershire were the visitors to Urmston CC for a SEC match v Lancashire. This is Leicestershire’s first ever visit to the ground of Urmston CC. Urmston is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, some 6 miles south west of Manchester city centre.

Urmston CC were founded in 1846, and were originally called Urmston & Flixton CC.

Somewhat well known people born in Urmston are, Lynda Baron, who played Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in Open All Hours, Peter Noone lead singer of 60s band Herman’s Hermits (era of my youth, cutting edge at the time, loved’ em), Suzanne Charlton, BBC weather presenter, daughter of Sir Bobby Charlton, and Eileen Derbyshire who took the part of Emily Bishop in Coronation Street.

Also David Herd ex Manchester United & Scotland (who played in the 1963 FA Cup Final against Leicester City), is a resident of Urmston, and a garage in the area still bears his name. The blighter even had the audacity to score two goals against us in that 3-1 defeat for the Foxes.  I was at that match little did I realise that 53 years later I would be including his name in the report of a cricket match.

There was no play on day one as a result of monsoon weather conditions in the Manchester area. We arrived for day two to find large puddles on parts of the outfield, at the Grammar School End, as a result of Monday’s deluge, and further overnight rain. The Umpires again abandoned play for the day.

Whereas on the first two days, despite all the hard work of the local groundstaff, there was more chance of a sighting of Elvis than seeing any cricket played, we arrived on the morning of day three, greeted by sunny skies.

However, parts of the outfield were still unfit for play to commence on time at 11.00am. The decision of the Umpires was to take an early lunch at 12.30pm, and hopefully start play soon afterwards. Just before 9.30am extremely menacing clouds were seen approaching the ground, the sky resembling Armageddon.

The aforementioned clouds eagerly deposited their contents on the ground, and that ended any hope of play on day three.

A great shame for all connected with Urmston CC, as this match was the first one they would have hosted for Lancashire CCC for some 18 years.

The match being abandoned without a ball being bowled: Lancashire 5 points, Leicestershire 5 points.