Edenfield Cricket Club

Edenfield Cricket Club, founded 1902, is a cricket club in Edenfield, an upland village in the southern part of the Rossendale Valley, Lancashire in England.

The club is on Gincroft Lane off Market Street. The club competes at under 11, under 13, under 15, 3rd, 2nd and 1st team level in the Ribblesdale League. The current professional is Barbar Naeem of Pakistan. The club celebrated its centenary in 2002 and the following is a brief history of the club with extracts from "100 not out" by Ian Bailey:

It is known that cricket was being played in Edenfield as early as 1860, and by 1875 there was enough interest in the village to form two teams who would have played friendly matches against the local workshop teams. However it took until February 1902 for a meeting to be called about the official formation of a cricket club in Edenfield. Posters were displayed in the village inviting men interested in cricket to attend a meeting at James Howarth’s Café. Jim was a keen cricketer in his day and his café became known as the ‘headquarters’ of the club. The inaugural meeting was a success, a Committee was elected and Edenfield United Cricket Club was formed.

Our first officials seem to have been supremely optimistic men; applications were sent to the Rossendale and District Cricket League and the Bury and District League. Both applications were rejected for the 1902 season, probably because the club didn’t have any equipment whatsoever, a small mower had to be borrowed from the Tennis Club, and no roller was available! During 1902 friendly matches would be played, the first match was on the 27th of April against Holcombe Church. The result of the match is unknown, however the clubs’ only two bats were both broken in this game!

To begin with Committee meetings were held weekly, because they selected the teams, before the Selection Committee was formed. The minutes of the early meetings are very interesting, and some unrest was obvious. The minutes for August read, All speakers must stand to address the Chair” and “All obscene language be strictly prohibited from these meetings”. The committee were made aware that some players took to the crease wearing clogs! This practice was stopped immediately.

In 1903 the club joined the Rossendale and District Cricket League, and won the League in 1904. It seems hard to believe now, but when returning to the village bearing the Cup, crowds lining the streets met the team wagonette. A brass band led the procession through the village, as the crowd sang ‘See the Conquering Heroes’. From 1905 the team would compete in the Ramsbottom and District League, with immediate success, winning the League in 1905, 1907 and 1908. The long wait for a place in the Bury and District League was ended in 1909 when Edenfield were invited to become members. They won this League in 1914, however due to the outbreak of War cricket had to be suspended, the League did not resume until March 1919.

Success was plentiful in the 1920s and 30s, Edenfield won the Bury and District League in 1922, 1928, 1929, 1930 and 1936. The club decided to reward its players who performed well by giving them ‘talent money’. Mr. W. Bretherton was rewarded handsomely for his figures of 9 wickets for 7 runs, and 8 wickets for 8 runs in 1930. Talent money was abolished in 1948; instead of money players would receive a club cap for outstanding individual performances. The outbreak of World War Two reduced the number of players available, and by the end of 1942 it was proving very difficult to raise a team.

The league was suspended in 1943 and did not restart until 1947. In 1942 the club generously gave a Christmas gift of 10 shillings to every player who were serving in the Armed Forces.

A severe storm completely destroyed the team room in 1950, and the club recorded a huge loss on the season of £65. However the club did reward the hard work of the ladies who worked in the tearoom, by paying for an outing to Blackpool for them all.

Success on the field had been somewhat elusive since the end of the war, in fact no trophies had been won since 1936, so by 1953 silverware was well overdue. The first team won the Bury and District League in 1953 and 1954. The second team were runners-up in their division, and won the Heymain Shield. At the presentation of the awards that year, the committee announced that Mr. Whitworth from Ramsbottom Cricket Club had been appointed as coach, the players would have to pay all his expenses.

After fifty-five years as members of the Bury and District League, in 1964 Edenfield resigned their membership and joined the Bolton Association Cricket League. This sparked a particularly successful period for Edenfield, after winning the Bury and District League for the final time in 1963, the following year the second team won the Gledhill Cup, which they did again in 1968. In 1965 the first team were runners-up in the league, but went one better in 1966 and 1967, winning the Bolton Association. After just five years in the Bolton Association, Edenfield withdrew both teams from the league, and joined the North Manchester Cricket League in 1969.

In 1970, at an Extraordinary General Meeting plans were announced to build a new pavilion, to replace the wooden changing rooms and tea hut. Many events were organised to raise money for the Building Fund, including sponsored walks, jumble sales, disco, ‘Buy a Brick’ and so on. In addition to this, committee member Raymond Johnson wrote to every County Cricket Club asking for financial help. Every County took the trouble to reply, but all were unable to help, except Warwickshire who made a £25 donation. Glamorgan were a little more brutal in their reply, their secretary Wilfred Wooller wrote, “You are a supreme optimist in applying to a foreign county, particularly since you reside in a county of great wealth”. The building work was completed in 1972, at a total cost of £4000, half of which came from grants.

The first time Edenfield applied to be members of the Ribblesdale League was in 1976, our representative met the League at Great Harwood. Unfortunately at this time the league would only accept our first eleven, but we wanted to enter both teams, so the club then applied to rejoin the Bolton Association, there were however no vacancies. In the same year a junior XI was formed, who played their games in the Whitefield Junior League. Many of the current first team veterans started playing their cricket in this team.

Under the captaincy of Donald Shaughnessy, the team finished joint champions of the North Manchester League in 1975, and were defeated in the Calvery Cup final in 1976, but went on to win it in 1977 and 1978. With Donald still at the helm, the team completed the league and cup ‘double’ in 1980, and won the Calvery Cup in 1983. Donald stepped down in 1984, to be replaced by Craig Crumbleholme. The success continued, as the first team once again did the ‘double’.

The club applied again to join the Ribblesdale League in 1986, this time successfully. The league would accept our first team into Division Two from 1988 onwards. The second team continued in the North Manchester League. The first season in the Ribblesdale League saw Edenfield finish runners-up, and so were promoted to Division One, and under the captaincy of Craig Crumbleholme won the Lawrenson Cup in 1989. The success continued as the first team won the league in 1990, and finished runners-up in 1991. The team won the Lawrenson Cup in 1992, beating Lucas in the final.

At the 1991 AGM, Chairman Raymond Johnson outlined ambitious plans to join the professional ranks of the Ribblesdale League. There was a strong feeling in the club that our wealth of talented players could compete at the highest level. Treasurer John Smithson gave assurances to the members that the current financial position was strong enough to support the payment of a professional. Edenfield applied to join the Premier Division in 1992, and would become members of the Premier Division from 1993 onwards. At the end of the 1992 season Edenfield having lifted the Lawrenson Cup, finished runners-up in Division One. After 90 years existence as a purely amateur club, from 1993 Edenfield would take to the field as a professional club. This move also meant that the second team were able to join the Ribblesdale League Division Two.

The first season in the Premier Division showed the gap in standard, as Edenfield finished bottom of the league, but were awarded the Sportsmanship trophy. The wealth of talent in the side deserved more success, Brett Storey joined from Rawtenstall, he boosted the bowling attack, and John Kershaw made the same move a year later to improve the batting line up. To date, 1995 has been Edenfield's most successful season in the Premier, finishing in third place, helped by pro Keith Roscoe, who took 86 wickets. In his next year Keith battled with a neck injury for most of the season, but still managed to take 61 wickets, and the team finished sixth.

Three junior teams were formed in 1994; it has proved to be very beneficial to the club, still proving very popular, as many as 50 youngsters regularly attend practice on Sunday mornings. The success of the juniors in recent years has been fantastic, at all age groups. We also have a number of juniors who have regularly been selected for Lancashire representative teams. The Third XI was formed in 1998, its main aim is, and always has been, to give the eldest juniors a taste of the longer form of the game.

Bury Ladies Cricket Club approached our committee in 1995, with a desire to become part of our club. Under the new name of Edenfield Ladies Cricket Club, the team played in the National League Division Two, which they won in 1996 and finished runners-up in 1997. Unfortunately due to the small number of ladies teams in the area, they had to travel great distances just to get a game. It became increasingly harder to attract players, and the team were forced to disband in 1998.

2002 was another landmark year for Edenfield, celebrating the Centenary Year with a wide program of events, and our first ever overseas professional. Ian Mitchell plays for Border and has represented South Africa at under 19 level. However the cricket was not very successful. The team finished at the foot of the table, better news was the promotion of the second team to Division One.

In 1999 the club received a substantial legacy, left by Mr John Lawson Cort who played for Edenfield in the 1930s. This money will be used wisely, to fund new changing rooms and improvements to the clubhouse, an ambitious project that will hopefully be underway at the start of the 2003 season. In 2007 Edenfield entered the Lancashire League 20/20 but have yet to proceed past the group stage. The future of Edenfield Cricket Club, under the forward-looking committee we have in place, looks prosperous as well as secure. To this day, Edenfield cricket Club is a credit to those men who met in James Howarth’s Café, exactly 100 years ago.