1st Class Delivery

Those of you who were present at the Senior Presentation Night the other week may well have been surprised to hear our President David Kaye allude to the fact that as a club we have managed to provide no fewer than 4 first class cricketers. But yes, litlle old Lostock CC has indeed managed to provide 4 players to the English first class game.

Karl Krikken was something of a child prodigy as a wicketkeeper and played as a 15 year old in our 1stXI in 1984 when he become just the 3rd keeper (at that time) to take over 30 victims in a season. His father Brian was always a very highly rated wicketkeeper who made 3 appearnaces for Lancashire and Worcestershire in the late 1960's without too much success. He too played several seasons for Lostock during the 80's and was often cited as one of the best ever in local cricket. Karl made his List A debut for Derbyshire in 1987 with his 1st Class debut following in 1989, and he was to be a permanent fixture in their side until 2003 when he retired having played 214 1st class matches and 203 in List A Cricket. He scored 5725 1st class runs with his only century (104) coming against his home county Lancashire adding a further 1671 in List A cricket. An undoubted highlight of his career would be an unbroken stand of 77 with Dominic Cork v Lancashire to steer Derbyshire to a 3 wicket win in the Benson & Hedges Cup Final. As  a wicketkeeper he amassed 557 victims in the 1st class game and a further 240 in List A cricket. He went on to become Academy Coach at Derbyshire then later 1stXI coach and is currently 2ndXI coach at Lancashire.

Our 2nd professional cricketer was to be Michael Powell who moved on from being a successful junior captain with Lostock to play for and captain Warwickshire. Having moved out of the area & on to Lawrence Sheriff School in Rugby he was soon attracting the eye of the England schoolboy selectors. A right handed batter, Michael made his 1st class debut in 1996 having previously captained England Under 18s and played for the Under 19s. He went on to make 149 1st class appearances for the county, captaining them from 2001-2003 in a career that saw him make 7395 runs including 12 centuries with his highest score of 236 coming v Oxford University in in 2001. In addition to that he played a further 142 List A and T20 matches which saw him garner another 2382 runs including one further century. Whilst not renowned for his bowling he did manage one 5 wicket haul in his career when taking 5/40 v Kent in a list A game in 2002. After his retirement from county cricket he became cricket master at Loretto school in Scotland and then later at Rugby School.

Next on the list comes Matthew "Taff" Taylor who is probably best known locally as a very successful long serving professional and later amateur cricketer at Adlington CC. Taff came through our junior ranks and, in all, he is recorded to have played 132 times for Lostock scoring 987 runs including 4 50's and taking 151 wickets with a best of 5/7. Matthew made his debut for Derbyshire 2nds in 1993 and some good performances saw him make his 1st class debut in 1994. In all he played 4 1st class matches for the county scoring 25 runs and taking 7 wickets at a miserly 2.5 runs an over. His best bowling figures were his 3/45 v New Zealand in a game Derbyshire won by an innings & 18 runs, and his highest score of 14* came in another innings victory - this time v Lancashire at Stanley Park Blackpool. His brief career does include one quirky fact as he was the 10th batter dismissed by Richard Johnson in his figures of 10/45 for Middlesex in a County Championship game at Derby.

Our final (for now) 1st class cricketer is Charles Dagnall. "Daggers" as he is colloquially known these days as he pursues a successful media career, started his cricketing journey at Lostock as junior and in all played nearly 200 games for the club scoring 2924 runs and taking 199 wickets before moving on to play for Horwich RMI, Astley & Tyldesley and Walshaw amongst others locally. His initial break came playing for Cumberland in 1998 before joining Warwickshire in 1999. He stayed there for 3 seasons before moving on to Leicestershire from 2002-2006 before a long term injury finally curtailed his playing career and set him on his tv and radio career. In all he played 31 1st class matches making 223 runs and taking 87 wickets plus 63 List A/T20 games which saw 199 runs and 77 wickets added to his career total.

  If we were being cheeky we could also claim a 5th member of the club, and one who would have been first on our conveyor belt and certainly the most successful in Michael "Mike" Watkinson. Mike was already on the Lancashire radar when he signed for the club as our then youngest professional at the age of 19 in 1981. His performances for the club led to him making his County debut during his second season with us and so began an 18 year playing association with Lancashire which included being county captain in from 1992-97. In addition to this Mike also went on to make 4 test appearances and 1 One Day International game. His first class career spanned 308 matches which saw him notch up 10939 runs including 11 centuries (the highest being 161 v Essex in 1995 at Old Trafford). Add to that 376 List A games which brought a further 5398 runs including another 2 centuries and a total of over 15000 runs in itself would prove to be a good career for anyone. But, not content with that he made his claim to being one of the county's best ever all rounders by adding 739 1st class wickets and 381 List A wickets to his runs. Throw in 156 catches and you have a truly great all rounder. Despite his absences on county duty Mike managed to secure 1390 runs and 190 wickets during his 2 seasons as Lostock pro. After playing Mike moved to be Lancashire Coach, then Director of Cricket and later the Cricket Master at Manchester Grammar.