The 10K Club

You may well have read in recent weeks that we now have 3 members of the Lostock 10K club with Stephen Kaye and Lucky Issa joining club chairman Phil Knowles in passing the landmark of 10000 runs for the club.

Phil had long been the only member of this exclusive club having finally hung up his batting gloves in 2016 having amassed the remarkable total of 10966 runs over his Lostock career. This eclipsed the long standing record of former pro & amateur Les Barlow who had scored just under 8000 runs for the club in his long tenure as pro initially and then as skipper and amateur in our early Bolton Association days. Although Phil managed no fewer than 32 innings of 50 or more I would imagine his one regret might well be the fact that he never quite made it to the magical ton. His career best for Lostock was 87 in a 2ndXI game v Westleigh at Haydock in 2010, whilst his highest score in a 1stXI game dates back to 1992 when he made 75 v St Marys Old Boys in the Lancs Knock Out Cup. This score incidentally still remains a record for the club in Lancs KO matches over the years. He passed the landmark of 500 runs in a season on 4 seperate occasions with his best coming in 1995 when his aggregate of 606 placed him 9th in the list of highest aggregates in a season.  

Stephen and Lucky both joined Phil in the 10k club this summer (2024), and whilst Phil can point to the fact that all his runs were scored in senior cricket, it's still a remarkable effort from the pair of them to reach the landmark in all games for the club. (For the record at the end of the 2024 season Lucky was sat on 9126 senior runs and Stephen on 8998). Both have reached the magic ton in senior cricket with Stephen's highest score being 105* v Elton for the 2ndXI in 1999 and Lucky making 102 in the 1stXI against Bolton in 2010. For good measure Stephen also now holds the record for the most half centuries for the club with no fewer than 54 recorded at the end of the 2024 season. Both men have reached the 500 run mark in a season twice, Stephen holding the 2ndXI record for most runs in a season with 882 in 2001 as well as making 508 in 2022, whilst Lucky made 538 1stXI runs in 2010 and 530 in the 2ndXI in 2022.

To put into perspective the milestone these three have achieved it is worth noting that is going to be a very tired batter who next reaches the mark - if anybody does. The current player with the highest aggregate is David Flanagan who sits 8th in the all time lists with 5995 runs but he is no longer a full time player so not playing a full season, and even if he did, it would take another 8 years at 500 runs a season to get to 10000. Only 3 other current players have got over 3000 runs for the club (our current 1st & 2nd XI captains plus Nick Jeffs), so again using the benchmark of 500 runs a season every season they would need at least another 14 seasons to get anywhere near 10000 runs. 

A lot of work still goes on behind the scenes to unearth more scorecards and averages and as such there is potential for runs to be added to existing known aggregates but even so it's doubtful they'd get too close to the 10k mark, so raise a glass to these 3 fantastic stalwarts as we leave the final word to Phil.  

"It’s most laudable that Steve and Lucky have been such loyal servants to the club, and while they are to be congratulated on their marvellous achievements of 10,000 runs, I should point out that all their runs have been scored for Lostock, while I didn’t join the club until the age of 27, having played 13 seasons of competitive cricket with Farnworth in the Bolton League.So, if I combine my Farnworth and Lostock tallies, my career aggregate leaves these two ‘youngsters’ trailing well in my wake!”