2024 saw the 1stxi pick up their first trophy for some 40 years when they lifted the NWCL Birtwistle T20 Cup with a stunning victory over league champions Blackrod at a packed Chew Moor ground.
The road to T20 glory had been a long one with quite a few heartbreaking moments along the way. and started in the early days of our years in the Manchester Association in 2007. They had come up with the quite innovative idea for it's time of having a T20 competition and trying to help clubs cash in on the massive interest in what was still a relatively new format at that time at senior level. Unfortunately in a sign of the indecision that often marred the later years of the league they couldn't settle on what was the best format to use with clubs often left to arrange their own dates for matches etc.
Our first ever game saw us beaten by Euxton in a group match where we fell 13 short of a target of 130 despite a perhaps unlikely Mark Cregan top scoring on 28. The other two group games ended in defeats to Deane & Derby and Hindley St Peters so not the most auspicious start to T20 life. In 2008 they decided on a straight knockout and we were well beaten at Westleigh despite Danny Cockton making our first ever half century in T20's. 2009 saw the clubs divided into groups of 3 playing each other on one day at one venue with the best at each venue progressing, and we were drawn at Swinton Moorside alongside Whalley Range, and, finally at the 5th time of asking we gained our first win as we defeated the latter by a nail biting 3 runs after Dave Flanagan had made an explosive 78. Sadly Swinton proved too strong and that was another campaign over.
The next 2 seasons reverted to a straight knockout format and saw us beaten in the 1st round of both despite Dave claiming our first ever 4 wicket haul in a T20, taking 4/20 v Bolton in 2011. Yet another change of format in 2012 saw the return of the 2009 system and we were drawn against Premier Division high flyers Bury and Wythenshawe at the ground of the latter. A very wet day day saw us pitted against unbeaten Bury in the first game who, rather than take a point from an abandoned game insisted on playing a reduced over game as a warm up for their next game v Wythenshawe. That cockiness was soon dispelled as a rapid 36 from Rizwan Hussain propelled us to 94-3 in our 9 overs and then Adeel Baig's 4/19 restricted them to 65-8 in reply. A similarly dominant display v the home side with Dave hitting 44 & Tom Mills taking 5/16 saw us through to our first ever semi final. There we met Brooksbottom who so often proved to be a thorn in our side in the MDCA and sure enough we were well beaten by a margin of 41 runs. Our final MDCA campaign turned quite farcical as the remaining clubs were split into groups and asked to arrange their own fixtures and despite winning 4 games we could only finish 3rd in the group and so ended our last season in the MDCA.
By 2016 we had returned to (and left) the Bolton Association and found ourselves in the Bolton League and back into T20 competition. The campaign started poorly with a defeat and an abandoned game but wins in the last 2 games saw us recover to top the group and pitted against Horwich RMI in the quarter final who were beaten by 26 runs with Jaydyn Simmons making 41 and Conner Hicklin taking 3/13. For a 2nd time in 5 years though we were to lose at this stage as Kearsley proved too strong on a horrible track at their ground. 2017 again saw us qualify from our group only to again fall short on another difficult track at Kearsley.
2018 marked a change in our fortunes as we finally managed to get through to the final, and indeed arguably should have won it. Having finished 2nd in our group (on the back of a game lost on the toss of a coin to Horwich), we made the short trip to Westhoughton for our quarter final and came away with a very satisfying 34 run win. Finals day at Farnworth saw us pitted against a Bradshaw side in the semi final who had paid a fortune for a sub pro for the day but an unbeaten 57 from Conner saw us through to a final v Horwich. RMI batted first and after being dropped off an absolute "dolly" in the 1st over Brett Pelser made a brilliant 112 to set a target of 217 which proved 48 too many for us. RMI's commitments in the National KO though meant our season waan't over as we replaced them in the regional finals of the national T20. The semi final went superbly as, with Dave hitting our first ever T20 ton (136*), we made 233-2 v GMCL side Moorside and eased to a 65 run win. Ormskirk in the final proved too strong with (then) future Lancashire players Tom Hartley & George Lavelle in their ranks coasting to a 7 wicket win.
The following year followed a similar pattern as we comfortably topped our group to clinch a home quarter final v Tonge who were beaten in a low scoring game by 28 runs. Our reward was an away semi final at Farnworth Social Circle and again we came through in a low scoring game - this time by 6 wickets. The final was a repeat of 2018 as we travelled to Horwich to take on RMI again. This time we batted first and despite making a handy 141-4 (Brad Williams 55, Matt Leach 64) it proved to be 15 or 20 short as RMI cantered home by 8 wickets. Again they were unable to play in the next stage so we took their place but in a 3 way round robin with Ormskirk (again!) and Garstang a below strength side lost both games.
After a disappointing campaign in the covid hit 2020 season when we failed to qualify from our group, 2021 saw a return to normality as once again we reached the final and once again we met RMI! Finishing runners up in our group we played Kearsley in the quarter final and finally extracted a measure of revenge for their previous domination of us with an emphatic 10 wicket win to set up a semi final v Westhoughton at Chew Moor. The weather proved to be horrendous and so the game was decided by a bowl out which we won 2-1 and everyone decamped to Horwich for the final. Again the weather intervened and yet again Brett Pelser had the final word as Horwich came out on top yet again.
The next two seasons disappointingly saw us fail to qualify from our groups but there were a couple of highlights. In 2022 Eagley set us a target of 144 which was knocked off in style by openers Akbar Ur Rehman (97*) and Connor 35*. Then in 2023 Akbar set a new record individual score as he smashed Blackrod for a remarkable 152 in a score of 223-2 on the way to record 148 run win.
And so to 2024 and success at long last! After a defeat and a rained off game in the first 2 matches it didn't look promising but 3 wins on the bounce saw us recover to top our group and earn a quarter final tie v Kearsley. A brilliant effort from pro Muhammed Suleman (76*) and 4/22 from Reece Gray saw us get home by 3 wickets. Finals day was on home soil and in front of a packed Chew Moor the lads pulled out all the stops to see off Ribblesdale Wanderers by 5 wickets in the semi final and then soon to be league champions Blackrod by 39 runs in the final to finally clinch a first T20 title. Through to the regional final on merit for the first time we came up against Northern League bound Carnforth who batted first & made a handy 150-7, or, so it seemed until Sully (99*) and Sam Barlow (50*) knocked them off without loss. The northern final saw us up against Ackworth and Morpeth in a round robin format. Below strength and without a pro as Sully had returned to Pakistan we put up 2 creditable performances making over 150 in each game but ultimately it was a step too far but a fantastic effort nonetheless.
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