Close But No Cigar

 

The last blog regarding Lostock players who have made a ton for the club prompted a question about the nearly men, the players who managed to get into the nineties but didn't quite get over the line and hit the 3 figure mark. So, a little research later and here we are. We currently have records of no fewer than 48 instances of players making scores of 90 or more in either 1st or 2nd XI games spread over 29 players.

Last year's pro Muhammad Suleman provided the latest instance when he smashed his way to a brilliant 99 not out in the T20 Area final against Carnforth. Despite finishing off the game with a massive six, he was left stranded agonisingly just one short of his ton. "Sully"'s knock was the second instance of a batter making 99 not out emulating John Norburn who had also been stranded on that mark in a successful run chase against Bolton way back in 1991. Four other players are recorded to have made 99 in an innings before unfortunately being dismissed, and all four instances came in the 2ndXI with David France out lbw v Clifton 1981, Terry Southworth caught on 99 v Standish in 1985, Martin Ashfield caught & bowled v Elton in 2000, and most recently Danny Cockton who was bowled on 99 v Daisy Hill in 2015.

The record for most 90's is shared by three players who have each made no fewer than four each. Inevitably perhaps, one of those is Akbar Ur-Rehman who holds our club record for most centuries and can add innings of 95, 97*, 94* and 95 to his seven tons. Incredibly 3 of those 4 came in T20 games for good measure. Peter Flanagan also has four 1stXI 90's, two coming before he finally managed to grab his first ton for the club, and a further 2 since then. The 3rd member of the Four Timer Club is Stephen Kaye who has one 1stXI and three 2ndXI ones to his credit. His highest 1stXI score of 96* in 2009 saw him stranded at the non strikers end when the overs ran out v Bolton. He can add to that a further 3 in the 2ndXI including uniquely home and away v Atherton in 1999.

Other players to hit multiple 90's include Rehman Shah who managed to claim three with two coming in 2003 and a third in 2006. Les Barlow invariably pops up on lists like this and he is credited with the first two that we have a record of in 1stXI cricket - 93* v St Andrews in 1976 following a knock of 94 v Golborne in 1971. Last year's pro Muhammad Suleman also has two, the 99* mentioned above plus a 94 v Farnworth Social Circle being his contributions to the list. Another former pro Wayne Harper included two innings of 93 on his way to a then record seasonal total of 1147 runs in 1999. Two other pros complete the list of those with 2 in the 1stXI, Ather Abid who made 2 in 2009 including his club record score of 233*, and Lukman Vahaluwala who made one in 2004 during his first season with the club and then another on his return in 2021. Terry Southworth, like Stephen Kaye has 90's in both 1st and 2nd XI adding a first team 98* to his 2nd team 99 mentioned earlier. Last but by no means least Danny Cockton added a second 90+ knock v Daisy Hill three years later than his 99.       

Of the remaining instances of batsmen making over 90 in innings once, eight of them went on to record a ton in either 1st or 2nd team cricket for the club namely Neil Leeming, Tony Settle, David Flanagan, Nick Jeffs, Geoff Vose, Norman Taylor, Melvyn Birch and Craig Rashleigh. But, for the remaining seven that one excursion into the 90s was to be as good as it ever got for Lostock. Beck Frostick was perhaps the unluckiest of these when he was dismissed for 98 on his one appearance for the club as a sub pro v Read in 2023. The other 1st team members of the 90 only club are Adrian Darlington (96*) and Raddi Patel (92), whilst in the 2nd XI we have Eric Spencer (97), Matthew Syddall (97), Chris Warner (92*) and Alex Senior (94) who all got within touching distance without ever quite making that final leap. 

Close but no cigar.

Tons of Fun

Scoring a century has long been one of club cricket's holy grails and one to be cherished by that precious few who reach the landmark. Despite the fact that pitches have undoubtedly improved tremendously, even in my lifetime, it is still a relatively rare achievement. Indeed, we have records of approximately 25000 individual innings for our three senior teams and they have produced just 75 centuries in competitive games plus another couple in friendlies. (Spookily in that same period, and presumably, over a similar number of innings we have also been on the receiving end of 75). Pitches aside, obviously the length of games also affects the opportunity for a long innings and thus reduces the potential for big innings making any ton all the more meritorious. Those centuries have been divided amongst just 48 (or 49 if you count the friendly ones) players of the 600 or more known to have represented us at senior level.

Having been formed in 1938, it is maybe slightly surprising that we had to wait until 1961 until our first ever century was recorded when Geoffrey Lane an apprentice in the Aerospace factory made 103 for the 2ndXI against Silcoms in a Bolton Association game. The 1stXI had to wait another couple of seasons until our first professional Reuben Snape managed to post 116 against Standish in the South West Lancs League in 1963, and the 60's were to see just just one further century when Norman Taylor hit 103* for the 2nds v Heinz 57 in 1967. 

The highest and probably most remarkable of our centuries came in 2009 when our then professional Ather Abid absolutely destroyed the Bolton bowling attack as he blasted 233* in just 138 balls. Having made a more sedate 100 v Brooksbottom earlier in the season nobody was quite prepared for that August day's fireworks. With our then shared home of Haydock unavailable, the game was hosted by Daisy Hill, and Ather made full use of the notoriously short square boundaries there hitting 17 sixes and 18 fours and losing umpteen balls in the process!

Our most prolific century maker has been Akbar Ur Rehman (pictured left) who hit 7 centuries during his two seasons as professional in 2022 and 2023 with four coming in his first season and three in the second. His highest score evoked memories of Ather's innings above as he took Blackrod apart in a T20 game at Chew Moor, making 152 off 77 balls with 5 sixes and 17 fours to his name in making our highest ever T20 innings and, our highest ever made at Chew Moor. He also holds the record for our highest score in the Hamer Cup (123* v Walkden) and highest in the NWCL (141 v Atherton).

Three players have made 4 centuries for the club - Anthony Settle, Dan Cockton and George Jackson - although of the 3 only Tony made all 4 in the first team. Tony set a then 1stXI record of 123* (v Standish) during his second spell as pro in 1997 adding two centuries to the two he had made in 1985 and 1986 in his first spell. Ironically Tony's 1stXI record was to be beaten in 2005 when Dan made the last century on our old Lostock Lane ground as he hit 127 v Astley & Tyldesley. Dan's other 3 centuries were all made for the 2ndXI and included the first Lostock ton on Chew Moor (117 v Little Lever) and the only other double century recorded for the club when he hit 206* v Daisy Hill. George meanwhile has two 2ndXI tons and two 3rdXI tons to his name, including our highest ever score in a cup final (105* for the 2ndxi v Farnworth in 2023) and, being part of the third pair of siblings to score tons for the club after brother Harry had recorded the first and to date highest 3rdXI score of 140 v Bradshaw in 2022 (pictured right).

Other players to record more than one century for Lostock in competitive games see Mike Watkinson making 3 in 1981 and 1982; Les Barlow and Peter Flanagan who are the only amateur batsmen to hit 3 1stXI centuries; Ather Abid who we mentioned above with 2; Adeel Baig who made a ton v Bolton in successive seasons; Nick Jeffs who made 2 in 3 games in a purple patch of form in 2016; Phil Padgett and David France each made two 2ndXI centuries in the 1980's; and Craig Rashleigh two in the early part of the 21st century also for the 2nds.

Peter incidentally is part of the second pair of siblings to score centuries for the club with his brother David adding the record score by an amateur for us in a T20 game with 136* v Moorside in 2018 (just beating Peter's best of 135 by the way). The first siblings to record 100s for the club were the Cregan brothers who both made then record 1stXI record scores for the club  and both came against Westleigh. James became the youngest ever 1stXI centurian in 2006 when he improved the club record set by Dan Cockton to 128*, and then 2 years later older brother Mark eclipsed that by making 138 against the same opponents, an amateur record that was to stand for 8 years until Matt Leach improved it to 141 against Winton. Matt's record only lasted one year before Steve Hood set the current 1stXI amateur record of 158* against Standish in 2016.

In addition to the 3 sets of siblings to score centuries, we also have one instance of father and son both making a century, with Geoff Vose making 107 in 1972 v Standish and then son Stephen 148 v Walshaw in 1990.

Craig Rashleigh, who we mentioned above, has another claim to fame in terms of club centuries being one half of the only occasion recorded in club history of two players making a ton in the same innings. He and Peter Syddall made 110 and 106 respectively for the 2ndXI in a game v Sale Moor.      

In addition to the competitive centuries made above, we have records of two in friendly matches (Conner Hicklin v Haydock in 2013 and Matt Leach v Heaton in 2019), and also again that we are aware of 3 in inter-league representative games. James Cregan's 105* for the Bolton Association under 13s in 2002 remains a record score at that level, whilst Giles Makinson made 100* in 2006 also at U13s, and finally Reece Gray hit 103 for the Bolton League under 15s in 2002.

We currently have no centuries recorded against the club prior to 1976 although that isn't to say that there weren't any - we simply haven't got the information. Mudassar Nazar currently stands as the first player to make a ton against the 1stXI and is still the only player to have been recorded to make three against them. Nazar's record against us also includes innings of  94, 96, 75 and 49 with just one "failure" in 9 innings! Little Hulton's John Wallwork currently stands as the only player to hit two 2nd team centuries against Lostock.Tony Kelly holds the record for the highest score recorded against the 1stXI making 188 for Spring View in 2005, Stephen Marsh (155 for Walshaw) holds the 2nd team record and Adam Knowles (133* for Horwich RMI) the 3rd team.

Hopefully ongoing research over the coming months may well reveeal more information, and as ever if anyone reading this has any old scorebooks or press cuttings etc that they think could add to our knowledge please get in touch with Mitch.