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.
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