To be perfectly honest trying to juggle my scoring commitments, together with keeping the records up to date not only for us but also Lancashire Women, doing my post match reports for the various Lancs and having a bit of time for myself has meant little or no time for the blog and/or the Lostock Stats twitter account. So, having a relatively quiet week ahead here is a look at one or two of the main statistical highlights so far this season.
Matt Lamb's first century for the club in the recent game against Earby was the 49th recorded for the 1stXI in competitive cricket and the 17th by an amateur batsman. It was also the 2nd recorded for us in the Hamer Cup - in which we've had a pretty dismal record over the years. Incidentally, Matt's century was the 79th recorded for the club in all cricket whilst the three that we have conceded so far this season have almost brought parity as those hit against us now total 78!
Skipper James Evans has hit nineties on consecutive weekends over the last couple of weeks which in itself is realtively rare and prompted me to have a look at how many instances of 90 or more we've had in the 1stXI. James' brace take the total up to 33 that we have recorded for the the 1stXI to date, with two players having the dubious honour of having made 99* - John Norburn in 1991 and last year's pro Muhammed Suleman. It may not come as a surprise that the most 90's recorded are 4 by current pro Akbar Ur-Rehman who also leads the 100 lists, and Peter Flanagan. Others to record more than 1 90+ innings are Rehman Shah (3); Wayne Harper (2), Luckman Vahalawala (2), Ather Abid (2) and Muhammed Suleman (2).
The lads above combined to hit an opening partnership of 203 in the cup game v Earby which is a new record opening stand in cup cricket for the club and, just the 3rd double century stand ever recorded for the 1stXI. The caveat to partnership records that we currently have to hand is that many of our old scorebooks simply didn't record the fall of wickets so create one of the sketchier areas of our archive. The other two that we have records of are the 1st wicket record of 213* between Wayne Harper and Matthew Syddall v Little Hulton in 1999, and the 2nd wicket record of 273 shared by Ather Abid and Peter Flanagan against Bolton in 2009 at Daisy Hill.
Mention of current pro Akbar Ur-Rehman reminds me that he is on the cusp of more milestones here at Lostock. He's quietly moved up to 16th on the all time 1stXI runscoring chart with his pre-weekend total standing at 2831 leaving him within touching distance of becoming the 15th recorded to make 3000 for the 1stXI. His 2889 runs in total for the club have him now 36th in all games for Lostock with the opportunity to become the 34th to make 3000. He also now has 94 wickets for the 1stXI so potentially on the verge of being the 32nd to record 100 for the 1stXI. In all games for the club he sits on 99 so his next wicket will see him become the 61st to reach 100 wickets for the club. Assuming he reaches both landmarks he will become just the 5th player to score 3000 runs and take 100 wickets for the 1stXI - joining Les Barlow, David Flanagan, Graeme Beswick and Conner Hicklin. James Evans could yet join this club soon too.
Saturday's 1stXI game will be the 2000th competitive game for the team since our formation in 1938. Prior to Friday's T20 at Kearsley the record stands at Played 1998, Won 721, Lost 736, Tied 10, Draw/Aband/Canc 531.
The current losing run of 10 games by the 1stXI is threatening to match or surpass the record of 12 consecutive defeats between the end of the 1938 season and early 1939 season.
Finally, a quirkier one to finish on. James Cregan recently played his first game for the club for 11 years a couple of weeks ago - not in itself a record, Stephen Croston for example returned to play in 2023 having last played in 2001 a gap of 22 years. But should Saturday's game v Blackrod go ahead it will be his first home game on a "Lostock" home ground (ie excluding the games at Haydock etc when we were waiting our new home) since 2007. No doubt he'll be hoping for a similar score to that last one at Lostock Lane where he made the final ever 1stXI half century in that game.
