Manchopper at the Cricket…(Farnworth CC)

Result: Farnworth CC 204-3 (41 overs) BEAT Tonge CC 80 all out (24.1 overs) by 124 RUNS (North West Cricket League Premiership)

Venue: Bridgeman Road (Saturday 15th June 2024; 1pm; started 1.30pm)

Att: 38 (hc).

Another weekend of cricket came around rather quickly and, somehow, this was already week four! Time byes…sorry. Anyway, terrible pun out of the way early, it was off to one of the closest clubs to me I’d yet to visit, that being Farnworth Cricket Club and their Bridgeman Park home. I felt like I kind of had to pay a visit here too, having visited their cross-town rivals, Farnworth Social Circle, last year. So, let’s get on with it!

After being treated to the joys of the temporary bus station at the Trafford Centre on my last visit through the shopping centre of dreams, it was back to the rigmarole of the actual station again on this occasion. I didn’t have long to wait for the connecting bus, just 15 minutes or so, with the 22 service I caught dropping me just a couple of minutes from the gates of Bridgeman Park.

After passing right by the grounds of the likes of Clifton CC, Kearsley CC and near to quite a number more, the bus eventually dropped me off at an occasionally drizzly Farnworth with a few minutes in hand ahead of the scheduled 1pm start. I wasn’t in much rush as I expected a slightly delayed start, as there were regular, brief showers blowing through the area at regular intervals and I found that I was correct in this assumption when I arrived – though it looked like it wouldn’t be long until we got underway.

Arriving at the ground

Welcoming signs…

Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester. Historically within the boundaries of the county of Lancashire, it lies on both the rivers Iwell and Croal and it gains its name from the Old English words fern and worth – meaning ‘fern enclosure’. It has been recorded under the names of Farneworth in 1278 and Farnewrth in 1279, whilst also being noted as being named Ffornword in a 1282 land survey.

Lying within the Lancastrian boundaries since the early 12th century, Farnworth constitued a township and chapelry within the ecclesiastical parish of Deane. In 1837, Farnworth became a part of the Bolton Poor Law Union, which took responisbility for the implementation of the law in the local area. In 1863, a Local Board of Health was incorporated for the township and, three-years later, Farnworth became a separate civil parish.

Ashtons Field

In 1899, it became an Urban District and remained as such through to 1939, when a charter was granted to allow the district to become the Municipal Borough of Farnworth. In 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, the municipal borough was abolished and the area of Farnworth became an unparished area of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton.

Farnworth originally began as a hamlet in the Barton area and, in the 13th century, it was held by the Lords of Barton and Manchester. The manor was later acquired by the Hultons of Over Hulton. The area’s common land began to be enclosed during the late 1790’s, whilst a watermill was added on the River Croal which was (likely) the first mill of the many which would begin to pop up in the area during the encroaching times of the Industrial Revolution.

Farnworth

During the 18th and 19th centuries, Farnworth expanded rapidly – largely around the coal mining industry, what with the town lying upon the Manchester Coalfield. The collieries here were part of a wider and larger complex of mines known as the Worsley Navigable Levels, whose underground canals stretched from the Delph in Worsley, through to the Bridgewater Canal – giving the mines a direct link to the waterway. Other large industries included iron foundries and, as suggested earlier, cotton mills and the Farnworth Paper Mill. The latter’s owner, T.B. Crompton, patented a continuous-drying process which eventually led to the mechanisation of papermaking in 1821.

Indeed, after about a half-hour’s delay, the warm-ups were done, the players were changed, the wickets were pitched and the umpires were giving the Farnworth batsmen their guard and we were all set to go. The ground here is pretty decent, with numerous seating and benches located around the pitch. Some older, fixed seating is located in the near corner you enter behind and is over two levels.

Picnic benches line the far side of the pitch, with some in better condition than others, whilst a few more benches (both backless and with back) run the width of the near end. Most of the far end doesn’t have seats, but a few have congregated around the new scoreboard – the old one still being in situ but all closed up now its replacement has come to take on its role. A fair bit more seating is available on the decking area out to the front of the pavilion/club building too, so seats definitely aren’t at a premium here – although the view from there is obscured a tad by the protective netting put up (I would see during the day why!). That’s the ground in short and this is the story of Farnworth CC…

History Lesson:

Farnworth Cricket Club was founded in 1870 but, unfortunately, details of their early years are few and far between. They would join the Bolton Cricket Association in 1889 and remained there until 1929 when they would depart the league after a 40 year, ahem, association with the BCA. During their Bolton Cricket Association tenure, Farnworth would win a total of eight titles, with this amount being the joint-third highest total in the league’s history. A new start would come for the club at the beginning of the next decade and this would come within a brand new competition too.

The club became a founding member of the Bolton Cricket League in 1930 and went on to win the title in the league’s inaugural season. They would lift their second championship in 1934 and took their third crown in 1937 ahead of the outbreak of World War II. The league would continue throughout wartime, though no success came the way of Farnworth during that period.

Pictoral history

The club returned to form after the end of hostilities, winning two further Bolton Cricket League titles in the 1940’s – these coming in 1947 and 1949 respectively. However, they would have to wait a decade for their next league success, with 1959 seeing Farnworth finally bring an end to their drought. Things didn’t stop with just the one title win, as they would go on to successfully defend their crown the next season too.

Another two successive titles would come around in 1964 and 1965, but their tenth Bolton Cricket League triumph would prove somewhat elusive for the club. Indeed, it took until 1984 for this to finally be achieved and it would be another lengthy wait for number eleven to be marked on the honours board too – 2005 ending a 21-year wait for another championship win.

In the pavilion club bar

The club would win a further three titles, these coming in 2010, 2012 and 2017, prior to the Bolton Cricket League merging with the Ribblesdale League to form the North West Cricket League following the end of the 2022 season – a year which saw the club narrowly miss out on signing off their tenure with some silverware, as they lost out in the BCL’s Birtwistle Cup to town rivals Farnworth Social Circle.

Upon the merger of the leagues and ahead of the NWCL’s debut season in 2023, Farnworth were placed in the league’s Premiership, where they would finish the first season in a solid 5th place in the 24-team strong table and won the league’s Ramsbottom Cup. Following re-organisation for the 2024 season, Farnworth remained in the Premiership thanks to their 2023 finishing position and they currently sit in 7th in the 12-strong table this season.

The old scoreboard

The game got going with Farnworth beginning their innings fairly well, but they would lose an early wicket with the score on eighteen when opener Tayler-Jay Heyes, having been dropped moments earlier at slip off of the medium-pacers of Shoyab Haji, gave the very same fielder a second bite of the cherry off of the very same bowler and this time the catch was taken and the Farnworth #1 was off back to the pavilion for eight.

This brought #3, Liam Smith, out to the middle to join Alex Rodzoch and the two went about scoring well – Smith being slightly the more aggressive of the two overall, whilst Rodzoch was more watchful and was happy to tick over the score whilst putting the bad ball away. The second-wicket pair put on a good partnership worth 60 runs before Rodzich (38) was trapped leg-before-wicket by Hasib Patel’s medium pace to leave the home side on 78-2.

Match Action

Match Action

They were obviously still in a good position, Farnworth, and with the weather staying away, we headed on through the 20’s and into the 30’s over-wise with the third-wicket partnership taking the home side into a position of strength. With Smith now having been joined at the crease by #4, skipper Ross Sutton, the pair advanced the score beyond the 100 mark and then well and truly put their foot down. The boundaries began to rain down and both batsmen passed their half-centuries as they went – a car out the back of the club building being in the line of fire despite being towards square-leg!

Smith would eventually fall as he looked to continue to score quickly, being bowled by the quick bowling of Connor Lord for a fine 82 off just 88 balls. I’d began to hope he might just give me my first century of the season, but this was unlikely as it was – with the overs, unbeknownst to me, having been reduced to 41 after the small delay earlier in the day. Come the end of the innings, Sutton was left unbeaten on a quick-fire 61 off 58 balls, whilst Nakash Qamar was able to secure a nice red-inker with one not-out.

Match Action

After seeing pints existed!

The bowlers did take some punishment later in the innings, with Hasib Patel being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 11-1-39-1. Opening/ending bowlers Connor Lord (11-0-68-1) and Shoyab Haji (9-1-53-1) took the brunt of the hitting, whilst the spin of Hashan Dumindu was pretty tight and could count himself somewhat unlucky to end wicketless, finishing up with figures of 10-0-37-0.

After another visit to the bar during the between innings tea break and the short, sharp shower which timed its arrival nicely, it was soon time to head back out for the Tonge reply…which didn’t begin in the most auspicious of ways. The very first ball of the innings brought a wicket, when Justin Gilliland was trapped in front by the medium pace of Yasir Rashid. If you thought that was pretty bad, then it was only about to get worse as the first ball of the second over also brought a wicket.

Match Action

On the back-foot

This time, it was Gilliland’s opening partner Abdullah Ishaq who would too fall to his first delivery faced – with the mediums of Conor Spinks doing the damage on this occasion. Both openers had been sent back to the hutch without troubling the scorers much at all and they were soon joined by ‘keeper-batsman Dane Hargreaves (eleven) who, after looking to play positively and hitting a couple of boundaries, hit one straight up in the air off Spinks and the catch was pouched safely at cover.

But the damage still wasn’t to end for Tonge as 16-3 quickly became 18-5…and this was despite Spinks allowing #5, Dave Whittle, a stay of execution when bowling him off a no-ball. But Spinks would soon make up for his stray front foot by bowling #3, Hashan Dumindu, for just five, prior to then nipping out Hasib Patel for another golden duck, Patel chipping his first ball to the waiting hands of mid-wicket.

Match Action

Match Action

Yasir Rashid, having been somewhat left in the shade of the destruction wrought by Spinks remained a threat and, having been unlucky on a few occasions, grabbed his second scalp of the innings when Tonge’s #7 Adil Patel hit one high but not very handsome and fell for the same score as matched his position in the batting order. Spinks was still causing all sorts of problems from the opposite end too and soon secured himself a five-wicket haul when he bowled Whittle for eight to end any semblance of chance Tonge still looked to have and left the visitors 39-7.

To be fair to Tonge, the lower order, marshalled by skipper Connor Lord, did show some fight to put up a bit of resistance. #8, Craig Naylor, alongside Lord who entered at nine did advance the score beyond fifty, before the former edged one to slip off Rashid and was another to match his score to his batting position. Shoyab Haji entered at #9 and gave a bit of brief entertainment, striking two sixes in his seven ball 13 before hitting one straight to mid-on to give Rashid his fourth of the afternoon.

On the decking

In the “stand”!

The captain was still there, almost being akin to the skipper going down with his ship, and he would be the last man to fall too, with the recently introduced medium pacers of Alex Rodzoch polishing off the innings when Lord (17) could only guide the first ball of his second over to the point fielder. That was that and Tonge were all out for 80, with Kieran Fletcher left unbeaten without score and I was more than a little happy had gotten a full game in where others hadn’t even started. Fair play to all involved for that.

Bowling-wise, it was a pleasant sight for Farnworth, as you might expect. Spinks was, of course, the pick of the bowlers, ending with figures of 10-3-19-5. Yasir Rashid was the perfect foil as it was today, taking not at all shabby figures himself, these being 10-4-33-4. Alex Rodzoch beat his skipper Ross Sutton to the last wicket, the pair ending with bowling figures of 1.1-0-6-1 and 3-0-14-0 respectively.

Upon Tonge’s somewhat swift bowling out, I headed into the bar area once more to waste away the 20 minutes or so until I’d depart for an earlier than planned bus back homewards. They still had the second of the day’s Euro 2024 clashes on too, which helped pass the time that little bit quicker. Sadly, I had to forego the bonus BigJet show, as my battery wasn’t too healthy at this point in the day and I couldn’t be arsed to switch it out for the temperamental battery pack thing I have along for the many rides I set off on.

Late on…

Handshakes

It was soon time to depart Farnworth and head on home, with the bus arriving nigh-on on time and dropping me back at the Trafford Centre in good time for the connecting bus onwards. And here endeth my fourth day of cricket this year and one in which I could count myself lucky with regards to both the weather and my choice of venue. A full game wasn’t exactly a nailed-on happening today with the rain surrounding Manchester (shock, horror, I know!), but there really wasn’t much in the way of problems on Farnworth’s pitch, so kudos to those who look after the pitch.

I found the ground to be a pretty decent one, if there a one or two bits which need a bit of attention out across the far side. Still, this isn’t too much of a pressing matter as it is only a couple of seats and the like. The bar was decent and the staff friendly, although, on the other side of things, the site of a closed up, old scoreboard was a tad sad. Still, you can’t fully halt progress, I guess, although I do my best to! Anyway, it’s onto another game and not overly sure on where this will eventually be. Some divine intervention may just be called upon…