Chorley CC Season Review 2022
Back in April in my season preview I talked about looking forward to the first signs of spring, the dark winter ebbing away and the prospect of long, warm days ahead. Some five months later I find myself now looking back at another completed season at Windsor Park and beyond, with those winter months once again now in front us. So what happened? Let’s look back!
First Team
Northern Premier League—— —6th
ECB National Knockout————-ROUND ONE
Northern League T20 ————-WINNERS
Northern League 40 Over Cup— ROUND ONE
WCDG T20——————————-SEMI FINAL
A hugely improved league position from 2021 where we finished one place above the relegation spots. By then Holdsworth’s men had already secured our first silverware since 2018 in winning the Northern League T20 competition, on a blistering day at Garstang brushing aside eventual league winners and finals days hosts in the semi, then easing past Fulwood And Broughton in the final. Further success in the Wigan T20 Cup proved just outside our reach, with defeat in the first semi at Orrell.
It was an incredibly good Summer weatherwise, with droughts regularly in the news-However no such concerns for Alex Howarth though. In what was a truly remarkable season for Alex-who started the season as captain of the second team, he scored 349 runs in eight games for them at an average of nearly 70 before being moved back up to the first eleven in June. He then went on to score a further 362 league runs in the Northern League, and some incredible innings in cup and T20 matches giving him a grand total of 961 runs scored for the summer. An incredible effort, well done Alex.
Sri Lanka Pro Roshen Silva contributed a superb 927 runs in all comps and provided a superb foil for Alex and our regular top order batters to work around and play with freedom that might have eluded them previously. Harry Barclay scored his maiden Northern League ton, and more runs came from Holdsworth, Will Moulton and Alfie Dobson. Alfie also had a remarkable summer, scoring a mind blowing 1128 runs in all games!
First team Averages League And Cup (Not T20)
Our bowling attack is regarded as one of the best in the league-The return of Ed Moulton bolstered the ranks with Sam Steeple, Will Moulton, Louis Johnson all taking wickets, supported by Oakes and McCullagh. Towards the end of the season, we saw some very impressive performances with the ball from another junior-Sixteen year old James Dunn bagged 16 wickets in total to stake his claim for future consideration. Watch this space.
Bowling Averages All Games 2022
One more statistic to note-EIGHT Players played 18 games or more-a maximum of 22 games in a league season shows how having a settled side can help performances.
Second Team
Palace Shield DIVISION 1B——-5th
Loxham Cup ————————ROUND ONE
Nine straight wins from the start of the season to late June gave the 2`s an incredible start and another title push was on the cards. However other sides also had similar runs and despite the points accumulated it was hard to shake off the competition. The loss of Howarth to the first team and further disruption to the available eleven reflected in a loss of form and one win in seven ultimately put the skids on a second title in three years.
Juniors and youth again played a significant role in the 2`s this season, with leading run scorer Amman Sarguru joined by juniors Zayn Wadiwala and James Dunn at the top of the runs table, all expertly guided by stalwart Kyle Dixon who took the arm band off Howarth.
Bowling duties were mainly shared between James Dunn, Chris Harty, Matty Parkinson and Jimmy Lee with Adam McCullagh in the mix most weeks. With the likes of Monty Horridge, Owen Kellet and Mitchell Kos all chipping in with wickets we look forward to seeing more of these U17s next season.
Third Team
Palace Shield Division Thee———12th RELEGATED
Crabtree Cup—————————-PRELIMINARY ROUND
After flirtation with relegation the previous year, 2022 failed to bring enough consistent improvement in results and despite some superb efforts from across the squad, the threes found themselves bottom of the league when the fixtures were completed. For some perspective, the third team have come up from division Six in 2016 so the bigger picture reflects an relatively healthy position. The side continues to be made up of a mixture of promising youngsters and seasoned veterans, with 50 and 60 somethings often playing in the same eleven as 14-year-olds.
Lead by captain Ross Demming we saw some impressive work by young and old, with Mark Richardson and Dan Harman leading the way with runs scored, while the leading wicket taker for the season was young Mitchell Kos, bagging 29 wickets in 15 games, supported by Michael Withers (19), Wayne Barclay (16) and junior Owen Kellett-Who took the first hattrick of the season too! Congrats Owen !. Behind the stumps the regular keeper was young George Heaton, who secured a respectable 13 victims in his first season at senior level.
Players of the Season
We had our end of season awards a couple of weeks ago, and the following were awarded.
First Team
Batter of the Year HARRY BARCLAY
Bowler Of the Year ED MOULTON
Players Player Of the Year HARRY BARCLAY
Second Team
Batter of the Year AMMAN SARGURU
Bowler Of the Year JAMES DUNN
Players Player Of the Year ZAYN WADIWALA
Third Team
Batter of the Year DAN HARMAN
Bowler Of the Year MITCHELL KOS
Players Player Of the Year MARK RICHARDSON
The annual John Mawdesley Award for overall contribution to the club this year was awarded to Ross Demming, in recognition of all his hard work and commitment to the club. Ross was third team skipper, helped run the juniors, assisted in groundwork at both Windsor Park and Limbrick and was always available for anyone looking for guidance or help at the club. As chair I would like to congratulate Ross and thank him for all his time and efforts once more. A worthy winner!
Winter Plans
We had committed to a major pitch renovation after the end of the season, unfortunately the company booked in to carry the work out have let us down, so this project will roll forward to next year now.
Still on the project list is the repair of the nets which is still likely to happen hopefully.
We have a Halloween Party booked for Friday 28th October at the club, tickets from behind the bar.
Sadly, we have decided not to host a bonfire this November, I know many may be disappointed by this news, but the (now cancelled) work on the pitch kind of prevented us from committing fully to this event, apologies to those who were looking forward to that.
We are having our Junior Awards night this Friday, and I will provide an update on this the following week.
I would like to conclude by publicly thanking each and everyone involved at all levels of the club, we are solely reliant on volunteers and without the tireless work of committee, coaches, parents and all the other people who give up their valuable time for the club we would not be as successful as we are.
Have a great close season and Winter!
Oliver Jones
Chair, on behalf of the CCC Committee