Lancashire County Cricket

Founded in 1864 Lancashire has won the County Championship outright eight times and shared the title four times. Its history is studded with famous names, from that incomparable first wicket pair, Hornby and Barlow, about whom the poet Francis Thompson wrote so nostalgically, to Washbrook, Tattersall and other contemporary stalwarts.

A mere recital of names sets the memory and imagination alight: Richard Pilling behind the stumps and Vernon Boyle at cover, each still surpassed; the volatile Johnny Briggs; the majestic A. C. MacLaren; R.H. Spooner greatest of off drivers; the brothers Tyldesley, J.T. and Earnest, whose combined careers covered more than forty years of first class cricket; Walter Brearley who would bowl fast all day, if necessary; Jack Sharp and Harry Makepeace, internationals at both cricket and ‘soccer’; and so on to the triple championship winners of 1926-7-8, to the impressible Parkin, to MacDonald, Dick Tyldesley, Duckworth, Paynter and Hallows; to the latest team which shared the title with Surrey in 1950. Naturally the great rivalry with Yorkshire has an important place in history of the club and some of the more memorable matches are described. Many of the illustrations are reproduced by permission of the Lancashire Club from their collection at Old Trafford.

The author has been closely connected with first class cricket for many years as a journalist and enthusiast and is the Lancashire correspondent of The Cricketer. More than a history of the Club this book is the inside story of Lancashire Cricket by a trained observer and critical writer.