Date: 29th Mar 2024
L&DCC is not responsible for Third Party websites

HIGHFIELD HAPPY TO BE IN THE MIX AS DIVISION ONE IS ANYONE'S GUESS!

Date: 19th September 2014

A Paul Edwards copyright exclusive for L&DCC Official Website.

Five clubs fight to go up as two more battle for survival

The majority of Liverpool Competition clubs will take nothing but the joy of playing the incomparable game from the final weekend of the league season. Nothing at all wrong with that, of course, but most of the major issues have been decided and it would scarcely be remarkable if there was an end of term atmosphere of wistful celebration at many grounds.

 

Not at Cricket Path though. Nor at Sefton Park and Penrhyn Avenue. Once again, the key issues in the First Division are going to the final Saturday of the league season. Two of Formby, Highfield, Rainford, Wigan and Colwyn Bay will be promoted, while one of Sefton Park and Orrell Red Triangle will join Wavertree in Division Two.

 

If Formby beat Wigan, they will be playing Premier League cricket next year and if Highfield take 24 or more points from a win over Colwyn Bay, Mike Farrell’s team will join Ian Cockbain’s men. But if either of the top teams slip up, Rainford, who visit Sefton Park, can overtake them.

 

Whatever the outcome on Saturday, Highfield skipper Mike Farrell will be contented with the progress his side has made after the disappointment of relegation twelve months ago. “Before the first game back in May, we’d have settled for this,” he said.

 

“We have to go for 25 points but Colwyn Bay have to go for 25 pts, too. It’s pretty much the same side as we had last season, so I’m very pleased. On paper we are the best side in the First Division because we’ve won 11 games and lost only two. No one’s won as many or lost as few. ”

 

The one major change to Highfield’s line-up this season has been the addition of all-rounder Jahangir Mirza, who has scored 586 runs and taken 40 wickets with his off spin bowling. “He may not be a destructive player but he’s done very well for us and we’ve already signed him up for next year,” said Farrell.

 

“However, I have also been very pleased with the emergence of Jake Burrows, who’s scored 278 runs with three fifties in only nine innings,” added the Highfield skipper, omitting to mention that his own 675 runs with five half-centuries and one hundred have also played a major part in Highfield’s attempt to return to the Premier League.

 

If Farrell and Burrows are on form on Saturday and if Mirza and the excellent Chris Liptrot can get among the Colwyn Bay batsmen, there is every chance that top division cricket will be returming to Billinge Road next May. Farrell, though, knows it will be “very tense” on Saturday.

Once again, then, it seems the First Division will end not in some gentle sporting reverie but in the drama of triumph and disappointment which are the hallmarks of this greatest of all games.             

 

First Division points (all teams played 21 games): Formby 307 pts (10 wins), Highfield 300 (11), Rainford 299 (10), Wigan 288 (10), Colwyn Bay 281 (10)

 

Selected Division One fixtures:  Colwyn Bay v Highfield,  Formby   v  Wigan,  Northop Hall v  Orrell Red Triangle, Sefton Park  v   Rainford 

                                                                           

 

 

Back to top