The Northern Cricket Club, located in Crosby

Crosby, Merseyside

Crosby is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, in Merseyside, England. Historically part of Lancashire it is situated north of Bootle, south of Southport, Formby and west of Netherton-History:...

 on north Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

, was founded in 1859.
The original clubhouse was in Rawson Road in nearby Seaforth

Seaforth

-Places:* Loch Seaforth, Scotland, Great Britain, United Kingdom* Seaforth Island, Scotland, Great Britain, United Kingdom* Seaforth, Jamaica* Seaforth, Merseyside, England, Great Britain, United Kingdom* Seaforth, Minnesota, United States...

 until 1879, when the club moved to Haigh Road in Waterloo Park.
In 1907 the club moved again, this time to its present site in the picturesque Moor Park

Moor Park, Crosby

Moor Park is one of the most picturesque residential areas of Crosby in Merseyside. Initially developed in the early years of the twentieth century, it is situated on the northern side of Moor Lane, the main A565 road out of Crosby to the north....

 area of Crosby, seven miles to the north of Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

.
By 1961, the cricket club shared its grounds with hockey, squash and crown green bowls, and in this year the four sports merged to form the Northern Club

Northern Club (sports club)

The Northern Club, located in Crosby on north Merseyside, was founded in 1859, originally as a cricket club.It moved to its present site, in the picturesque Moor Park area of Crosby, seven miles to the north of Liverpool, in 1907....

.

The cricket club are members of the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition

Liverpool and District Cricket Competition

The Liverpool and District Cricket Competition is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Liverpool area and since 2000 has been a designated ECB Premier League, one of two in Lancashire, the other being the Northern League....

, an ECB

England and Wales Cricket Board

The England and Wales Cricket Board is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council...

 accredited Premier League

ECB Premier Leagues

In 1997 the ECB published "Raising the Standard", the ECB Management Board Blueprint for the Future Playing Structure of cricket. This introduced the concept of ECB Premier Leagues, designed to raise the playing standard of the top tier of club cricket and to bridge the gap between recreational...

, and were 1st XI champions in 2005.
The club runs six senior Saturday teams in total, all playing in this league, plus social Sunday and midweek teams, and junior teams at U9, U11, U13 and U15 age groups.

The club is amongst the top multi-sport clubs in the North West. It has three cricket pitches, all on the Moor Park site, and regularly hosts Lancashire

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

 second team and other representative matches.

Prominent Players

Johnny Briggs

Johnny Briggs (cricketer)

Johnny Briggs was a left arm spin bowler for Lancashire County Cricket Club between 1879 and 1900 who still stands as the second-highest wicket-taker in the county's history after Brian Statham...

 played cricket for Northern in 1878 and 1879. He debuted for Lancashire

Lancashire County Cricket Club

Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...

 in 1879 aged just 16, and went on to become the only player in the county's history to score over 10,000 runs and take over 1,000 wickets (1,696 in all). Johnny played 33 tests matches for England, taking 118 wickets and scoring 815 runs. His test career was ended in 1899 by illness during the Headingley test match against Australia, and he met with a premature and unfortunate death just 3 years later.

Dr John Winter is probably the club's finest amateur player, first playing in the 1937 season.
In 1955 he scored 1,423 runs, which remained a record until 2007 for runs in a season by any player in Liverpool Competition cricket

Liverpool and District Cricket Competition

The Liverpool and District Cricket Competition is the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Liverpool area and since 2000 has been a designated ECB Premier League, one of two in Lancashire, the other being the Northern League....

, and hit 8 centuries in the process.
He scored a total of 30 first team centuries for the club, despite a career interrupted by the war, the first in 1938 and the last in 1962.

New Zealander James Marshall

James Marshall (cricketer)

James Andrew Hamilton Marshall is a New Zealand cricketer. He is the identical twin brother of Hamish Marshall.The versatile James Marshall can play as both opener and middle-order batsman...

 played for Northern during the 2004 season, at the end of which he returned to his homeland to break into the Blackcaps' test match team in their series against Australia. James returned to Northern in 2005, to help the club to their Premier League

ECB Premier Leagues

In 1997 the ECB published "Raising the Standard", the ECB Management Board Blueprint for the Future Playing Structure of cricket. This introduced the concept of ECB Premier Leagues, designed to raise the playing standard of the top tier of club cricket and to bridge the gap between recreational...

 championship success of that year.

Phil Jaques

Phil Jaques

Philip Anthony Jaques is an Australian cricketer. He is a left-handed opening batsman who has played first-class cricket for New South Wales, Northamptonshire, Yorkshire and Worcestershire, as well as international cricket for Australia...

 played for Northern in 1999, via a cricketing scholarship award from New South Wales

New South Wales Cricket Association

The New South Wales Cricket Association is a sporting club who administer cricket in New South Wales, based at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Their trading name is Cricket NSW....

, and went on to play test match cricket for Australia from 2005.

External links

• http://www.northernclub.co.uk/cricket
• http://northern.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp