By Paul Edwards
Southport & Birkdale Sports Club will be hosting Ashes cricket this summer but neither Ben Stokes nor Steve Smith will be involved.
That’s because the game in question is a one-day match in the series between England and Australia’s Over 60s teams on July 19, when anyone unable to afford a ticket for the first day of the Old Trafford Test will be able to watch one of the cricket’s oldest rivalries maintained by 22 players intent on proving that age is merely a number.
Nevertheless, the fact that Southport & Birkdale’s home on Trafalgar Road in Birkdale has been chosen to host a game that is likely to attract plenty of interest reflects the high regard in which the ground and its facilities are held, a view reinforced by the other relatively high-profile fixtures taking place in addition to the County Championship match between Lancashire and Hampshire on June 11-1.
As early as April 11, Lancashire’s second team will be playing Leicestershire in a four-day game at Trafalgar Road and on September 4, Yorkshire will be the visitors for one of the season’s second XI Roses matches.
In addition, there will be top-level ladies cricket at S&B on July 7, when Thunder host Southern Vipers in a Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy match.
Add all these fixtures to the Lancashire Academy and age-group games that will take place, plus the Liverpool Competition and junior matches that are already on the list, and it’s clear that groundsman Colin Maxwell and his band of helpers will be having perhaps their busiest season ever.
That, however, is how Maxwell and S&B’s officials would like it. Many of them will recall the years when Southport’s facilities were barely fit to host any representative cricket and the change that has taken place since then has been remarkable.
Club members and spectators at Comp games have noticed the improvement, as have Lancashire’s officials.
An Ashes match, regardless of the vintage of the players, is just the latest accolade.
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