This is a list of English and Welsh cricket leagues recognised and supported by the England and Wales Cricket Board as ECB Premier Leagues, and beneath the League titles are the cricket clubs that are in their top divisions in the 2023 English cricket season. [1] These leagues and clubs are the top echelons of the amateur, recreational game of cricket in England and Wales.
There are also non-ECB-affiliated leagues such as the Lancashire League and the Central Lancashire League, as their standards of cricket also represent the highest standards in the English (and Welsh) non-first-class game.
Ashton | Clifton | Crompton | Heywood | Littleborough | Middleton | Milnrow | Monton & Weaste | Norden | Oldham | Radcliffe | Rochdale | Royton | Unsworth | Walsden | Werneth [24]
Accrington | Bacup | Burnley | Church | Colne | East Lancashire | Enfield | Haslingden | Lowerhouse | Nelson | Ramsbottom | Rawtenstall | Rishton | Todmorden [25]
52 teams. [26]
Lancashire is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The largest settlement is Blackpool, and the county town is the city of Preston.
Chesterfield is a market town in the Borough of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) north of Derby and 11 miles (18 km) south of Sheffield at the confluence of the River Rother and River Hipper. In 2011, the built-up-area subdivision had a population of 88,483, making it the second-largest settlement in Derbyshire, after Derby. The wider borough had a population of 103,801 in 2011. In 2011, the town had a population of 76,753.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council. In April 1998 the Women's Cricket Association was integrated into the organisation. The ECB's head offices are at Lord's Cricket Ground in north-west London.
Sandiacre is a village and civil parish in the borough of Erewash in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands region of England adjoining the border with Nottinghamshire. The population of the parish was 8,889 at the 2011 Census.
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship competitions played at different levels: the County Championship, a first-class competition which involves eighteen first-class county clubs among which seventeen are English and one is from Wales; and the National Counties Championship, which involves nineteen English county clubs and one club that represents several Welsh counties.
Lou Vincent is a former New Zealand cricketer and opening batsman. He has represented New Zealand in Test match, One Day International and Twenty20 International cricket as well as playing for Auckland in New Zealand domestic cricket and Worcestershire and Lancashire in English domestic cricket.
Cricketers from Wales are currently represented by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and compete for the England cricket team. There have been some historical instances of a separate Welsh team in the 1920–30s, in the 1979 ICC Trophy, and in the British Isles Championship between 1993 and 2001, however Wales is not a separate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Alexander George Wharf is a former English ODI cricketer and a first-class cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-handed fast-medium bowler, who ended his career with the Welsh side Glamorgan County Cricket Club. He is now an umpire.
Luke David Sutton is an English former cricketer. A former right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper, he won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 2000, 2001 and 2002, and has also played List A and Twenty20 cricket.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in England, and has been played since the 16th century. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's, developed the modern rules of play and conduct. The sport is administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board and represented at an international level by the England men's team and England women's team. At a domestic level, teams are organised by county, competing in tournaments such as the County Championship, Royal London One-Day Cup, T20 Blast and the Women's Twenty20 Cup. Recent developments include the introduction of a regional structure for women's cricket and the establishment of The Hundred for both men's and women's cricket. Recreational matches are organised on a regional basis, with the top level being the ECB Premier Leagues.
The Northern Cricket Club, located in Crosby on north Merseyside, England, was founded in 1859. The original clubhouse was in Rawson Road in nearby Seaforth 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 area of Crosby, seven miles to the north of Liverpool. 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.
The ECB Premier Leagues are a series of regional cricket leagues organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that form the top tier of club cricket in England and Wales. The ECB published "Raising the Standard" in 1997, 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 cricket and the First Class game. A national network of Premier Leagues was established, with funding from the ECB. The Leagues have to meet the published ECB assessment criteria and they receive accreditation on an annual basis.
The Love Lane Liverpool and District Cricket Competition is regarded as the top level of competition for recreational club cricket in the Liverpool area and since 2000 has been a designated ECB Premier League. The Competition operates a three divisional system with Premier, First and Second Divisions. The Southport and District Amateur Cricket League is its feeder league.
The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 and Friends Provident Trophy competitions. Yorkshire Bank were the last sponsors, taking over the naming rights from their parent company Clydesdale Bank for the 2013 edition. Warwickshire won the inaugural tournament. The competition was replaced by a 50-over tournament, to bring the domestic game in line with the international game from 2014 on—the Royal London One-Day Cup.
The ECB National Club Twenty20 is a knockout Twenty20 club cricket competition in England. It was established in 2008 and the inaugural winners were South Northumberland. The competition is currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality Club T20. The current champions (2023) are Wimbledon, who won the title for the third time when they beat Sandiacre Town.
Sefton Park Cricket Club in south Liverpool, England was formed as Sefton Cricket Club in 1860. As well as being used for Sefton's senior, women's and junior teams' home fixtures, the club hosts Lancashire age group and junior sides, Liverpool City junior representative games, University of Liverpool cricket and Last Man Stands.
The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy was a first-class cricket tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season, and the inaugural edition of the Bob Willis Trophy. It was separate from the County Championship, which was not held in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The eighteen county cricket teams were split into three regional groups of six, with the two group winners with the most points advancing to a final held at Lord's. The maximum number of overs bowled in a day was reduced from 96 to 90, and the team's first innings could be no longer than 120 overs.
The 2020 Vitality Blast was the 2020 season of the t20 Blast, a professional Twenty20 cricket league being played in England and Wales. It was the third season in which the domestic T20 competition, run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which was branded as the Vitality Blast due to the tournament's sponsorship deal. On 12 August 2020, following a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the tournament.
The 2021 County Championship was the 121st cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. For the first phase of the tournament, the teams were split into three groups of six, with each side playing ten matches. The top two teams from each group progressed into Division One for the second phase of the competition, with the other teams progressing to Divisions Two and Three. The team that finished top of Division One became the county champions; and the top two teams from Division One contested a five-day match at Lord's for the Bob Willis Trophy. On 17 December 2020, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed all the fixtures for the tournament. After completion of the group stage on 14 July 2021, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the division stage on 22 July 2021.