Trophy winning Arnside Cricket Club take aim at league title

Arnside Cricket Club’s captain says the club’s future is bright across the board after a recent cup win.

The club are looking for further success after already winning the Westmorland Cricket League British Rose (Division Two) Trophy earlier this month.

Their first team are currently in second place in the WCL’s Division Two, having recovered excellently from relegation last season.

The WCL Division Two holds two promotion places so they are in a strong position to return but Arnside will be hoping to push on even further from where they are currently.

They sit four points behind leaders Ulverston and have a game in hand.

Club captain Adam Richardson has been at the club since he was 14 years old, with many of the people he grew up playing with still being part of the first team to this day, and has been skipper since 2011.

Their British Rose Trophy win was secured with victory over Netherfield’s third XI by 25 runs in the final, after previously beating Shireshead & Forton’s seconds in the semi final, Westgate’s seconds in the quarters and topping their group in the early stages.

Speaking about the success, Richardson said: “It’s something we’ve struggled with as a club, cup games in general.

“The thing that has always killed us is availability, with cup games being Sundays and evenings, some players have other commitments and we’ve generally underachieved.

“With the frustration of last season, our aims this year were to get promoted back to Division One and give it a good go with the cups so we made a conscious effort of fielding a decent side.”

The finals day - which consisted of the semi finals and the final - was held at Shireshead & Forton’s ground, Clifton Park, and Richardson and the players were pleased to get the semi final won despite that away disadvantage and a tough start to an eventual 11-run win.

“Our semi final was second in the day so [Shireshead & Forton] wanted to bowl, we wanted to bat and I always prefer to get runs on the board and put pressure on.

“We were pretty much out of the game after eight or nine overs, young lads for them bowled really well, we struggled to respond and it was probably James Crawford hitting an important 30 that then helped us get over the 100 mark, giving us something to bowl at.

“Shireshead have a lot of talented young players and lads who should maybe be playing for the first team.

“We got early wickets and even though it looked close, we managed to defend our total fairly comfortably in the end.

“As for the final, we got a fairly decent target [154] and bowling-wise we were pretty much exceptional: Chris Howsley, Robbie Shepherd, Dave Birch, James Crawford, Mike Collins bowled superbly on the day and just restricted them.”

Arnside have seven league games remaining this season as they look to bounce straight back up to Division One.

Those games include a double header of away games this weekend as they take on a out-of-form Cartmel side in danger of relegation on Saturday, followed by travelling to Ingleton on Sunday, who occupy third and will be confident that their own promotion chances are far from over.

Arnside themselves though will be looking higher up the table with that game in hand, aiming to leapfrog Ulverston.

Richardson assessed the season so far by saying: “We are aiming to win it with that game in hand, the game against Ingleton is a big game. We’ve just got to keep going.

“A lot of the top teams are playing each other soon so it’s all a chance for them to change things.

“We can’t be complacent and think ‘we’ll just win the next few games and win the league or get promoted’, we’ve got to concentrate, treat every team with respect and see where we are at the end of the year.”

Richardson says that the performance of individuals have really helped the team this year, with a number of personal landmarks having been achieved by players.

“Robbie Shepherd and Chris Howsley have both just gone through 700 wickets for the first team, bowling-wise that’s excellent for us. Ben Lenton’s gone through 7000 runs, I’ve just reached 17000, so it’s been a memorable season for those reasons too.”

The club’s second team were moved down to Division Four as part of the league‘a shake up ahead of the 2025 campaign. 

They are sat fifth and Richardson is confident about their future.

“We’ve got quite a few youngsters, the first team is an older side and we’re now looking at younger players to keep knocking on our door and the juniors too.

Like most clubs in the area, Arnside are involved in the England Cricket Board’s All Stars & Dynamos programme and have hosted Cumbria Cricket under 18s events in recent weeks and months.

The under 16s and under 17s “continue to push” and break into the senior setups, while the club also have an under 9s, under 11s and under 13s side.

“Our junior setup had previously fallen by the wayside and naturally the conversation drifted to ‘well, kids don’t want to do this anymore’ but ultimately, if you put the cricket on, the kids will play it.

“We were staring down the barrel of being a one-team club and that becomes a slippery slope but people such as Chris Myers, Lee Pidgeon, Gemma Jackson and Mike Shepherd have put in a lot of effort to get training nights on and field the teams.

The club’s women’s team have been playing competitive cricket for the past few years and this season are in an eight-team softball league run by Cumbria Cricket.

“We’ve got our own ladies team which has been going since 2018.

“They moved from softball to hardball and are looking great so the overall structure of the club is looking strong.”

“There’s now a family understanding for a few of our players because dads, mums and kids are all part of the club, playing for the men’s, women’s and juniors, there’s more people involved which helps with the day to day running.

“It’s great to see that the women’s team are standing alone in their own right now aside from the softball.

“We’ve got a couple of girls in the juniors who are representing Cumbria now: Orla Myers and Jasmine Crossman. 

“They’ve been playing senior cricket for the second team as well and that’s amazing to see.”

“It’s looking a lot brighter now at Arnside Cricket Club.”

Richardson also saluted club treasurer Andrew MacLean who has “been excellent” in overseeing the club’s finances and also umpiring at a time when the Westmorland Cricket League has seen a shortage in uptake in such roles.

To get involved with Arnside Cricket Club, visit their social media pages and contact the club directly or come along to Memorial Playing Fields on Silverdale Road, Arnside.