The Darwen Cricket Club Website

I have managed to get hold of some images from the past and want to build a gallery showing the history of our great club.

If anyone has any photos related to any of our teams or any stories from the past please email them to me.

Chris Rigby aka Riggers has sent a few cut outs and snaps from yesteryear. Some great haircuts from the 70s!

1978 First Team Winners of the Matthew Brown Trophy

Back Row - Colin Charnock - Andrew Rigby - Steve Douglas - Ted Friend - Peter Forrest - Chris Rigby - Peter Plummer (Pro)
Front Row - Stuart Sharples - Jeff Lawrenson - Richard Friend (Capt) - Jimmy Jepson - Ian Hope (w/k)

1978 First Team Winners of the Matthew Brown Trophy

1987 First Team Northern League Winners

Back Row - Bob Entwistle - Simon Painter - Jimmy Jepson - Chris Rigby - Graeme Parkinson - Andy Rigby - Graham Ainslie - Bernard Reidy (Pro) - Graham Groom
Front Row - Dave Bonner - Steve Jepson - Jeff Lawrenson - Tony Russell

1994 First Eleven - Nice haircut Neville - Gary still got same whites

Back Row - Chris Craven (Pro) - Gary Jackson - Chris Rigby - Ian Critchley - Simon Painter - Mick Friend - Graham Ainslie
Front Row - Gareth Cordingley - Graeme Parkinson - Dave Bonner - Jeff Lawrenson - Neil Cordingley

1987 First Eleven - Championship Winners

1992 Riggers Plays With His Balls

1993 Riggers Smashes 50

1996 DCC U17s - Merse Belming - Dougie Not Selected - Buffet Won award for Highest Position of Cap on Head.

2000 DCC 2nds - Latus Cup Winners - Paper's on Twice - Lobo Borrowed a Sweater - Granty's Made Up

1995 DCC U17s - Colour prints are still available - I am sure there will be plenty left!!

Darwen News Cuttings

Unsung heroes of Darwen Cricket Club by Dave Bonner

In late 1960 little did I realise when I joined Darwen Cricket Club that it would become such a big part of not only my life but my families. We always provide statistics on what the club and players have achieved, but never seem to document the contribution made by people off the field and who without them the club would never have been where it is today. Well this is my tribute to the people I feel have contributed in a big way during my time at the club.

When I joined we were not a wealthy club and all jobs were done Voluntary. The first of my recollection revolves around the president of the club Bill Bolton a local scrap dealer and haulage contractor, whose son Jim kept wicket for the first team and later captain the side. Bill was a big man who never bothered about speaking his mind. He was the man behind bringing in Players like Vijay Bhosle, Sada Mohol, and Jim Minhas. He was always so I am told very helpful to the club financially. In my opinion his biggest contribution was finding the club a new secretary who went in the George Hotel for a drink, none other than a certain Peter Lamster. We had a bar steward called George Reilly, who son Colin was the opening bowler for the first team. He did a good job when our bar facilities were to say the least appalling. On the development side we had a supporters club ably run by two local shopkeepers. Edgar Lawrenson, whose butchers shop was in Redearth Road and Keith Hacking who ran Bennett�s tobacconist in Railway Road the weekly sales of tickets were a life line to the club. There other claim to fame was they were captain and vice captain of the 4th XI. This was the first team I ever played for as an 11 year old. Two fantastic people, who enjoyed their cricket without hitting any heights. In those days we had a coach to take us to matches. Junior cricket relied on Raymond Garner to drive the Bus to Lancashire league grounds. Raymond was a very quiet man who I can never remember him saying anything, but without his contribution we might not have had a junior team.

Anyhow the club needed to grow and the committee started to move forward in their ideas and improve their facilities. We needed a new cabin for the top field, which we got from the old prefabs On Redearth Road, the only snag was that we had to take the prefab down and re assembly it on Higher Birch Hall. Ron Bonner led the party who took the prefab down and took it to Higher Birch Hall for assembly. Ron became a focal point of the club development he led the party who took the old tennis pavilion down and added it to the bar, to make the old bar the size it is now. He also fitted out the inside of the pavilion and to date it still remains the same. Ron became a life member of the club and I am immensely proud of his contribution to the development of the club. Bill Isherwood again has been a tremendous servant of the club when I joined he was the secretary, then moved onto the chairman and is now the club president. His last venture was the 500 club which he has done a tremendous job to raise valuable funds to the club. Colin Charnock was involved with the supporters club when I first started and was one of four who made up the committee. Since then Colin has been secretary of the club, retired from that post and is now back as secretary of the club. Brian Fish, another excellent servant of the club who for many years ran the bar before we started to pay for a steward. Brian has been involved in many aspects of the club and has been a tireless worker over a long period of time. Jimmy Jepson, over the years the club has had a tremendous reputation for the development of junior cricket, I was privileged to be involved right from the start and handed over my responsibilities to Jimmy who was a tremendously likeable person who continued our reputation. Gordon Waddicor, no job too big or no job too small for Gordon to do. He has over the years carried out main projects and was on the ground every Sunday morning before many people had got out of bed. Joan Parkinson, who like many at the time got involved with the club because their son�s joined the club as youngsters and the parents were dragged into the administration of the club. A tireless worker, who was responsible for organising the tea room, became the chairperson for the social side of the club and during her time at the club became a firm favourite not only on Birch hall but over many Northern league grounds. Finally Peter Lamster, I remember him joining the club to take the minutes at the monthly meeting, little did he know how big a part of his life Darwen Cricket Club would become. A tireless worker, who went from being secretary to the chairman of the club, I know from the many times I spoke to Peter he was immensely proud of not only his involvement in the club but also what the club has achieved over many years. Before I conclude the choices of the above are my own and hopefully I have not offended any person by not including them. There are many current members who deserve to be included in this list but their contribution is after the period of time my involvement covers. Hopefully someone will write them into the history of the club. I hope everybody who reads this will appreciate that without the effort put in by the people mentioned above the club might not have been in a position to develop in the way it has done. I know that all the time and effort theses people put in was purely voluntary and cost the club nothing, how times have changed.

Darwen 1st Team Champions 1966

1966 was a great year with the firsts, seconds and thirds all winning the leagues

Darwen 1st Team 1967 and Slater Cup Finalists

Darwen 1st Team 1967

BACK ROW: GEOFF ECCLES, RON HEIGHWAY, PETER WALMSLEY, STAN WESTALL, DAVID BONNER, KEN SMITH

FRONT ROW: JOHN CLARKE, ALAN BOLTON( PRO)JIM BOLTON ( CAPT) JOHN WADDINGTON, STUART SHARPLES

Darwen 1st Team 1970

BACK: Left TO Right S.Sharples, D.Bonner, O.Demming, P.Isherwood, M.Chapple (PRO), G.Greening, J.Slater (SCORER)

FRONT: J.Clarke, J.Bolton, P.Haydock (CAPT), K.B.Smith.G.Eccles

Darwen 1st 1971

Darwen 1st Team 1972

BACK: Left TO Right Ruth Wall (scorer), JIM JEPSON, MICK HOWARD( PRO),OLIVER DEMMING, TOM KEENA, PETER HAYDOCK, GEOFF GREENING

FRONT: RICHARD FRIEND, DAVID BONNER, JIM BOLTON ( CAPT), JOHN CLARKE, PHILLIP ISHERWOOD

Darwen Cricket Club Accounts 1973

Darwen 1st Team Champions 1987

BACK: Left TO Right S.Painter, J.Jepson, C.Rigby, G.Parkinson (CAPT), A.Rigby, G.Ainslie, B.Reidy (PRO), G.Groom (SCORER)

FRONT: R.Entwistle, D.Bonner, G.Lawrenson, A.Russell

N.Brown presents trophy to G.Parkinson

Dave Bonner, Graeme Parkinson and Bill Ainslie collect the trophy

Darwen 1st Team 2006 Thwaites Cup Winners

Darwen 1st Team 2006 Lancashire Cup Finalists

Darwen 1st Team 2007 Thwaites 2020 Cup Winners