‘It’s good for the cricket club, for the Comp, for Birkdale village and the local economy’

The return of first-class cricket to Southport & Birkdale next year is good news for the Love Lane Liverpool Competition, according to chairman Andrew Carney.

Trafalgar Road will host Lancashire’s four-day LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Hampshire between Sunday, June 11, and Wednesday, June 13.

For Mr Carney, the decision is vindication of the way his club pulled off the hosting of this summer’s clash with Somerset, its first since 2018.

And with that experience to draw on, he’s confident of putting on an even better show next year.

He said: “It’s good for the cricket club, for the Comp, for Birkdale village and the local economy. It gives people something to look forward to.

“It’s underpinned by volunteers and we hadn’t had first-class cricket there for four years, so we’ve now got a team that’s got one under their belt.
“And that’s invaluable in terms of the experience needed for the second one.

“It’s more hard work, but it’s very welcome – it’s good for the club commercially, but it’s also good for the spirit of the club.”

After hosting six games in eight seasons, problems with the Trafalgar Road square had led Lancashire to look elsewhere for outground cricket from 2019. So it’s understandable that if anything the pitch for last July’s game went a little too far the other way.

Keaton Jennings made 318 as Lancashire piled on 624/9 – both records for the ground – in reply to Somerset’s 446. Jack Morley’s 5/69 gave the hosts a glimmer of hope on the last day but the visitors closed on 213/7.

Mr Carney added: “We were very lucky, we got superb weather. 

“Arguably, the pitch was a bit too good – but it’s always better to be that way than the other way.

“You need that little bit of luck with the weather, it meant the crowds were decent and it’s good on the food and beverage side of things. 

“But equally, there was some ferocious commitment from members of all ages.”

S&B have also been asked to host two 2nd XI games as well as county age group cricket – more feathers in the cap of groundskeeper Colin Maxwell.

Liverpool has been overlooked again for next year but Blackpool’s Stanley Park will host Essex in July, its first Championship game since 2011. With Sedbergh also waiting in the wings (quite a long way out in the wings), there’s plenty of competition when it comes to outgrounds.

Mr Carney said: “You only need one bad track and you’re toast.

“It’s very binary and the centrepiece ultimately is the track – it’s over a decade old, so we’re working closely with the Lancashire ground staff.

“But we didn’t have to go through a process like we did last year where we went to Old Trafford and described how we’d run the event, it was just a straightforward call from Lancashire.

“So hopefully that means they were comfortable with us.”

The future of outground cricket in general remains uncertain – whatever changes are made to the domestic game in the wake of the ECB’s high-performance review, the desire of clubs such as S&B and Liverpool to host professional cricket won’t be high on the agenda.

And with Lancashire planning to build a shiny new base at Farington, which will host county games when Emirates Old Trafford is unavailable, the situation could change again in a few years.

But for now, Mr Carney is keen to show what his club can do – and he hopes the whole town will reap the benefits.

He added: “The town has been under ferocious pressure – it relies on big events like the air show, the flower show, the comedy festival and county cricket to bring some much-needed traffic to the hotels and bars.

“And it’s good for the Comp – we’re all very proud of the Comp, and having Liverpool and ourselves that can host first-class games is good as well.”