THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND THE SPLIT 1940‑51

By Alan West

All cricket had ceased in the Ribblesdale League in the First World War as vast numbers were drafted immediately to the Front, but in the Second World War cricket was able to continue albeit in straitened circumstances. Professionals were not used, registration rules were relaxed for troops at home and to reduce travelling the clubs were divided into two regions. One region comprised Blackpool, St. Annes, Chorley, Leyland, Leyland Motors and Lancaster; the other was Clitheroe, Whalley, Ribblesdale Wanderers, Read, Darwen and Barnoldswick. Fears were expressed that the split might have lasting effect (which in a sense it eventually did when the Northern League was formed in 1952) but no other solution was possible.

In the event a play‑off between the sectional winners in 1940, Darwen and St. Annes, was not possible, so the title was shared. The bat was generally in command. Twice the league's second wicket partnership was beaten. First by Joe Massey, the Blackpool skipper, and Lieutenant McDonald who put on 157 against Leyland Motors. Then Crompton and Harwood of Darwen added 173 against Whalley. The record was Peters and Langshaw's 156 for Whalley against Great Harwood in 1908.

For the next five seasons, the Junior League was suspended and Great Harwood, Blackburn St. James and Cherry Tree came from it to replace Lancaster, Leyland Motors and St. Annes. A Blackpool Services XI, usually referred to as Blackpool R.A.F. was also allowed in, sharing the ground with Blackpool C.C. and bringing the number of members to 13. The sectional system was abandoned but each team played only 16 matches.

Blackpool Services won the title in their first three years and came joint runners‑up in their last. In 1941 they had the services of Frank Booth of Lancashire and two Somerset stalwarts Bill Andrews, whose 5‑47 won the play‑off against Leyland, and Squadron Leader McBryan, also of Cambridge University. His claim to fame was that he is the only Test player never to have batted, bowled or dismissed anyone in the field; his sole test at Old Trafford in 1924 was reduced by rain to three hours! Whalley with the services of pre‑war professional Ernest Smith and Stanley Ellis were only a point adrift in third place. Arthur Wade, the Read spinner, took 9‑13 including a hat trick against bottom of the table Ribblesdale Wanderers.

In 1942 the winning margin for Blackpool Services was one point over Chorley and in 1943 three points over Read. Leyland slipped into mid‑table in 1942 but made 311­3 dec. against Blackpool, still the highest innings total in the league's history. F.C. Duckworth made 147 not out and was supported by F. Pennington, 78, and S.J. Metcalfe, 76. Blackpool Services were able to call on a variety of first‑class cricketers over their four year existence while they were based at Blackpool and the championship hat trick was clinched in 1943 with the help at various times of Ellis Robinson of Yorkshire, Jack Crapp of Gloucestershire and later England, Cornford of Sussex and England, Blood of Essex and Watkins of Notts. The performance of the year came, though, from a home‑grown player, Maurice Maroney now at Barnoldswick: his 8‑7 put Cherry Tree all out for 32. Not far behind was Syd Metcalfe, the Leyland skipper, who took 7‑5 against Darwen.

In 1944 the Services side could only come joint runners up alongside Barnoldswick, who were inspired by their captain Norman Petty. His remarkable feat of hat tricks in three successive matches against Blackburn St. James, Darwen and Read will surely never be equalled. Blackpool were clear champions, their eighth title. G.M. Blakey took 7‑4 as they dismissed Cherry Tree for 25 and Frank Haworth, back at Blackpool after a spell as Read professional, took 7‑9 to dismiss Darwen for 21.

Though the war in Europe was over by the start of the 1945 season, things were not yet back to normal. Cherry Tree could not raise a side and withdrew from the league: one of their leading bowlers had been advised not to play by the doctor and a promising replacement had been lured to East Lancashire. The brief but glorious four‑year career of the Blackpool Services team was at an end. But only Leyland Motors of those clubs which had withdrawn at the beginning of the war returned, making it a 12­team league again. Whalley won the championship on the last day of the season in dramatic style. Barnoldswick who finished joint runners‑up again, this time with Blackpool, were the opponents at Whalley and to make sure of success Whalley had engaged the services of Roley Jenkins, the Worcestershire and later England all­-rounder. Travel arrangements being what they were in immediate post‑war Britain, the hero arrived half an hour late but proceeded to flight his leg breaks to such a good effect that Barnoldswick were dismissed for 55, Jenkins taking 8‑27. Six wickets fell before Whalley won but after a fifteen year gap Whalley's name was back on the league trophy and for once one of the newer teams had not won the title. In the reverse match earlier in the season at Victory Park, Barnoldswick, Maurice Maroney's 8‑6 in 6.6 overs had put Whalley out for 23 so it was sweet revenge for Whalley as well as the title. The best bowling of the season, though, was 10‑34 by C. White of Darwen against Great Harwood.

1946 saw the league back to normal. Lancaster and St. Annes returned. Great Harwood and Blackburn Northern (renamed from Blackburn St. James the previous season) were allowed to continue after standing in so creditably during the war years. And Settle, first champions of the league, were readmitted after an absence of 22 years. So the league was now up to fifteen teams and the troubles which led six years later to a split‑off of the Northern League were put in motion. The Junior League was restarted and the league felt confident enough to send 50 guineas to the fund for rebuilding Old Trafford. Blackpool were the 1946 champions, one point ahead of Lancaster with Whalley the defending champions slipping to 10th, their lowest ever place up to that point. R.M. Aspden had replaced Leonard Green as captain but perhaps most crucially James Peters junior had gone to Great Harwood as professional.

Morecambe were added to the league in 1947, coming bottom of the table at their first attempt. With sixteen teams now, the AGM accepted a proposal to divide the league into two sections as had happened during the war, teams playing the other seven teams in their section both home and away and the other eight teams only once. A proposal to reduce the league to 12 teams (expelling Blackburn Northern, Great Harwood and Settle) was rejected. Lancaster were champions for the second time in 1947 with 119 wickets from Warne and 37 victims behind the stumps for G.R. Abbott (26 stumped and 11 caught). Morecambe's one bright spot in a disappointing first season was K. Jacobs' 5‑0 against the eventual champions. They suffered at the hands of Leyland Motors what was then the record opening partnership ‑ 245 by F. Pennington (128) and L.C. Masado (89) ‑ a record which stood until 1991. Jim Peters junior, at Great Harwood set a new record of six consecutive innings of 50 or more ‑65*, 55,9P, 101*, 89*, 51. In fact the record lasted only two years, Leslie Warburton of Leyland taking the number to seven in his record‑breaking season of 1949.

1948 was Blackpool's year again with Whalley close behind and Lancaster third, Warne for the second successive season exceeding 100 wickets, 107 at 9.4 this time. Lawton of St. Annes, the husband of Dora Bryan, had a golden day against Leyland Motors, 135 not out and 7‑28.

1949 was a vintage year and saw a rare title win in this era for a founder member and a first at that. Read, after 57 years of unbroken membership of the league, won their first title to the delight of the village. The occasion was celebrated with a 56‑page booklet detailing the season's triumphs which still makes a fascinating read, so many exciting finishes were there, vividly described. On June 11th Read were 77‑7 in reply to Ribblesdale Wanderers 137 all out but made it with one wicket to spare, the last pair Harkle and Wright adding 19. Even worse, two weeks later Read were 28‑7 in reply to Blackburn Northern's 58 Northern's 58 but pulled through. In the last two matches of the season Lancaster the eventual joint runners‑up were beaten by 4 runs and Settle by 5 runs to clinch the title by 4 points. At the heart of the success were professional Jack Dyson with 71 wickets and 210 runs, doughty skipper and all‑rounder Harry Haworth with the top aggregate of 270 runs, and a consistent batting line up without a single dominant force, five other batsmen topping 200 runs.

Whilst team spirit and team performance took the Cup, individuals in other clubs were creating records which still stand today. Les Warburton of Leyland scored 1356 runs including a record five centuries all not out which was 325 better than Joe Massey*s 12 Year old record. In twenty innings he had fifteen innings of 50 or more, including a sequence of seven, one tip on Jim Peters junior's run In 1947. Against Lancaster he batted through the innings for 112 not out, and then took 7‑36. Warburton is the supreme example of those outstanding league cricketers who could have graced the first‑class scene. Preferring the security of his position as bank clerk, he resisted several tempting offers from Lancashire even after a three‑match tour as a 19 year‑old in 1929 which he began with 74 not out against Surrey at the Oval. Over the next nine years he played only six times in all for the county but in 1936 he was called from the Central Lancashire League to play at Lords in the Test Trial, as a potential bowler for the Australian tour. His wife asked if he would be allowed to go to Australia, said, ‑Certainly not!

READ C.C. ‑ 1949 CHAMPIONS

Back Row: H. AIdred, T. Wilkinson, R. Wade, J. Wright, S.M. Wolfe, E. Rimmer,

T. Dewhurst, J. Durkin, R. Stevenson, Mr. R. Fort (President)

Front Row: G. Bottoms, J. Dyson, (Pro), H. Haworth (Capt.), C. Hankle, R. Cuncliffe.

He has his work to attend to and he has his hobbies (knitting, playing the piano and the violin)". In the event he got a duck and failed to impress with his bowling. He just got on with his very distinguished league career. It started with his home town Haslingden, went on to Littleborough and finished at Leyland where he added an aggregate of 1024 in 1951, before leaving with Leyland for the Northern League.

By coincidence the same year of' 1949 produced the record aggregate of wickets which will take some beating. George Hudson, returning as professional to his home town of Clitheroe after an outstanding career elsewhere, started full of apprehension, as he admitted, but finished with 124 wickets including 9‑10 in 12 overs against Settle. The sequence over the 22 matches makes

impressive reading 7-22, 0-16, 6-42, 6-36, 8-19, 7-56, 5-46, 6-44, 9-10, 2-46, 6-49, 2-23, 8-67, 6-54, 3-40, 7-67, 8-42,

8‑39,5­33,2‑39, 5‑71, 8‑33. Tom Edwardson of Chorley with a splendid 102 wickets at 8.96 must have been a little miffed!

1950 saw the return of Padiham, one of the founder members who had left the league in 1914, bringing membership of the senior league to eighteen. A sports complex including a cricket field and a football field had been built at the picturesque site of the Arbories and dedicated to the memory of the dead of the Second World War. Local enthusiasm had been aroused and £5,000 raised. The team came a creditable 10th equal at the first attempt but the title went to Lancaster, their fifth year in the top three. Tom Edwardson's 100 wickets for Chorley included 10‑63 against Darwen. It helped Chorley to second place.

1951 turned out to be the last season of the expanding era. Blackpool won their eleventh and last championship with J.H. Parks as professional and the amateur help of Clitheroe‑born Bill Slater, more famous later as a footballer with Wolves and England. Tom Edwardson was there again with 113 wickets for Chorley, though they slipped to 8th equal in their last season. He completed a unique hat trick of 100 wickets 'in successive seasons, surpassing Jack Usher and Warne, the only other bowlers to have 100 wickets in two successive seasons. Jim Brierley, the Great Harwood professional, put out wooden spoonists Ribblesdale Wanderers for 33 with 8‑7 in 9 overs.

But the important events of the year took place off the field as the Ribblesdale League faced the second major crisis of its history. With the membership now at 18, the clubs could only play five teams twice and rumblings of discontent had been heard over a number of years. A resolution was brought to the AGM in Whalley on 10th November, 1951 that a Western Section be formed comprising Blackpool, Chorley, Darwen, Fleetwood, Lancaster, Leyland. Morecambe, St. Annes plus Leyland Motors, if they wished though they had not been involved in the preliminary discussions which the clubs concerned had held, plus two new clubs, Kendal and Furness of the North Lancashire League, representatives of which attended the AGM. In proposing the motion, Mr. I.C. Higginson of Lancaster said, “We have heard quite a lot about secret meetings but I want you to forget that. We have had this change in mind for a number of seasons and it was necessary for us to get together and go into the possibilities of a Western Section. The best way to do this was to have an informal talk among ourselves and afterwards we duly advised the President of the situation.” ­He emphasised that no split was intended. To their minds the league in its present

formation was unwieldy and the fixtures unsatisfactory. The vote, perhaps expectedly, was 9‑9 and the President, now in his 45th year in the office and a much revered figure, used his casting vote to defeat the proposal. He made it quite clear that he did not like the situation at all. Two clubs, he said, had been persuaded to resign from another league and the nine clubs had more or less put a pistol to the heads of the officials. The first definite news of the move was when he had read of it in the press. Mr. Higginson denied that Kendal and Furness had been approached in the first instance and the clubs' representatives stated that they had been "kicked out of the league". Nevertheless the vote had been cast and the eight clubs resigned from the league and left the meeting. Leyland Motors, though expressing reservations about the way the matter had been handled, felt constrained to follow suit as they naturally belonged economically and geographically with the western clubs. The split had been completed. The 11 clubs met later on the Saturday at a Whalley Hotel, formed the Northern League of 11 clubs and fixed their first AGM for Sunday, 25th November.

The Ribblesdale League was back down to nine clubs and the Junior League lost teams, Chorley, Darwen and Leyland, since none of the resigning clubs qualified to remain members. The Junior League was supplemented by the admission of Rolls Royce (Barnoldswick) and Courtaulds and at an adjourned AGM on 8th December by Earby 2nd Xl, Earby having rejoined the league after an absence of forty years, and by Settle 2nd XL

So the Senior League now numbered ten and the Junior League had actually increased from 17 to 18. The League after thirty years of gradual expansion was back to its Ribble Valley origins and the modern era had begun.