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Welfare Officer

S Braithwaite

01200 428190

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The club was originally founded in 1891 under the name of Park View and played first in a field on the farm then occupied by Mrs Bleazard, close to the Old Barrow toll bar. After a season the club's name was changed to St. James's Cricket Club and it moved to a field next to Barrowclough House the rent rising from 1/-(5p) to 1/6 (71/2p). There were only a dozen members and very few matches could be arranged. Councillor Standring began his long career as club secretary in 1892, and the club slowly developed, five matches being played in his first year and the curate of St. James's becoming president. Committee meetings were held “under the hedge”.

After borrowing Mrs. Bleazard's heavy stone roller pulled with chains which could only be used if all members were available to help, it was a great step forward when the club acquired its own amenable roller. The ground was moved again in 1896 across the road to a pasture called Standen Hey. As the landlady's consent had not been sought, the rent was raised from £2 to £3 but at least there was no possibility of the roller finishing in a deep ditch, which had happened at the old ground, needing every member to bring a friend to help pull it out.

The club's real history dates from 1897 when increasing membership provided the unheard of annual surplus of £3. After great deliberations, a pavilion was bought for seven guineas and erected by the members, a fixtures list was arranged in advance rather than week by week and members' cards were printed. Twenty matches were played of which half were won. The Blackburn and District League was joined in 1900, the first ever league match being at home against Sabden, the eventual champions. The club finished a creditable 4th. In 1901 the rector having objected to use of the name St. James's the club was re‑christened Ribblesdale Wanderers with Alderman Whipp as President. It was a name which had been used for a tour of Scotland the previous year. The following year, 1902, saw the final move to Church Meadow where the rent was four times the price of Standen Hey but amply covered by increasing membership and gate money. Two friendly matches were arranged with Clitheroe C.C. for which a professional Dick Harrison was engaged, previously an amateur at the club but then on the Liverpool ground staff. Both ended in defeat and Clitheroe were not played again until the Ribblesdale League was joined in 1907. In the intervening years, the Blackburn and District League was won in 1903 and two seasons in the newly formed North East Lancashire Amateur League in 1905 and 1906 saw the club runners‑up to Low Moor. The club has been continuously in the Ribblesdale League since 1907. For the first season the ground was improved, the pavilion extended, and the first professional engaged, W. Lakeland of Whalley, a “Saturday afternoon man”. Tom Higson of Earby came as full‑time professional in 1908 and the bowling green was added the same year. Steady progress was made until the first championship was won in 1920 based on the batting of G. Harrison and the captain J. Mitchell and the bowling of Jonathan Brooks (67 wickets) and Fred Preedy, the professional (57 wickets). Jonathan Brooks was for many years Chairman of the club and was League Treasurer from 1930‑1965. Professional Maurice Maroney's 104 wickets in 1938, still the club record, could only take them to joint runners‑up position. The best match performance is sub professional's Johnson's 10­35 in the last match of the 1952 season against Earby. The 2nd Xl, who had joined the Junior League in 1912 and were champions in 1914, had a successful period after the Second World War with championships in 1948 and 1950 but the 1stXl's next championship did not come until 1963, the first year of John Ingham's three seasons as professional. Another championship and a first win in a full Ramsbottom Cup competition are eagerly awaited.