Lowerhouse Then
ON THIS DAY By Paul Hargreaves
5th July, 1997
Lowerhouse vs Haslingden
A massive impactful game at the top of the Lancashire League. Haslingden batted first and, like many other teams that season, were put through the Corrie Jordaan buzz saw. Only the exceptional all-rounder Steve Dearden(21), Charles Lord(14) and Barry Knowles(11) reached double figures. The latter would go on to play a great innings seven years later, on the same turf, in the 2004 Worsley Cup final. Thankfully Knowles’s innings was in a losing cause.
Jordaan finished with what had become an almost expected 6-24 and Hassy were dismissed for a paltry 76. He would become the only Lowerhouse bowler since Manny Martindale in 1947 to reach 100 wickets in a season, and only the fifth in our whole history to achieve that benchmark. The others were Ben Gregory, Billy Cook and Fred Webster. For all his achievements, Jordaan cut a divisive figure. Most from afar saw him as a cult hero but those closer at hand saw a less savoury side to his character. The result was the club was literally split down the middle regarding his possible/probable return for the 1998 season, and a very heated A.G.M. reflected that.
At the interval there was an air of jubilation that the hard work had been accomplished. What could possibly go wrong? I was more cautious than some but if you’d have told me opener Nick Hope would get 39, and be by far the highest scorer in either team, even I would have thought job done.
Haslingden’s fightback owed plenty to the energetic spell of sub-pro’ Andy Pick. He was at the tail end of his County career with Notts but he wasn’t at Liverpool Rd. just for a pay cheque. He bowled 18 consecutive overs and took 5-30. Only Stan Heaton(15) seemed to handle Pick as he bravely got well forward to negate a possible l.b.w. outcome. It would be the proficient slow left-armer Mick Tracey that ended Heaton’s stubborn resistance.
Lowerhouse were hopeful at 36-2, and even at 54-5, but ‘dasher’ Dearden(4-13) mopped up the tail. Lowerhouse ended on 65 all out. Unbelievably pro’ Jordaan’s 3 runs was third highest for the home team.
It had been an incredibly painful gut punch for ‘House. Its legacy was the abiding thought that all things being equal Lowerhouse would have been 1997 Lancashire League champions, for the first time, had the result of this game been reversed.