ON THIS DAY by Paul Hargreaves
6th September 1975
Lowerhouse vs Ramsbottom
If you’re thinking this is deja vu all over again you’d have a point. We did cover the reverse fixture from early May. If you’ve already forgotten then a quick synopsis for you. Lowerhouse bat first and make 155, pro’ Lanchbury making a top score of 62. Lowerhouse have Rammy begging for mercy at 55-6 but opening bowler Terry Stewart performs the dastardly trick of scoring his only fifty in 385 matches and Ramsbottom win by four wickets. Drat and double drat! In this reverse fixture Lowerhouse inserted their opponents and were mighty pleased with that decision when Rammy were 101 all out. Denis Hardman alternated between the Firsts and Seconds at Acre Bottom but top scored this day, getting 38 as an opening batter. John Ashworth’s 22 was the only other notable contribution. Ironically Terry Stewart reverted to type and was out for a duck. He was one of Trevor Jones’s victims. Jones took 3-18 in eleven tight and accurate overs. After the 1977 season Jones left to go to Burnley, and whilst it was a good long term move, it did leave him six wickets short of the Lowerhouse Hall of Fame. At the tea interval Lowerhouse would have been fairly hopeful of reaching the 102 run target. They started shakily though, and fell to 10-2. Kevin Higgins and pro’ Bob Lanchbury took the score to 49. Any hopes that it would be easy pickings from then on ended when Lanchbury was run out for a top score of 29. Lowerhouse grafted for every run and Brian Higgin , Wade and the usually Seconds man Clarke, all achieved double figures. At 97-7 Lowerhouse were almost home, wanting just five more. That became 100-8 as Wade left it to the bowlers to eke out the last two runs. What a mistake to make! Agonisingly disaster struck. Hodgson was run out and Trevor Boardwell went to Wasim Raja for nought. He had become one of the Pakistani pro’s four victims. Ramsbottom won by one run with Holden left stranded. Lowerhouse would soon be put out of their collective misery when the season ended eight days later. They were to finish bottom with less than half the points of 13th placed Bacup. Ramsbottom were sixth. A tiny consolation was the thought that they could easily have done the double over Rammy on the season rather than the actual reverse of that.