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Firsts XI 1999

Under the captaincy of Terry Braithwaite, the first XI ended the season as runners up in the senior league for the second consecutive year.  The final game of the season saw four teams in with a chance of the championship with Padiham as favourites providing they could win at Barnoldswick.   The Ribblesdale Wanderers match ended first as they easily defeated Blackburn Northern to take 5 points but then they could only wait and listen to radio commentary on the other games.  After news of Cherry Tree's defeat of Great Harwood, which left both teams behind Wanderers in the line up, our destiny lay in the hands of the Barnoldswick team.  Padiham however, proved too strong for the Yorkshire team and claimed the title for the second year running.

The season's highlight for Wanderers was winning the Ramsbottom Cup for the first time since 1922.  With the captain missing, vice-captain Graham Monk led the team to victory over Cherry Tree at the Church Meadow ground on a beautiful day in front of a crowd of more than 500 people.  Cherry Tree were seeking to retain the trophy for the second time and were confident after having comfortably beaten Wanderers in the league at Cherry Tree only a couple of weeks previously.  However, an excellent bowling performance from the Ribblesdale team restricted Cherry Tree to only 97 all out.  Despite losing the sacred wicket of the professional Shahid Nawaz for only 1 run, the Cherry Tree bowling was unable to contain Martin Briggs who scored a match winning 48 not out to take Wanderers to a six wicket victory.  Graham Monk won the man of the match award taking 5 wickets for only 19 runs including the prize wicket of Cherry Tree professional Naeem Ashraf.

The 1999 season saw a unique acheivement with Shahid Nawaz topping the league batting averages, Graham Monk topping the league bowling award and player of the year award and Martin Briggs claiming both the league fielding award and the prize for the most catches by an amateur outfielder - the first time all five honours have been achieved by members of the same club.

Click here for averages