Northern Premier Cricket League

The Northern Premier Cricket League is a cricket league in the North West of England and was designated as an ECB Premier League in 2000.[1] Prior to that date it was known as the Northern Cricket League.

Northern Premier Cricket League
Countries England
AdministratorECB
FormatLimited Overs
First edition1951 (Founded)
2000 (ECB Premier League)
Tournament formatLeague
Number of teams12 (Division One)
Current championGarstang CC
Most successfulBlackpool CC (18)
Websitehttps://npcl.play-cricket.com/

Because the Northern Premier Cricket League had no formal feeder league and no automatic relegation and promotion, the ECB suggested on several occasions that its ECB Premier League status might be withdrawn. As from 2017, the Palace Shield became the Northern Premier League's feeder league and promotion and relegation between the two leagues took place for the first time at the end of the 2017 season.

History

The Northern Cricket League was founded on 10 November 1951,[2] in controversial circumstances.

Several of the clubs in the west of the area covered by the Ribblesdale League had been unhappy for some time about the format of that League. The League had a membership of 18 clubs which meant that only 5 opponents in the League were played against twice per season whilst the remainder were played against once. This group of clubs met secretly on 7 October 1951 and produced a handwritten document which stated:

The following Ribblesdale League clubs:- Blackpool, Chorley, Darwen, Fleetwood, Lancaster, Leyland, Morecambe, St Annes being duly authorised by their respective Committees are resolved from this meeting to request the Ribblesdale League to form a West Section, comprising the above named clubs together with Leyland Motors, Furness and Kendal. Failing agreement on the part of the Ribblesdale League the above eight clubs pledge themselves to resign forthwith from the Ribblesdale League and to create a new league, which would include an invitation to Leyland Motors, Furness, Kendal and Preston.[3]

At the AGM of the Ribblesdale League, held in Whalley on 10 November 1951, the motion was proposed to form West and East sections with the West section comprising Blackpool, Chorley, Darwen, Fleetwood, Lancaster, Leyland, Morecambe, and St Annes, plus two new clubs Furness and Kendal (both from the North Lancashire Cricket League) along with Leyland Motors if they wished to play in the West section. After discussion, the vote was 9–9 and was defeated on the casting vote of the President who had earlier expressed distaste at the way the western clubs had acted.[4]

The eight clubs duly resigned from the Ribblesdale League, as did Leyland Motors, and representatives of these clubs along with those of Furness and Kendal then met at the Swan Hotel in Whalley where the Northern Cricket League was formed. Preston Cricket Club were invited to join the new league as the twelfth team. The invitation was accepted but they remained in the Liverpool and District Cricket Competition for one further year before participating in the Northern Cricket League's second season in 1953.[2]

Furness left the league after the 1958 season to be replaced by Netherfield, but there were to be no further changes to the membership until Barrow joined the league in 2004. More recent changes in the membership can be seen below. Leyland merged with lower level club BTR in 2000 and adopted the name Leyland and Farington, while Leyland Motors were known as Leyland DAF between 1991 and 2000. Founder members Darwen left the league after the 2016 season. In 2017 promotion and relegation was agreed between the Northern League and Palace Shield and at the end of the season Garstang and Fulwood & Broughton replaced Lancaster and Kendal. For the 2023 season, Fleetwood re-joined the Northern League as Palace Shield champions, alongside Palace Shield runners-up and Northern League newcomers Eccleston with Lancaster and Vernon Carus going in the opposition direction and both returning to the Palace Shield.

Winners
  1. Joint champions.
  • WinsClub
    18Blackpool [lower-alpha 1]
    7Leyland
    6Lancaster
    Netherfield
    St Annes
    5Darwen
    Fleetwood
    Morecambe
    4Kendal
    3Preston [lower-alpha 1]
    2Chorley
    Furness
    1Garstang
    Leyland Motors
  1. Blackpool and Preston shared a championship in 1967.

source.[2]

Division One performance by season from 2000
Key
Gold Champions
Blue Left League
Red Relegated
Performance by season, from 2000
Club 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Barrow 11 8 12 9 9 6 2 8 2 2 5 7 4 10 7 12
Blackpool 5 3 5 12 7 3 10 10 3 7 5 5 9 11 1 4 2 4 1 3 1 2
Carnforth [lower-alpha 1] 9 12 11 12 12 11 14
Chorley 3 2 6 7 5 9 13 11 7 3 14 3 13 7 12 9 5 5 5 7 10 6
Darwen [lower-alpha 2] 2 5 1 1 3 4 3 3 8 11 4 7 7 10 3 3 11
Fleetwood 7 10 9 10 1 7 7 13 13 10 10 14 1 5 6 2 3 7 9 4 12
Fulwood & Broughton 10 5 8 3
Garstang 6 2 5 1
Kendal 8 4 4 4 6 5 2 4 2 8 11 9 4 8 7 12 8 11 10 6 9
Lancashire Colts [lower-alpha 3] 9 10 10 12 9
Lancaster 9 12 11 8 12 13 5 8 12 13 7 12 11 3 14 10 13 12 2 11
Leyland [lower-alpha 4] 7 6 9 1 2 3 1 2 5 1 3 4 1 7 8
Leyland & Farington [lower-alpha 4] 10 9 10 11 13 11 14
Leyland Motors [lower-alpha 4] 11 11 12 9 10 10 11
Longridge 6 4 7
Morecambe 4 7 2 5 4 6 1 2 4 5 6 6 8 4 10 1 12 9 11 11
Netherfield 1 1 3 3 2 2 4 6 1 4 8 4 5 9 8 8 6 1 2 8 3 5
Penrith 11 6 10 6 8 11 10
Preston 12 8 8 6 8 12 8 5 10 2 13 13 6 13 13 13 7 8 12
St Annes 6 6 7 2 9 1 6 1 5 1 3 1 12 6 4 11 9 2 3 9 9 4
Vernon Carus 12
References [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25][lower-alpha 5] [26] [27]
  1. Carnforth left the league after the 2012 season to join the Westmorland Cricket League.
  2. Darwen left the league after the 2016 season to join the Lancashire League.
  3. Lancashire Colts withdrew from league cricket after the 2014 season.
  4. Leyland & Farington and Leyland Motors (Leyland DAF in 2000) merged under the name Leyland after the 2006 season.
  5. Coronavirus pandemic forced all formal competitive sporting activities to be suspended.

References
  1. List of ECB Premier Leagues Archived 15 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  2. "Northern Cricket League archive". northerncricketleague.org. NPCL. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  3. "The beginnings of the Northern Cricket League". northerncricketleague.org. NPCL. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  4. "Ribblesdale Cricket League". ribblesdaleleague.co.uk. RCL. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  5. "2000 League Table".
  6. "2001 League Table".
  7. "2002 League Table".
  8. "Division One - 2003".
  9. "Division One - 2004".
  10. "Division One - 2005".
  11. "Division One - 2006".
  12. "Division One - 2007".
  13. "Division One - 2008".
  14. "Division One - 2009".
  15. "Division One - 2010".
  16. "Division One - 2011".
  17. "Division One - 2012".
  18. "Division One - 2013".
  19. "Division One - 2014".
  20. "Division One - 2015".
  21. "Division One - 2016".
  22. "Division One - 2017".
  23. "Division One - 2018".
  24. "Division One - 2019".
  25. "Division One - 2020".
  26. "Division One - 2021".
  27. "Division One - 2022".
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