Stanley Park misses out on T-20 clash

Plans to stage a trailblazing Lancashire fixture at Stanley Park, home of Blackpool Cricket Club, have been scrapped.
No T-20 at Stanley ParkNo T-20 at Stanley Park
No T-20 at Stanley Park

Instead, the club has been handed the consolation prize of a Royal London Cup 50-over fixture between Lancashire Lightning and Derbyshire Falcons on Friday, May 12.

Originally, it looked as though the Blackpool ground would stage one of two NatWest T20 Blast fixtures in July against either Leicester or Derbyshire, but neither of these will come to the Fylde Coast.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

One of the matches had been provisionally allocated to Blackpool because it was thought that Old Trafford would be out of commission for one of those dates because of a concert.

But that concert will not happen and the T20 matches will stay at Old Trafford.

Subject to final confirmation, it will be a Royal London Cup fixture in the first part of May, the third season in a row that the ground has staged a 50-over game.

Blackpool chairman David Cresswell said: “It is disappointing that we won’t have a T20 match – it had created a whole lot of interest, particularly it would have the first time we had ever staged a T20 match.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We have every confidence that it will be May 12 and though it is early on in the season, I am sure that the club and the people of Blackpool will support us. Being a Friday will give a lot of people the opportunity to come and watch.”

There will be T20 action at Stanley Park, however.

The Lancashire Thunder women’s team will play Southern Vipers there on August 5, which is also a Friday.

Another significant county date in the Blackpool calendar is the Roses T20 second XI match between Lancashire and Yorkshire on August 2.

A Lancashire XI take on Scotland in a three-day fixture, starting on August 15.