SPONSORED BY TOPPS TILES, ORMSKIRK. MOORGATE WELCOMES YOU

Moorgate enter their 26th season fresh from their highest ever finnish in the SADACL a creditable 5th in division 2 Pete Berry as skipper lead from the front as leading wicket taker and Colin parrott was able support with both bat and ball The new season brings another first for the club with 3 overseas players Imti Vali(101), Pieter Van Der Merwe who became the clubs 100th player and Steve (kiwi) Walmsley (102)joining the setup

The 25th season, as you will read later not many people gave us more than 6 weeks but here we are 25 years down the line and going stronger than ever. It has been put into the capable hands of Pete Berry to captain the side in the anniversary season, Pete wasnt even thought about at the clubs formation, his deputy Kev Panther was, being the first club captain.
Welcome to Moorgate C.C. founded in September 1981 by members of the succesful Moorgate Villa FC who played in the Ormskirk Sunday league, at the insistence of a number of players who wanted to keep together during the summer months The club manager Colin Turner arranged a meeting at the Queens Head public house in "Moorgate" Ormskirk.
Colin was given the role of cricket manager, and along with Steve Crane and Neil Leatherbarrow formed the management of the club. Colin was a cricketer with Skem at the time and brought along with him the experinced Kev Panther who was to become the clubs first captain, and 17 yr old opening bat Nev Morgan and along with the footballers Brian Pellow, Pete's Hesketh and Whittle, Stevie Nicholson,Martin Meadows and various people who "knew somebody who use to play cricket". The club also had the distinction of having as first President former England and Lancashire captain Ken Cranston. the team was born and entered into the Southport & Disrict ACL 5th Division in the 1982 season, under the unusual moniker of MOORGATE VILLA FOOTBALL CLUB CRICKET CLUB, a mouthful for anyone this was rectified the following season. In the first game on Liverpool Rd, a pitch aquired from West Lancs council Moorgate defeated Rainford.
The club eventually finnishing third in their first season.
John Woods Snr joined in time for the 83 season and took an impressive 96 wickets at an average of less than 5 as the club won their first peice of silverware The club then had 10 years of ups and downs but always demanding respect from which ever opponents they were up against. In 93 the club with Mike Moss scoring runs for fun Gary Cassidy, Alan Jones and Jim Tookey playing superb all rounders roles and Kellers acobatics behind the stumps (even with odd plimsouls!!!) again won the 5th Division by beating our great friends Banks who finnished second, You could write a book about the antics the two sets of lads got up to over the years but Im not going to do so!!!! In the mid 90' it was the turn of Brian Diggle to set the club alight scoring the clubs all time highest score of 127.
and again the club had mixed fortunes on the field coming close to folding a couple of times but with dedicated hard work by Pete Whittle,and stalwards Tom OConnor and Tony Meadows the club managed to pull through and were rewarded with another Championship in 2004 with the likes of the new breed of Moorgate players Phil & Pete Berry, Colin Parrott and Paul Yung showing the way and so to 2005 for the first time in the clubs history a place in Division 2 Things are looking up again.
In the past Moorgate apart from the Football side have had a very succesful SportsQuiz team that competed in the Skem and Chorley Quiz leagues, A Golf society, Horse racing syndicate and have even sponsored a Football League match in 1990 Maistone v Darlington. They have even had a player mentioned in The Times, but this was for Martin "Muddy"Waters academic skills rather than his cricketing
So not bad for a side that was famously given "just six weeks" Special mention must go to Pete Whittle and Tony Meadows who are the only surviving members and have been responsible for keeping the club afloat in times of hardship

MOORGATE CRICKET CLUB have an existing site at moorgatecc.play-cricket.com

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